CHAPTER III
A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE
"Pull off the hood over the engines," cried Jack to Harry who wasquickly down the companion-way, "and see if the wires from the magnetoare disconnected. I made a new clip while we were at Mobile and maybe ithas broken and cut off the current."
"Phew!" ejaculated Tom who was preparing to follow Harry below. "I'llbet something's broke loose all right. Smell it?"
"Sure enough I smell gasoline strong!" declared Jack.
"Some odoriferous, whatever that means!" cried Arnold. "Smells like thegas house up near Goose Island in the North Branch of the ChicagoRiver," he added holding his nose.
"Switch on the electric lights and see where the gasoline pipe hasbroken loose," suggested Jack. "It seems to me the feed pipe must havebecome broken. That's an awful smell!"
"I'll venture there are gallons of gasoline in the bilge right now!"averred Harry. "Better open the windows a bit and let it air out inhere. Suppose you get the bilge pump to work, Tom, and I'll try to findthe leak."
"Sure, I'll pump the bilge," assented Tom. "Just look here at the stuffslopping up through the floor boards," he continued. "It surely looks asif we'd lost some fuel."
"That's funny," declared Jack. "I wonder how it could have happened. Thepipes were all right when we fitted out and nothing we have done sincecould have injured them."
A shout from Harry announced a discovery. He was backing out of thecompartment under the pilot house floor and just forward of the engines.As he appeared his face was the picture of rage.
"What's it?" queried Tom. "Don't hold your breath that way, you're aptto choke if you do," he laughed.
"Where is the fellow that opened that drain cock?" shouted Harry shakinghis fist in the air. "Someone deliberately drained our gasoline into thebilge. I found the drain cock wide open!"
"Nobody opened it," asserted Jack. "We were all in the pilot house sincedinner watching the fog and we couldn't reach the pipe."
"I hate to say it, Jack, but we were not all in the pilot house,"answered Tom. "Maybe it isn't fair to the chap, but that fellow wenearly run over doesn't look good to me. I rather suspect him."
"Hush, my lad," Jack warned. "A good Boy Scout doesn't accuse anyoneuntil he has proof, and we have no proof yet of his guilt."
"All right, Jack," unwillingly replied Tom, "but I can't help feel theway I feel, can I? He didn't impress me very favorably."
"And then, look at Rowdy!" put in Harry. "He spotted the fellow when hewas still hanging on the cable and he tried to get back into the cabinall the time to eat up his visitor."
"Well, let's go back and wake him up and see what he knows," suggestedJack. "Maybe he can put up a good story that will satisfy even youchaps. I can hardly believe anyone would do a thing like that. He has nomotive for attempting to cripple us like this."
The boys moved with one accord toward the after cabin. The Fortunarolled viciously in the trough of the choppy sea, making their footingextremely unsteady. Jack swung open the door.
Starting back in amazement he bumped into Tom who was following closely.Harry was at their heels peering over their shoulders.
"Where is he?" gasped Jack wonderingly. "Where did he go?"
"The bird has flown!" declared Tom in a tragic tone.
"Bag and baggage!" asserted Harry.
True enough, not a sign of the stranger remained except the pile ofwater soaked garments in which he had been clothed when first broughtinto the cabin. These lay in a heap on the floor.
"Maybe he's out on the after deck," ventured Jack still hopeful.
"Let's see," answered Tom. "If he is there, I'll cook and wash dishesand scrub decks for a week on end!"
The after deck was empty. The visitor was nowhere in sight.
"Well, it looks as if he had come up out of the sea like a modernNeptune and like Old Neptune has gone back into it again," Jack said,his voice shaking. You don't suppose the fright he had turned his headand made him commit suicide, do you?"
"Suicide your tintype!" stoutly scorned Tom. "Do you think that fellowwould commit suicide in a rowboat?"
"What do you mean?" questioned Jack wonderingly.
"I mean that our young pirate friend got one perfectly good square mealof food, one entire new outfit of clothes and one rowboat from thisbunch of kindergartners. Then he opened the drip cock in our fuel tankand sneaked out the back door and is gone."
"Good night," vociferated Harry. "It's as clear as mud! Look at whatthat young villain has done! Why, he's a thief!"
"Easy now," admonished Jack. "We mustn't call him names. Maybe thingslook black for him, but it may come out all right."
"Yea-ah!" scorned Tom. "When I can see the back of my neck it will. Thatguy's crooked! That's what I believe."
"Me, too!" declared Harry. "I vote with Rowdy. He's usually pretty nearright when it comes to reading character!"
"Well, anyhow, this won't get us anywhere, and the Fortuna is rollinglike a loon. Let's see if Arnold can find bottom in the bilges yet andthen we'll connect up the spare tank and start out."
"Second the motion," declared Tom. "We ought to get going."
Suiting the action to the word the boys returned to the cabin to findArnold replacing the pump. The air was still heavy with the odor ofgasoline but Jack deemed it safe to operate the engine, since thewindows were to be left open giving a plentiful supply of air, thuspreventing danger of an explosion.
Tom was about to replace the hood over the engines after they had beenstarted when his eye caught sight of a piece of paper lying on thefloor. Hastily he kicked it aside and was about to pass to the pilothouse when Harry called his attention to the paper.
