CHAPTER XXVI
THE VOLCANO WAKES
Then began the hardest part of it all for the boys--the waiting part.There was no telling what time Ramirez and his men might take for theattack so that all they could expect to do was to keep a close guardupon the cave and--wait.
They thought constantly of the rest of the treasure which still lay inthe hold of the sunken ship. If only they had been able to recover theremainder of those precious chests before they had learned of the newdanger that threatened them!
Dick was for going ahead anyway on the chance that Ramirez would notattack that day. But the rest were all against such a wild plan.
"There is no use risking what treasure we have already--as well as ourlives," said Phil. "What's to prevent Ramirez and his men from sneakingup while we were out there on the raft and barring our way back toshore? With the heavy odds against us, what chance would we have?"
"We'd have the choice," Steve took up the argument, "of pitting our sixmen against their twenty or staying out on the raft to starve or becaught in one of the sudden storms that we have around here and drown--"
"Later to be eaten by the sharks," finished Tom, gloomily, and at thiseven Dick seemed convinced that the part of wisdom would be to stickclose to the shore.
All day long they kept guard, ready at the first sign of attack to makefor the barricaded cave, thus more or less evening the odds againstthem.
They were confident of being able to rout the enemy. It was only thedelay that worried.
"Why don't they get busy?" cried Dick, pacing up and down, his handsshoved savagely in his pockets. "I can stand anything but this waitinggame. If they don't start something pretty soon, I'm going to take mygun and do a little war dance over to their part of the island all bymyself if nobody else will come with me."
"Like fun you are," said Phil quietly. "We can't leave the treasureunguarded. You know that."
This seemed to give Dick pause but almost immediately he began hisrestless pacing up and down again.
"Then why don't they get busy?" he demanded again, as though in somemysterious way the delay were all Phil's fault.
"Probably," Phil answered, his gaze fixed on the lowering mountain whereit towered far above them, "they are taking it easy to-day. Theynaturally think that in this fine weather we'd be out hunting the restof the treasure. Probably Ramirez or one of his buddies will be sneakingaround this evening to see what we've got."
"I suppose so," returned Dick and then he followed the direction ofPhil's gaze, his eyes coming to rest on the dark cloud that hoveredclose above the mountain.
"The old boy looks pretty bad, doesn't he?" Dick remarked, anxiously.
Phil nodded.
"Getting worse and worse all the time," he said, adding with a grin ashe drew his gaze down from the mountain, "Looks as if we were hedged inbetween two fires. We'll have to be pretty spry on our feet if we don'tget burned by one or the other of them."
"I'll tell the world," said Tom ruefully. He had come out of the cavejust in time to hear Phil's last sentence. "If old Ramirez doesn't getus, the mountain will. Bimbo says that old boy is getting ready to spilla lot of lava on us."
"Which old boy, Ramirez or the mountain?" asked Tom, trying to be funnyand only getting a pitying stare for his pains.
"So Bimbo says we're going to have an eruption, does he?" remarked Phil,adding softly, as though speaking to himself, "Well, a little while agoI wouldn't have paid much attention to what Bimbo said. But now it'sdifferent. He said there wasn't any luck for us on this island, and I'mbeginning to believe him."
"How about the treasure?" asked Jack Benton and Phil turned on him witha grin.
"We didn't find that on the island," he reminded him. "We found it underthe sea!"
And so the long hot day wore on and nothing happened except that thatmenacing cloud over the mountain grew darker and darker. Toward themiddle of the afternoon there came a slight earthquake shock, not severeenough to cause them any great alarm. Just the same it might be noticedthat they gazed oftener and more anxiously at the threatening mountain.
Needless to wish now as they had wished so many times before that theyhad not lost their good ship on the treacherous rocks. If they had anykind of water-tight craft, large enough for them to set sail in, itwould be so easy to outwit Ramirez and his gang now that they knew ofhis villainous plans. They could not recover the rest of the treasure,perhaps, but they could at least make sure of what they had.
Poor Bimbo was anything but happy. Nearly all the day he hugged the caveas though that were his only refuge. Once or twice he ventured forth,and on those occasions he seemed to be doing his best to keep his eyesfrom wandering to the lowering mountain and the cloud of smoke that hunglow above it. Then, as though drawn by a magnet, his gaze would comeround to it and with an ejaculation of terror he would duck for the caveonce more.
The boys, watching him, laughed, even while his fright made them uneasy.
"I believe he's more afraid of that mountain than he is of Ramirez andall his gang," said Jack Benton on one of these occasions. "Poor Bimbo.I'm afraid he won't be much help to us when the need for action comes."
"Well I don't know about that," Phil disagreed with him. "He wouldn't bea bit of good with a rifle--I doubt if he would even know how to fireone--but when it comes to a knife or a club, he'll come in mightyhandy."
"Well, we'll see," said Benton absently, and once more his eyes turnedto the mountain.
"Phil," he said, after a minute, "I believe Bimbo's right. Have younoticed any change in that smoke cloud lately?"
Phil nodded gravely.
"It's been spreading and growing blacker for a long while," he said."Something tells me that this island is going to be a pretty unhealthyplace to live on before long."
Jack Benton spread his hands in a helpless gesture.
"What are we going to do?" he asked.
At that moment, as though he had heard the question and were trying tosupply the answer, Bimbo ventured forth from the cave once more andapproached Phil. He kept glancing over his shoulder at the mountaincontinually and his teeth chattered as he made his proposition.
