CHAPTER XXII
QUELLING A MUTINY
In the act of springing forward Phil paused. All his life he was to bethankful for that pause. If he had yielded to the impulse to throttlethe man then and there what fate might have overtaken him and hiscomrades, he shuddered to guess.
Suddenly Phil knew that the wisest thing would be to follow thismidnight marauder, this spy who prowled at night. He would find outwhere he came from, the mystery of his presence here on the remoteisland. Then would be time enough to punish him.
With all his senses curiously alert Phil crept to the door as the manslipped into the shadows outside the cave. He tried to pierce thedarkness but it was almost impossible. There was no moon and it would benecessary to follow closely upon the heels of the fellow if he were notto lose him altogether.
Of course, because of this, it was necessary to exercise doubleprecaution. If the man should suspect he was being followed, should turnaround, well, then it would mean a fight to the finish there in thedarkness. Phil, fingering the revolver he always kept at his hand, wasnot afraid of the result but he was afraid that, in such case, themystery of the man's presence upon the island might remain unsolved.
He was thinking very clearly now, his mind curiously alert to theslightest detail. He had not imagined the shot, then, that was certain.Also he was convinced now that the first vision he had had of this man,slinking out of the cave had not been a dream.
Probably the fellow had been spying for a long time. The thought wasn'ta pleasant one. Spying--for what. Instantly the answer came to him. Thetreasure of course! Stupid of him not to have thought of it before.
His mind was racing excitedly. It was hard in his whirling thoughts forhim to remember to walk silently, hard to keep track of that shadowyfigure among the shadows.
The fellow was proceeding rapidly now without exercising the slightestcaution. Apparently he was aware of no danger. Of course not, thoughtPhil, grimly. He naturally thought them all asleep, unaware of hisprying. In the darkness he thanked his lucky star that he had beensleeping lightly.
In the darkness, Phil had scant idea of the direction they were taking,only that they seemed to be heading diagonally across the island andthat their destination--or rather, the destination of the man he wasfollowing--seemed to be a long way off.
Naturally it must be, he thought grimly. He, in company with the rest ofthe fellows had never explored the island very thoroughly, owing totheir absorption in treasure hunting. This fellow must be headed for thevery outermost edge of the island, that they had never quite reached.
It seemed an endless journey to Phil. He was constantly afraid that somesound of his might cause the fellow to turn around and so put an end forthe time being to the solution of the mystery. And with the thought hestepped still more carefully, moving swiftly to keep his quarry insight. The progress was made still more difficult because of the fallentrunks of trees flung ruthlessly to the ground by the earthquake of theday before.
Phil was beginning to believe that this nightmare journey was to lastforever when he noticed suddenly that the deep shadows of the night hadlifted, become mingled with red. Then he grasped the fact that the vaguelight came from a fire, probably built far down in the ravine.
A moment more as he topped the rise of a small hill, he saw that thissupposition was correct. From the shore they had been climbing steadilytill now he was able to look straight down the steeply-sloping mountainside into a snug little gully or ravine some three hundred feet below.
In this ravine flickered and flared the fire which had lifted the nightshadows. Phil saw that the man he followed was heading straight for itand he slackened his pace. He was no longer afraid he might lose hisquarry in the dark. He could see quite clearly now, and he suddenlyrealized that his need for caution was doubled.
For, gathered around the fire, revealed by the dancing flames, Phildiscovered other figures than the one he was following. From thatdistance he could not count them, but there seemed a startling number.
At that moment Phil came nearer to dismay than he had ever come beforein his life. It was bad enough to know that there were other people onthis island which they had thought deserted. But the fact that one ofthese intruders had been caught in the act of spying upon them, upon thetreasure, seemed to point surely to the fact that they were there forone purpose and one purpose only. To steal the treasure!
Phil's first feeling of astonishment and dismay was rapidly giving placeto anger. The treasure was theirs, they, of their own effort had draggedit from the bottom of the sea. He'd like to see anybody take it awayfrom them!