"Nice housekeeper you'd make," he taunted, "kick the dirt back under thecouch and let the sweepers get it! Why don't you pick it up?"
"Guess I will," replied Tom shamefacedly. "I was in a hurry."
"What is it?" asked Harry. "Let me see it."
"Sure, read it," Tom answered. "Read it aloud and we'll all hear."
"What's this?" gasped Harry. "Listen, you fellows! Here's the secret ofthe whole thing! Hear this!"
"Well, read it," impatiently cried Arnold. "I'm dying to hear."
"Get the Fortuna and crew!" read Harry. "They know about the SpanishChest. They're after it. Sink them if you have to."
As he finished reading he glanced at each of his chums in amazement.Their faces were pictures of dismay and amazement.
"What does that mean?" Arnold cried in tones of wonder. "What does itmean when it says, 'Get the Fortuna and crew?'"
"The last part explains that," answered Jack. "It means that some one ormore people are after us and will sink the Fortuna if they have to inorder to 'get' us. It listens like desperate characters were followingus all right. We must remember our motto, boys, and 'Be Prepared.' Weknow they're after us."
"Yes, 'Be Prepared' for what?" questioned Tom. "Who're after us and why?What does that mean about the Spanish Chest?"
"I see it's time to let you fellows in on the whole thing," declaredJack. "I had hoped it would not be necessary to say anything for a longwhile yet for the moon isn't full until nearly a week from now, but thishas precipitated matters. Now, listen!
"You all know Lawyer Geyer of Chicago. His offices are in the MasonicTemple. He and my father are very close friends--in fact they wereschoolmates. Lawyer Geyer offered me a commission for him and fitted outthis vessel and is paying our expenses. He also offered us half thereward if we were successful."
"What reward?" interrupted Arnold. "Why don't you hurry?"
"Keep still, rattle-head!" admonished Tom. "He's hurrying."
"Well," continued Jack, "it is said that years and years ago theSpaniards had a fortress built on what is known as Biloxi Bay. It seemsthey wanted to fortify this section of country and built a fine placethere. As time went on and the country became settled, this fort wasquite a refuge for settlers in times of trouble. It is said that once acommander of the fort was wicked eno
ugh to turn against his own peopleand that he incited the Indians to rise against the settlers. After theyhad taken refuge in the fort he got them to put all their gold andjewelry into his strong box which was a stout oak chest, and then heplanned to get away with it."
"The piker!" cried Tom. "I think he should have been shot."
"He was," continued Jack, "or so the story goes. Some say he was shot byhis own people who discovered his treachery and some say he felldefending the fort and incidentally the gold against an attack byIndians. But whichever way it happened, report says that the gold wasburied in the fort by the survivors and has never been unearthed since.Many people have tried to get it, but it is reported that a curse hangsover this wealth and that no human being will be permitted to recoverit, unless related to the officer."
"Is that why Lawyer Geyer sent us after it?" asked Harry.
"I don't quite get your meaning," Jack said.
"Well, you said no human being would be permitted to get the coin andthen you said Lawyer Geyer sent us after it and--"
"I move we throw him overboard--he's a scoffer!" declared Tom.
"Second the motion," replied Jack laughing. "Sit still a while andlisten to me. The worst is yet to come."
"Go on, Jack!" breathlessly urged Arnold. "Tell the rest."
"Well here's the curious part of the story," Jack continued. "It is saidthat only at certain stages of the moon and tide can one hope to findthis chest of treasure. Also it is reported that only one who is ofSpanish descent can hope to find it."
"Well, that lets us in," stoutly averred Harry. "Tom, here, is Spanishand so am I. How about you, Rowdy?" he went on addressing the whitebulldog to whom he gave a friendly slap.
Rowdy responded with an affectionate attempt to "kiss" Harry's face andthen endeavored to distribute his favors to the others.
"Seriously," Jack continued, "I have little faith in the project. LawyerGeyer seems to half believe the story, however. He was down in thiscountry a while ago on some real estate business and while here got thetale from some source that he considered fairly reliable. So he fittedout the expedition and is willing to take half the proceeds, whatever itmay be, for his share."
"But it looks as if we are being opposed from the very start," objectedTom. "Look at this visitor and the note he left. That must indicate thatthere is a gang working against us. I'm a peaceful, orderly citizen andnot at all inclined to start anything."
"Yes, he is!" laughed Arnold. "Look at the way he put the rollers underthe gang of thugs at our camp at Mackinac Island!"
"Now, boys," continued Jack, beckoning Arnold to silence, "if any one ofyou wants to go back, he can have the chance. We're going to Pascagoulaand also to Biloxi. At either place one can get the Louisville &Nashville railroad for home. Think it over. If you want to try for theSpanish Treasure Chest, stick. If not, you are at liberty to go home atany time we make a port."
At that instant the lads were startled to hear the hail:
"Launch ahoy! Keep off!"
"Port your helm," commanded Jack to Arnold who was at the wheel.
Dimly the boys made out the bulk of a schooner on their port bow, hersails slatting and rigging flying as she came up into the wind. As theFortuna fell off they looked at the schooner and saw the main boomswinging across the deck, strike a man standing near the rail.
"Man overboard. Give me a line," cried Arnold, springing over the railwithout stopping to divest himself of his clothing.
Boy Scouts in Southern Waters; Or, Spaniard's Treasure Chest Page 3