CHAPTER XIII
RECAPTURE
Bob departed without protest, after one wondering look, and Mart sethimself to wait as patiently as might be. His own nerves, as well asthose of the men, were on edge; they were all under a tremendous strain,for none of them expected ever to see Jerry alive again, so deeply wasthe fear of the Pirate Shark ingrained in them all by the happening ofthe morning.
Borden went on paying out the lines, and gradually the flicker of thecopper helmet died away and merged with the green of the water. EvenYorke had forgotten to keep an eye out for the shark, and stood cranedover the bulwarks, gazing down awesomely into the green depths below.
To Mart it seemed that an age passed. He knew that down beneath thewater old Jerry could hear the strokes of the air-pump, and he wonderedif the shark were anywhere around the wreck. Both boys had been given avery thorough knowledge of diving by the old quartermaster, from atheoretical standpoint, and had it not been for the Pirate Shark, Martwould have liked nothing better than a descent.
But just at present he had something else in mind. Down below on thegangway landing were Borden, Birch and Dailey, unarmed except forrevolvers, and lined to the landing was one of the yacht's boats,lowered that morning. A dozen feet away, with his back to Mart, stoodYorke, absolutely absorbed in the scene below.
Mart knew exactly how big that huge elephant gun would look to fourstartled men, and he also knew that without Jerry's quick brains therest were not to be feared. Suddenly he saw Dailey point to the gauge inthe front of the pump, and at the same instant Borden ceased paying outline; Jerry had reached bottom!
"Here you are, Mart," came a soft voice behind him, and Mart whirled,nerved up to the action on which he had decided, and took the emptyelephant gun from Bob's hands.
Slowly he raised the huge gun until it half-rested along the rail,pointing square at the head of Yorke. Then, speaking in a tone loudenough for Yorke to hear, he addressed Bob.
"Holly, go and take that rifle away from Yorke. He ain't safe to holdit."
The men below did not hear him, but Yorke did; and as he had expected,the seaman turned his head. As he looked full into the huge muzzle,Yorke's twisted, ever-leering face went pasty white and he submitted toBob's relieving him of his rifle without a word.
"Hands up, Yorke!" commanded Mart, still softly. "Bob, get hisrevolver."
Bob obeyed, and still Yorke stared into the muzzle of the elephant gunwith fear-stricken eyes and a ghastly pallor on his face, as he reachedfor the sky.
"Now get down on the landing," ordered Mart, and with that shifted hisgun over the rail so that it pointed straight at the three men below. Sofar, they had heard nothing. Mart knew that he might be endangeringJerry's life, but he did not hesitate, and jerked his head for Bob tofollow Yorke, who had started down the ladder.
"Get after him and take their guns, Bob."
The other boy obeyed, entering at once into Mart's plan. Yorke,paralyzed with fear, kept his hands in the air as he descended, and whenhis shadow fell across the landing, Dailey was the first to glance up insurprise.
"Hands up, you men!" commanded Mart sternly, though he felt a quiver inhis throat. Would they call the bluff of that empty gun? "Quick aboutit, there!"
Into the one-eyed face of Birch flashed an evil anger mixed with fear;Dailey promptly stuck up his hands, as did Borden, who still clung tothe lines, but Birch only continued pumping, though he looked upfearfully.
"I ain't a-goin' back on Jerry," he growled.
Mart read indecision in his tone, however. He knew that Jerry would bein no danger from a momentary cessation of pumping, just as he would bein no danger were his air hose to break, as the helmet valve would inthat case close automatically and Jerry would have enough air left inhis dress to last him for some minutes.
"Up with 'em, you pirate!" cried Mart, shifting his big gun a trifle sothat Birch's glittering black eye looked full in the muzzle.
"Don't shoot, ye fool!" gasped Birch, flinging up his arms, and Martknew he had won.
The men stood looking up, evil-eyed, panting with their exertions at thepumps, while Bob swiftly emptied their revolver-belts of weapons andknives and was up the ladder to the deck again, flinging down his load.
"You ain't a-goin' to murder poor old Jerry!" cried Dailey sharply. Martwinced.
"Bob," he returned, "you'll have to go down and keep those pumps going.Hurry up, now!"
His chum, rather pale-faced and flurried, hastened down again and beganturning the double handle of the pumps, while the four men crowdedbeyond the ladder.
"Drop those lines, Borden," ordered Mart sternly, and the old seamanobeyed without demur. "Now unfasten that boat and get into her! Pile in,the whole crowd of you! Do it lively now! That's right. Get busy withthose oars and row over to that island. When you get there, shove outthat boat and let her float off, or I'll pepper you with a load o'buckshot."
"You ain't goin' for to maroon us there?"
"You're pirates and mutineers and I'm an officer o' this ship," repliedMart fiercely. "You step lively there or I'll send you where Jerry is,without any diving suit but with some buckshot in your back. Jump, now!"
Plainly, the men did not doubt either his intentions or his ability tofulfill his ferocious threat. While Bob continued his mechanicalpumping, the four tumbled into the boat and pulled away without anotherword. Mart knew that once they were on the island, with the boat floatedaway, they were practically in prison. None of them would ever attemptswimming away to the mainland while the Pirate Shark was in the lagoon.
Mart stood at the gangway and kept the boat covered with his emptyelephant gun, though now that the tension was relaxed and the victoryhis, everything blurred before his eyes and he felt weak with thereaction. The island was only a few hundred feet away, and the menpulled to the sandy beach without hesitation, tumbled out, and shovedthe boat out again. Then they fled for the cover of the trees and bushesand were gone.
