CHAPTER XII FLYING KNIVES
The two boys approached the strangers with rifles loosely slung undertheir arms, as if they had just come from hunting. The men about the fireshowed no signs of surprise. They did not leap to their feet nor attemptto glide away. They merely turned their heads at the sound of footsteps,then sat there watching as the boys approached.
Pant took the lead. He had lived among men of many climes, and woulddoubtless be better able to understand these strangers. Reaching the edgeof the circle he sat down by the fire, motioning Johnny to do the same.
For several moments the little group sat in silence. Out of the corner ofhis eyes, Johnny studied the strangers. There were five heavily-built,raw-boned fellows with dark skins and thick lips. They were dressedmerely in breech-clouts. There were two small brown boys with the squinteyes of Orientals.
"Couple of Japs and their serfs," was his mental comment.
Presently one of the Orientals dug from the ashes of the fire two roastedsweet potatoes. These he offered to the guests. After that he suppliedeach member of his own group in the same manner.
Johnny noticed that there was a little pile of these potatoes on thebeach, also two brown hempen sacks full of some commodity. These sackswere tied tightly at the top.
They ate the potatoes with great relish. After that they were given waterto drink.
When they at last attempted to engage the strangers in conversation, theyfound them quite incapable of understanding English.
Finally Pant, growing tired of the effort, rose and strode down to thebeach where the brown sacks were lying. He thumped one of the sacks, thenlifted it from the ground.
"About a hundred pounds," he muttered. Then, turning, he walked back tothe group by the fire. He had taken one hand from his pocket. In its palmreposed a shiny ten dollar gold piece. He pointed to the sack he hadlifted, then offered the gold to the smaller of the two brown boys.
The boy reached out his hand and took it.
The act was repeated in reference to a second gold piece and theremaining sack. This offer was also accepted.
"They know the value of gold all right," he smiled. "I have bought twohundred pounds of rice. Let's get it on our backs. I think if we cutright across beneath the palms here we will about strike our camp."
With the sacks of rice on their shoulders, they trudged on for a time insilence. At last Johnny spoke:
"What do we want of all this rice?"
"Three people can live a long time on two hundred pounds of rice."
As he stepped out again into the moonlight he gazed about him for a time,then in a musing tone said:
"I wonder where we'll be to-morrow night. It's going to work all right.The only question is, how many miles do you get out of a hundred poundsof rice?"
The next morning, after they had taken their bearings, Pant said, "Far asI can make out, we're something like a hundred and fifty miles from thewreck. Question is, will our fuel carry us that far?"
"Our fuel? What fuel?" his two friends echoed.
"Yes," smiled Pant, "we have some fuel--two hundred pounds of it."
"The rice!" exclaimed Johnny. "I hadn't thought of using it for that."
"Well, perhaps we'd better not," said Pant, wrinkling his brow. "It's allthat stands between us and starvation. Our brown friends left the islandlast night. What's more," he went on, "I don't know how much carbon thereis in rice. Do either of you?"
They both answered in the negative.
"Well, there you are," said Pant. "You see, if we can't tell that, thereis no way of guessing how far two hundred pounds of rice will carry us.It may let us down after we've gone fifty miles and clump us right intothe ocean. And the next time we may not be as fortunate as we were thistime in finding a safe harbor. Then again, we might land safely in thelee of another of these islands, only to find ourselves without a singlemouthful of food. So you see there's something of a hazard in it."
The Professor rose and began to pace back and forth. He was very plainlyagitated. For fully five minutes he did not speak. Then he turned to facethe boys.
"The need of haste," he said slowly, "is great. Nothing in the world, itseems to me, could be much more important. But you have risked your livesfor the cause; I will not press you to do so again. You must decide foryourselves whether we shall take the venture or not. As for me, I amready to go."
Pant and Johnny looked at one another. Pant read Johnny's answer in hiseyes.
"Fair enough." He sprang to his feet. "We go."
A half-hour's time was consumed in grinding a quantity of the rice, thenthey were away. The remaining rice might be ground and fed to the enginesas they traveled.
Pant was again at the wheel. On his face there was the strained look ofone who constantly listens for some dread sound. They were flying low.Now and again his gaze swept the sea. Twice he dropped to an even lowerlevel, as he fancied he caught the rush of waters upon an unseen shore.Each time he climbed back to their old level and they sped steadilyonward.
Fifty miles were recorded, then seventy-five. A hundred stretched to ahundred and twenty-five.
Suddenly Pant's brow cleared. He climbed to a higher level. The enginesstopped all at once. But this was because he had thrown back the lever.As they glided silently down, there came to them the old welcome sound ofbreakers. Johnny Thompson, leaning far out of the cabin, swept the seawith a pair of binoculars.
"Over to the right," he exclaimed.
"Land?" asked the Professor.
"An island; ours, I think. A rocky promontory to the south, flat to thenorth, just as the sailors described it."
"Thank God! We have made it!" The Professor brushed cold perspirationfrom his brow. "I was afraid--afraid of many things."
The motors were again started, only to be shut off five minutes later.Then they began the delightful circling journey which was to bring themto a safe harbor and their goal. This time there was no tryinguncertainty; there was still fuel in their tank and they knew somethingof the place to which they were coming.
"I hope we don't have to."
"We'll go back and try for some sweet potatoes in the morning. I thinkperhaps I'll find another use for the rice."
"What?"
