CHAPTER XV.
SIGNAL LIGHTS IN THE CHINA SEA.
The boys reached the first thicket and quickly disappeared from thesight of those in the camp. There they listened for an instant, butheard nothing which sounded like pursuit. Then they dug into the jungleand worked around toward the bay where they had left the _Manhattan_.
There came no alarm from the camp as they passed through the thickets,using only their hands in fighting the creepers and snake-like vines. Itwas afterwards learned that the arrival of a particularly powerful chiefhad caused the commotion which had so assisted in the escape.
Luckily the attentions paid to the new arrival stretched over a longperiod of time, otherwise the boys would certainly have been retaken.Disturbed by the noise made by the lads in pushing through the jungle,the monkeys, birds, and other creatures of the forest lifted up theirvoices and seemed to point out the path of flight. Jimmie declared thata brass band could have done no more to locate them.
It was after noon when they came to the little bay where they had leftthe _Manhattan_. There was the bay, shimmering in the sun, there was thebeach where they had landed. But where was the motor boat?
"They've had to run for it," Jimmie decided, gazing gloomily over thewaste of sea and back to the jungle. "What's the next move? This spotmust be watched, so we've got to get out of here. I guess we're in forit, all right."
The situation seemed to be a desperate one, and the boys crept back intothe jungle to study it out. If the _Manhattan_ had left the vicinity ofthe island there was no hope for them; still, they decided to make surethat it had before giving over the search for it. In considering thesituation they did not at all censure Ned, for they saw that he mighthave been obliged to take the _Manhattan_ away from the little bay inorder to avoid capture.
At last when, in their tracing of the coast in the faint hope of finallycoming upon the _Manhattan_, the boys came upon the little stream wherethe boat was hidden, they remained concealed from the sight of those onboard while they took careful note of the surroundings. It did not seempossible that the _Manhattan_ had not been discovered by the Filipinos,and naturally the boys suspected that some trick to gain possession ofher without an open fight was being worked.
The boat lay quietly drawing at the cable which held her to the bank ofthe little stream, with everything apparently in order in the cockpitand in the cabin, but there were at first no signs of the boys.Presently, however, Pat's red head shot up out of the cockpit, where hehad evidently been lying down.
As the head appeared, an arrow whizzed almost over the heads of thewatching boys and struck the side of the boat with a force which seemedequal to cutting a hole in it. Pat was out of sight in a moment, withthe cabin door closed behind him.
"Going back to old methods, are they?" whispered Jack. "Do you seeanything of Ned or Frank there?"
Jimmie shook his head.
"I'm afraid they've gone to look us up," he said, "an' in that case,their return to the boat is likely to bring about a fight."
The battle was on in a moment, for Ned, Frank and the Filipino boy werenow approaching the boat. It was decidedly a desperate charge they weremaking through the jungle when shots from the right of the pursuerscaused the latter to believe that their peril lay in that direction.
When the Filipinos turned to beat off this attack Ned and his companionsmade a rush for the boat and reached her in safety. Then the Filipinosrushed to the bank, a dozen or more of them, in a rash attempt to boardthe _Manhattan_.
They were met by a hot fire from the cabin and the cockpit as soon asthey came out on the little rim of clear space on the bank and turned tothe thicket for shelter only to meet a volley of revolver shots from theinterior. This was too much for the untrained natives to endure, andthey fled up the shore of the stream and disappeared.
The boys themselves were uninjured, but spots of blood on the shore andon the leaves indicated that their bullets had not all gone astray. Thewounded natives, however, had been carried off by their companions.
Of course those on the boat understood where the fire which had assistedthem had come from. Jimmie and Jack were the only persons on the islandwho would be apt to come to their aid.
"Come out of that!" Frank called, as the last Filipino disappeared."Don't stay there in the thicket all day! We've got to get out!"
"Why don't you get out, then?" demanded Jimmie, with a grin. "We'll stayhere an' run things while you are gone."
The boys were soon on board and the _Manhattan_ was worked out into thechannel. But before she was far away from the shore a volley of shotscame from the jungle, doing no damage except to the beauty of the craft.