He clenched his hands and crept closer. The man who had unwittingly ledhim to this spot had disappeared among the trees and Phil followedcautiously, careful to keep within the shadows of the trees.
It would never do for him to be found out now. Not only would his ownlife be forfeited but probably those of his friends, also. And thetreasure--at the thought he clenched his hands still tighter, grittedhis teeth fiercely and crept closer, ever closer to that flickeringfire.
He was near enough now to see the features of the men gathered about it.They were a villainous-looking crew if there ever was one, the scum of aWest Indian port, half-breeds most of them, sullen-looking rascals wholooked as though they would stop at no villainy.
There were a score of them, counting the rascal he had been trailing whonow stepped within the circle of firelight. Phil gave a start that wasalmost audible as he saw the man's face. It was Ramirez--Ramirez of theevil face and ready knife.
Quite suddenly the whole thing became clear to him. Ramirez, knowing ofthe secret contained in the pirate's notes in the possession of JackBenton, had either gotten wind of their mission in San Domingo, or hadguessed at it. On the strength of his story it would be easy to gettogether a gang of cutthroats, a band of villainous adventurers andfollow them to the island with the purpose of eventually gettingpossession of the treasure.
Something told Phil that these men would stop at nothing and his angergrew to a kind of fury. He had the mad impulse to charge the wholedastardly crew of them, to fling himself upon them single-handed.
If he had had only himself to consider, he might have done it too. Buthe thought of his comrades and the treasure and knew that he must movecautiously.
Ramirez, evidently the leader of the rascally crew was speaking, andPhil crept closer, careful to keep well without the circle of firelight.He strained his ears to hear the muttered words of the half-breed. Hemust learn their plans. Even from this distance he could see thatRamirez was excited, his deep-set eyes were glowing feverishly.
"All is well," Phil heard him say to his sullen-eyed audience. "Theyhave found the treasure. I have seen it with these own eyes, hidden inthe cave where they leave it unguarded--the fools!"
At his words, the eyes of the motley crew glowed with the gleam ofavarice and they waxed tremendously excited. They gestured wildly withtheir arms, each one gabbling in a different tongue.
Ramirez's brow grew dark. He made an ominous movement with his handtoward the gun on his hip. The men regarded him with a sort ofhalf-cowed fury. Most of them fell to conversing again in low, excitedmutterings.
Only one among them seemed to have the courage--or the avarice--to defyhis chief. This seemed, like most of them, to be a mixture of twonationalities, half-English, half-Spanish. He talked in broken English.
"I say to you," he cried with a menacing gesture toward Ramirez wholooked at him stolidly, "that we will not wait longer. Always you say'wait, wait.' The treasure, the gold, is there, you tell us that. We goget it to-night, now. Is it not so?" He turned to the men about thefire, who, muttering ominously, had half risen to their feet.
Phil, forgetting his own danger, watched fascinated. Mutiny! If the mengot their way, then indeed were he and his friends and the treasuredoomed. He would not even have a chance to warn them.
Ramirez, who had been standing motionless, his bl
ack eyes fixed on themutinous crew, reached suddenly for his revolver. Almost with the samemotion came the report.
The man who had defied him, stood where he was for a moment, a foolishexpression spreading over his villainous features, then, without a soundsank to the ground.
"Take him away," commanded Ramirez, seating himself, with the utmostindifference to the fate of his victim, near the fire. "That, mycomrades, will be the fate of each one of you who defy me, Ramirez. Isay wait. Therefore we wait. And I tell you why."
Then while two of the men removed the ghastly huddled heap from thegrass, Ramirez proceeded to give his reason for delaying the attack.Phil listened eagerly. Half-sickened as he was by what he had seen, heknew he must keep his senses intensely alert.
"They have not recovered all of the treasure," said Ramirez. "I hearthem talk. They have three chests. There are more. When they have themall, then we shall take them from them. We shall be rich and they--theyshall be dead." His mouth stretched in an evil grin.
Phil waited for no more. Silently, as he had come, he slipped away intothe darkness.
The Radio Boys Under the Sea; or, The Hunt for Sunken Treasure Page 22