"By juniper!" breathed Bob from the landing below, as Mart flung the gunto the deck and leaned on the bulwark. "You look like a ghost, Mart!Trot down here and give me a hand at this job."
"Well, we licked 'em!" exclaimed Mart, a surge of exultation risingwithin him as he slowly descended the ladder. "We licked 'em with anempty gun, old scout! Say, can you beat it? Think of us standin' off agang o' pirates with your dad's old elephant gun! Did you see how whiteYorke was?"
As he spoke, he relieved Bob at the pump wheel, and the latter leanedback and mopped his dripping brow.
"Well, I'd hate to have you come after me in earnest!" declared Bob witha laugh. "Say, you can sure talk like a bad man, Mart! You had me deadsure you'd land those pirates with a bullet!"
"I was scared!" admitted Mart with a grin. "I was so blamed scared,Holly, that I had to make 'em think I meant it. Here, get to work andquit talking."
"No sign o' Jerry, eh?"
Bob fell to work at the opposite handle, but mindful of the oldquartermaster's lessons, they kept up a steady pumping, not too fast,but enough to maintain a good air pressure below.
Watching the lines as they worked, there appeared to be little motion;the two diving suits were not equipped with telephones or speakingtubes, but the boys knew the signals.
"Watch out!" cried Bob suddenly, as he caught at the lines that wereslipping off at a jerk from below. "Keep turnin'--I'll 'tend to theropes!"
He barely caught the lines and coils of air hose in time to save them,and Mart, watching as he pumped, saw four distinct jerks--the signal topull up. In reply, Bob jerked the lifelines once, meaning "Are you allright?"
One pull came back, assenting to the query, and without more delay Bobbegan to pull up Jerry. Mart cautioned him as to speed, and Bob nodded.Jerry had not gone down by the usual "shot-rope," often used by divers,because the gangway landing was nearly exactly over the wreck.
It was no task to pull up the quartermaster until the heavy copperhelmet rose to the landing. Then Mart came and lent his assistance, andbetween the
m they got Jerry up and over the side. He did not have thekris with him, and he lay stretched out, unable to rise because of hisheavy clothes and weights.
This bothered the boys not at all. Mart sent Bob to get all the riflessafely locked up in the cabins, while he set to work unscrewing Jerry'shelmet. At first he felt some fear lest the old man had come to someharm, so motionless did he lie; but as he got the helmet unscrewed heheard Jerry's voice proceeding from within, and no sooner had he helpedthe quartermaster to sit up, gasping and blinking, than his fears werequite allayed.
"Ho!" cried Jerry, with wild triumph on his face as he flung back hiswhite hair. "She's there, mates, she's there! Eight fathom down she is,and no Pirate Shark neither! Old Jerry found her, he did--eh? What--"
In his first transports the quartermaster had not observed that hismates were not around him, evidently. Then his eyes fell on Bob, comingdown the ladder, and he gazed about blankly. Mart grinned.
"Is the wreck there, Jerry?"
For a moment Jerry made no reply, but stared around helplessly, and hisjaw dropped. His head went up, and he searched the ladder and bulwarksabove, until both Bob and Mart gave a shout of laughter.
"No use, Jerry," cried Bob cheerfully. "Your friends are gone, andthere's a set of irons waiting for you up for'ard. Come, get out o' thatsuit and step lively, now."
Jerry gasped, then cried feebly:
"Gone? My mates gone? Hey, Dailey! Birch! Yorke! Where are you, mates?"
The terror and consternation on his face sobered the boys instantly. Hetried to get up, the veins standing out on his forehead, his eyesstraining frantically, but Mart swiftly pushed him back and faced him.Helpless though the old man was in his heavily-weighted diving suit,there was something terrible in his aspect that made both boys feel asudden fear of his unleashed fury.
"Sit back there," ordered Mart peremptorily. "No use calling for yourmates, Jerry. They can't help you now, and you're in for it."
"Eh?" Jerry stared up, his face working horribly, his fingers twiningand untwining. "You--you've killed 'em? You've killed poor old Borden,lad, and Dailey--and Birch--"
Mart could stand it no longer.
"No, nobody's killed, Jerry," he said kindly, sympathizing with the oldman's terrible agitation. "We've marooned your men on the island, andthey're helpless and unarmed. The _Seamew_ belongs to us now, and Ithink it'll be best for all concerned that you go in irons. We can'ttrust you, Jerry, and that's flat."
Slowly the old quartermaster comprehended his defeat. A look of anguishflitted across his face, his eyes lost their keen sharpness and becameold and bleared once more, and with a groan he lowered his head on hisbreast and his white hair fell around his features in the sunlight.
Mart caught a pitying glance from Bob, but he knew too well that Jerrywas not to be trusted, and drew his chum aside to the ladder.
"Look here, Holly," he whispered earnestly, "we can't get soft-heartednow. Jerry ain't half as simple as he looks, take it from me. We got ourwork cut out for us, too. Your dad's over there in the jungle, remember,and them Malays have got 'most all the crew pris'ners. That's goin' tobe a mighty hard nut for us to crack. We've got to put Jerry in irons,that's all."
Bob nodded, his eyes roving over the water.
"Look there, Mart," he said, pointing to the island. "The boat's goneback to the shore."
Mart glanced across to the island, and saw that the boat had indeeddrifted back to the beach and lay slowly stranding as the tide dropped.However, he forgot about the matter instantly, as Jerry's voice came tothem.
"Look here, lads," and the old man's voice came softly, appealingly. "Igot a proposition to make. You've got me fair and square, lads, fair andsquare--but I want to get down to that there wreck again."
Mart eyed him keenly, but the old man was evidently in earnest.
"Let's hear your proposition," he said curtly.