"Now run!" advised Jack. "The steamer over on the other side can chasethe legs off us if given half a chance."
Frank took charge of the engine, and Jack stood by to see that he didthe right thing, and the boat purred through the waters at a speed whichshe had never been called upon to make before. Presently the steamershowed up, pumping great columns of smoke into the sweet air, and thechase was on in earnest.
Ned directed Frank to seek the shelter of a group of islands not faraway and sat down to talk with Jimmie, first explaining to the two whohad just come aboard how the Filipino Boy Scout came to be there.
"We can't miss 'em!" Jimmie exclaimed, shaking the Filipino warmly bythe hand. "We found Boy Scouts in Mexico, and in the Canal Zone, and nowin the Philippines. They hop out on us wherever we go, like 'skeeters!"
There was now a long and serious talk concerning the course to bepursued. Jimmie and Jack told of meeting the man who had been followedto Yokohama, and also of the senator's son and the box he carried. TheFilipino told what he knew of the plans of those on board the steamer,now gradually drawing away from them.
"Are you sure that the men in charge of the steamer are Americanmilitary men?" asked Ned.
"Sure!" was the reply. "I came from Manila with them."
"And they are in the service of the government?"
"Sure!"
"Then what are they doing on that island, in company with the insurgentchiefs?" demanded Frank, but the Filipino only shook his head.
He insisted that Lieutenant Carstens, who was in command of the vesselfrom which the steam launch had come, was a fine officer, and high inthe esteem of the Manila authorities.
"Then what is he monkeyin' with the rebel chiefs for?" demanded Jimmie."It looks to me like Uncle Sam was goin' to get the double cross."
"Why don't you go back to the steamer," asked Pat of Ned, "and go onboard?"
"That would be fine!" cried Jack.
"What could they do to him?" demanded Frank.
"That boat is here to make trouble for me," Ned said, in a moment. "Ican't understand what is going on, but I know that it would not be safefor me to go on board."
"For why?" asked Jack.
"I should be accused of murder," was the grave reply.
"For shootin' the dagoes who were shootin' at you?" demanded Jimmie.
"That will be the charge," Ned replied.
"Then we'll become pirates!" Jack cried. "We'll sail the raving deep andget a new plank for prisoners to walk as soon as the old one wears out.We'll be bold, bad men on the Spanish main!"
"Cut it out!" Frank said. "This is no joke. They've got the goods on usfor that shooting, and we've got to keep out of the way until Neddiscovers the inner workings of this red tape machine."
The truth of this statement was so apparent that there was little moreargument on the subject. It seemed that, in trying to defend thegovernment against a gang of conspirators and traitors, Ned had indeedcome to a point of open rupture with some of the men in authority.
For some unknown reason they were chasing him down. Twice he had come tothe spot where the treasonable document was to be executed, and twice hehad been driven away without accomplishing the object he sought toaccomplish.
About the middle of the afternoon the government steamer disappearedentirely, leaving the _Manhattan_ alone in
the network of tiny islandswhich came down pretty close to the northern shore of the island ofLuzon. Ned watched the last trace of her smoke disappear with much thesame feeling that one experiences when an enemy he has been fightingpasses from view but does not leave the vicinity.
"She's getting ready to spring out on us," he said to Frank. "She iseither waiting for night, or she has gone back to dig up a gunboat.Those on board of her have good ground for arresting us, and before wecould prove the true state of affairs at the time of the shooting thetreaty would be signed and war would be on."
"If we only had that treaty box!" Jimmie exclaimed.
"And the senator's son with it!" Jack put in.
The steamer gave them no more trouble that day, and when night fell the_Manhattan_ nosed into a creek which rippled into the channel and theboys prepared to pass the night there. It was a still night and therewas no moon, but would be later on. The air, heavy with tropical scents,scarcely stirred, the light breeze having gone down at sunset.
The island which the boys had selected as a resting place for the nightwas well up to the north of Luzon and faced the China Sea. There seemedto be no land between its western coast and the shoreline of China. Farout in the sea the lights of a liner gleamed for an instant as the boyscarried provisions ashore, then the great expanse of water showed onlythe light of the stars.