"Ah jes' done think o' somethin', Marse Phil," he said. "An' Ah jes'been wonderin' why nobuddy haint thought o' it afore. Dat radio stuffwhat yo' all sets sech store by--Ah asks what good it am, Marse Phil, efit don' git us out o' dis fix we're in. Ef you kin talk over it, reckondis yere's de time to talk. Anyways, 'pears like to me, Marse Phil."
It was a long speech for Bimbo, and at the end of it he drew a longbreath, gazing at Phil with eager expectancy. Evidently he had expectedhis suggestion to be received with open arms.
An expression of dire disappointment spread over his black face as Philslowly shook his head.
"We've thought of that, Bimbo," he said. "But it won't do to letoutsiders in on this just now. If we should radio a ship for help, wewould have to explain about the treasure, and that would never do. No, Iguess we'll have to stick it out for the present. We always have radioas a last resort, you know," he added, by way of cheering thedisconsolate Bimbo, as the latter turned slowly away.
"Anyways Ah done did the best Ah could," he muttered. "Ef Ah had theworkin' o' dat radio Ah wouldn't be waitin' for no las' resort, nosir,not wiv dat dere mountain cuttin' up pranks."
But in spite of the heavy odds against them and the double danger inwhich they knew they stood the boys were firm in their decision not toradio for help, unless their position became absolutely desperate.
Unless Ramirez delayed his attack too long they were confident, with theaid of the barricaded cave that they could put their enemy to rout inspite of the difference in numbers. Then, the island once clean ofRamirez and his men, they could let shipwreck account for their presenceon the island, meanwhile thinking up some plan for getting the treasureaboard without rousing the suspicion of their rescuers.
But that mountain! Blacker and blacker became the smoke c
loud. As nightfell, little tongues of flame could be seen shooting from the crater'smouth, vivid streaks of light against the darkening sky. Through theearth shot sickening tremors, rocking the ground beneath their feet. Theair was heavy and breathless and into it insidiously crept the smell ofsulphur.
It seemed to the boys as if they could not breathe. They longed for aclean wind from the sea but none came to relieve them. It was as thoughall nature held itself in suspense, awaiting some tremendous climax,some terrific convulsion of its elements.
The boys waited, drawn close together, watching that ominous flickeringof flame, fascinated, feeling as though they were under some sort ofhorrid spell, unable to drag their eyes away. Bimbo, crouched in a farcorner of the cave was praying wildly.
It was long past dinner time, yet no one thought of eating. Who couldthink of food when they believed they were facing destruction?
How long they stood there, motionless, it would be hard to tell. Hoursthey must have been and yet to the boys, they passed like minutes.
The tremors of the earth became harder, more frequent, the heavy airbecame filled with the sickening sulphur smell. It was hot--hot. Theirthroats ached with the heat. The air was thick with flyingparticles--lava.
Phil touched the sleeve of his shirt wonderingly and looked at hisfingers. They were covered with dust. He looked at his companions. Theywere covered with dust. He wanted to laugh, they looked so funny--likefigures made out of dust. But something kept him from doing that.Perhaps it was the dryness of his throat.
His eyes came back to those darts of fire, higher now, flaming morevividly against the darker sky, gorgeous, soul-shaking.
Something reached out and touched his arm. He looked down and found itwas Dick's hand. He grasped it and the two looked at each other,silently. They didn't speak. They didn't need to speak. Their silencesaid more than words. In the hearts of both of them was the thought thatperhaps they would not see another sunrise--.
"Look," cried Steve, his voice sounding thin and strange. "Themountain--"
A liquid stream of fire shooting from the crater's mouth straight intothe heavens, a terrific jar that shook the island from end to end,great, new-made fissures, yawning horribly, a mass of molten lavaraining down the mountain slope.
A second quake more awful than the first, a grinding, breaking noise asthough the island sank into the sea. Thrown from his feet, Phil struckhis head upon a stone.
"It's--the end," he muttered, and sank into oblivion.
Ages later he opened his eyes and looked into the fear-crazed ones ofBimbo. The darky was bathing the blood that flowed from the wound in hisscalp. Behind him, in the light of the lantern, he saw the strainedfaces of his comrades.
"I don' think you was killed, Marse Phil," blubbered Bimbo. "You bleedlike you was ram' by a bull. Thank de Lord you'se alive, Marse Phil."
Phil sat up, brushing Bimbo away impatiently. He was still dizzy and itwas hard to think clearly.
"Is--the island--still here?" he asked, incredulously.
Jack Benton laughed shakily, bending over him.
"Yes and so are we--yet," he said. "Are you well enough to stand, Phil?"
Phil found that he was and between them he walked to the door of thecave and out into the sultry night.
Everything was quiet, as though the tremendous spectacle had never been.Only now and again a flame shot out from the mouth of the crater, apromise of future destruction.
From within the cave came Bimbo's mournful wail: "Ef we don' git awayfrom dis yere island we'll all go to de bottom of de sea. Yassir, datswhere we're agwine."
Phil turned his eyes from a new-made fissure yawning at his feet out tothe limitless sea. The throbbing of the pain in his head seemed to keeptime with the monotony of the waves as they pounded upon the shore.
The Radio Boys Under the Sea; or, The Hunt for Sunken Treasure Page 26