Pant did not answer. "Funny bunch, those brown boys," he mused. "Don'tsavvy English, but they know Uncle Sam's money, all right. It's that wayall over the world."
The island was very narrow. They soon found themselves on the beachfacing the bay where the "Dust Eater," as they called the seaplane, wasanchored.
It was decided that they should take turns at the watch, three hours tothe watch. This would give each of them six hours of sleep and fit themfor whatever of fortune or misfortune lay in their immediate future.
The Professor took the first watch, Pant the second. Pant had hardlybegun to pace the beach on his watch when there sounded across the watersthe quick pop-pop-pop of a motor. His first thought was of the "DustEater," but immediately he laughed at his fears; the popping was made bya much less powerful motor than those belonging to their seaplane.
The sound came from toward the south end of the island. Racing down thebeach, tripping over sand-brush and bits of drift here and there, hemanaged to arrive in time to see the tail-light of a motorboat fastdisappearing out on the sea.
"The Orientals and their men!" he exclaimed disgustedly. "It was stupidof us not to keep track of them. They might have given us a lift to thevery island we're bound for. We were too played out to think clearly,though, and now they're gone."
He walked slowly back toward their camp.
"Since that's settled," he thought to himself, "it's time I was tryingsomething else. I'll get at it at once."
Arrived at camp, he cut open one of the large sacks of rice and poured aquart of it in an aluminum kettle. Placing the kettle in the bottom ofthe canvas boat, he shoved off and was soon at the door of the cabin onthe "Dust Eater."
For a moment he paused t
o gaze about him. He had never seen anythingquite like the night that lay spread out before him. The moon, a great,yellow ball, hung high in the heavens; the sea, now calm, lay sparklingin the moonlight, while the palms shot skyward, a blue-black fringe onthe garment of night.
He had little time for such reveries, however. There was work to be done.
Once inside the cabin, he took up a trapdoor in its floor and, from thespace beneath, drew out a strange circular arrangement. To this heattached wires running from a line of batteries hung securely against thewalls. He next poured his quart of rice into a small hopper at the top ofthe circular mechanism. There came a snap-snap as he threw in a switch. Awhirling grinding sound followed. Presently, from a small tube, therebegan to pour forth a white powder, finer than the finest flour. This hecaught in the kettle.
"Ought to work," he mumbled, as the white pile in the bottom of thekettle grew to a sizable cone.
When the machine gave forth a strange new sound, as of a feed-millrunning empty, he snapped off the switch.
"Now we'll see," he murmured.
Taking up the kettleful of white dust, he walked back to the fuel tank ofthe plane, and, with the aid of a funnel, poured in the powder. Afterscrewing on the top, he went back to his old place at the wheel.
He pressed a button here, threw a lever forward there, and at once therecame the thunder of a motor. Quickly he threw back the lever. "Don't wantto wake them." He stood up and peered shoreward.
Satisfied that his companions had not been disturbed, he returned to thecabin and put things to rights.
"Wreck's to the southeast," said Johnny. "I can see it plainly. Look'squeer, though; all white, as if there had been a recent snow."
A moment later, as they circled lower, he laughed and exclaimed:"Sea-gulls!"
It was true. The ship, but recently a staunch sea-craft, had become aroost for sea-gulls. Literally thousands of them rose screaming into theair as the "Dust Eater" gracefully glided into the waters of thesheltered bay.
There is no mystery in all the world greater than a deserted wreck. Anold house, an abandoned mill, a cabin in the forest, all these have theircharm of mystery, but the wreck of a ship, laden with who knows whattreasure, and abandoned by her master, a wreck so remote from inhabitedlands that it has not been visited since the night of its disaster, herewas mystery indeed.
So eager were they to board the craft that they could scarcely wait untilthe plane had been made fast and the canvas boat lowered.
One question troubled Johnny: The seamen, taken from the wreck, hadreported no native inhabitants of the island, yet some might have beenhiding out in the rocky portion of the place, for this island was somethree times the size of the island they had just left.
As he climbed up the rope ladder which still dangled from her side, andsprang upon her deck, slippery with guano deposited by the gulls, he kepta sharp watch for any signs of depredation done to the ship since she wasdeserted. He found none, and no signs of life on the main deck, but as hewent down the hatch, he fancied he discovered the faint mark of a barefoot on one step.
Their first thought was of the four chests.
"Was your brother's berth on the main deck or below?" Johnny asked.
"That I cannot tell," said the Professor.
"Probably main deck," said Johnny, "but you can't be sure. You take thelarboard side of the main deck, and, Pant, you take the starboard. I'llgo below and see what I can find. Some of the staterooms will be locked.We can search the open ones first, and pry the others open later ifnecessary."
As he sprang down the hatchway, he fancied he heard a sound from below.For a moment he was tempted to turn back. Then with "Probably only asea-gull," he dropped on down and began making his way along a darkcompanionway. He had not gone ten paces when he heard a soft pat-pat offootsteps. The next moment a sharp exclamation escaped his lips.
From the door of a stateroom had appeared a brown head, then another andanother.
Suddenly some object whizzed past his head, to strike with a sickeningspat in the wall behind him. He did not need to be told it was a knife.
The door of a stateroom stood open beside him. Instinctively he spranginside and slammed it shut. He was not an instant too soon, for a secondknife struck the door. Such force had been used in its throwing, so keena blade it had, that the point of it struck through the wood the lengthof Johnny's little finger.
"Well, now what?" he murmured.
And then he thought of his companions. How was he to warn them before itwas too late?