"We may have to lug this stuff back to the boat with a rush," laughedJimmie, as he carried a basket of tinned provisions from the rowboat tothe little glade where they were to prepare supper. "I don't believe thegovernment steamer went very far away. If she did, she'll come back witha gunboat."
"Imagine a gunboat out here after the _Manhattan_!" scoffed Jack. "Allthe steamer people wanted was to drive us away. Don't you think theycould have caught us if they had set out to? You bet they could! Butthey didn't want to show up before us. There are people on board of herwho do not want to be seen in the society they have been in during thepast few days."
Ned looked the speaker over thoughtfully for a moment.
"I think," he said, "that you've about hit the nail on the head. Theywanted to drive us away, and they didn't want their own boat in the wayto-night."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Frank.
"I'm not very clear in my mind as to what I did mean," laughed Ned."However, it is plain that the steamer did not relish staying abouthere."
Ned watched the supper preparations for a short time and then walkedaway toward the interior. The island was a very small one, and consistedchiefly of a round rim of white sand--which was rock pounded up by thebeating of the waves--and a rocky, cone-like elevation which liftedabove the waters of the China Sea like a signal tower.
In some distant epoch the bit of rock had been cast up from the bottomof the ocean, and the rains and suns of countless years had formed fromthe volcanic material the thin soil which here and there supportedtropical growths.
Sailors called the island "Elephant's Head," because the centralelevation was said to resemble in some remote degree the head of anelephant, and because two great ridges of rock jutted out into thewater, pointing toward the coast of China. These ridges formed anexcellent harbor, and were known as "The Tusks."
The _Manhattan_ was not anchored in this secure harbor, but in a baywhich was formed by a break in the rock just around the south corner ofthe island. There were springs high up on the mountain, and these formedthe river which had in turn worn away the rock and shaped the bay.
Ned reached the place where the climb began in five minutes afterleaving the campfire. There was no jungle to speak of and he walkedrapidly. He passed on up the steep side of the mountain for somedistance and then paused on a little shelf of rock which faced the westand took out his glass.
Before him lay the quiet waters of the great China Sea, while back ofhim loomed the rugged bulk of the mountain, the summit indistinct in thedarkness of the moonless night. The growths of the tropics came up towhere he stood and then died out from lack of soil. Elephant's Headstood out boldly, its rugged lines unsoftened by the growths whichflourish almost everywhere in the Philippines.
Below, Ned could see the red of the campfire, sheltered from the seaside by a screen of bushes. Away to the west he could see, at first,nothing, and then a light came dancing over the waves. At first hethought he must be mistaken, but the light remained stationery exceptthat it seemed to rock with the slow movement of the waves.
While the boy was wondering over the matter Pat came scrambling up theside of the mountain. He threw himself on the shelf of rock by Ned'sside and pointed out to the west.
"You see that light?" he asked.
"Yes; I was just wondering about it," was the reply.
"It is at the top of a tall mast," Pat went on to explain, "and is asignal. I can't read it, of course, but it seems to me that it meansmischief."
"I have no doubt of it," was the reply, "but we've got to wait fordevelopments for a time. This seems to me to be a waiting game," headded with a laugh which did not sound at all merry.
The boys sat for a long time, watching the light, which grew nearer, andthe campfire below, which was still glowing brightly. Then Ned turnedhis glass to the north and an exclamation of surprise escaped him. Wherehe looked there was a duplicate of the light to the west, and that,also, was drawing closer.
"I think," Ned said, after calling Pat's attention to the second light,"that we'd better have that fire out. Go down and ask the boys to finishtheir suppers and make everything dark."
"Why," Pat said, "you haven't any notion those ships are coming here,have you?"
"There's a pretty good harbor here," Ned said.
"Yes, but--"
"And the insurrectos must have arms," Ned went on.
Pat thumped his hands down on his knees half a dozen times and thenbrought one palm down on Ned's shoulder.
"Sure!" he said. "Sure, sure, sure! The game is to land arms andammunition here to-night! Now, what do you think of tumbling headfirstinto the center of the disturbance like this? Say, we'll have to receiptfor those guns!"