CHAPTER XVII.
THE FLARE OF A ROCKET.
Ben looked at Ned in astonishment.
"You never got the _Manhattan_ away, did you?" he asked.
"The boys got it away," replied Ned.
The sailor remained silent for a moment, his face turned away from theman he was supposed to be watching. When he spoke it was in a very lowtone, with little movement of the lips, and with his face still turnedtoward the lieutenant.
"You should have gone with it," he said.
Ned did not reply. He had, at the last moment, made a rush for the boat,but had been kept away from her by the natives.
"Carstens has been after you for a long time," the sailor went on. "Hegot his orders at Manila."
"What was he doing on the island with the rebels?" asked Ned.
"I'm sure I don't know," was the whispered reply. "There's somethingmighty funny going on here. More mischief, I'm afraid. No one knows whatis in the boxes that are now being unloaded."
"What does he say they are?" asked Ned.
"Supplies, to keep the chiefs good-natured."
"He brought them from Manila?"
"No, he picked them up over on the China coast."
"I thought so," Ned answered.
"Now, what is the answer to that remark," asked Ben.
"You'll get the answer directly," Ned replied. "Listen to the rattle ofthe alleged supplies when a box is thrown down hard!"
"I was noticing that."
"Sounds like guns?" asked Ned.
"Yes, indeed, but why should the government be supplying the dagoes withguns? We have all we can do to keep them decent when they have no armsat all."
"You sailed from Manila with Carstens?" said Ned, putting his statementin the form of a question.
"Yes, I left Manila on the _Clara_. He seemed to be all right untilafter we picked up the boxes on the China coast. He was a good fellow,when we left Manila, but he was confined to his cabin for a day and anight and has been ugly as sin ever since. He came out of the sicknesslooking a bit seedy but that ought not to cause him to turn into ared-handed brute, had it?"
"He has been acting badly, has he?" asked Ned.
"As if the very Old Nick was in him," was the reply. "You heard what hesaid about a drum-head court martial for you?" the sailor added.
"Of course."
"Well, he means it. He's got something against you that doesn't show onthe outside. He'll try you in five minutes and shoot you within the nextten."
"That would be murder."
"Well, he has the authority, under the general instructions regardingthe treatment of pirates," said the sailor.
"But you know that I'm not a pirate, and so does Carstens," Ned said."You know that I came here in the _Manhattan_ without the consent of theofficers at Manila, but you know that I was only defending myself whenthose natives were shot."
"I don't know anything about it," was the discouraging reply. "I'veheard you spoken of as a pirate for the past few days, and the membersof the crew all believe you to be one. If he orders them to shoot you,they'll do it."
"Yes, I presume so," Ned said, soberly.
"What are you going to do about it?" asked the sailor, after a shortpause.
"The question," Ned replied, "is what are you going to do about it?"
"I couldn't do a thing if I tried," was the reply. "When Carstens hearsthat the _Manhattan_ got away he will be red-headed, and will order thetrial to proceed at once. I'll see what I can do with some of the men Iknow well, but the chances are that I'll only get myself into troublewithout doing you any good."
"All you can do," Ned said, "is to delay the trial, and the execution,if it comes to that."
The officer who had made the arrest, after failing to seize the boat,now approached the Lieutenant and said something to him in a low tone.
"What?" the latter almost screamed. "You let the boat get away?"
"They were too quick for us," was the reply.
"Too quick for you?" howled the Lieutenant. "Do you know what you'vedone? You've ruined all my plans--the plans of the government.Inefficiency is worse than open disobedience, and you may consideryourself under arrest!"
The officer saluted and turned away, a scowl on his face.
"There is a likely man to talk with first," Ned suggested to the sailor."He will doubtless listen to you."
The Lieutenant now turned sharply toward the prisoners.
"What's going on there?" he demanded. "What are you talking to thatpirate for?" he added, approaching Ben threateningly.
"Trying to see what I could get out of him, sir," Ben replied, saluting.
"Well?"
"Not a thing!"
"Then cut it out," said the officer, moving away.
By this time the boxes were all out of the _Clara_, and the other vesselwas brought up to the Tusks. A great pile of boxes lay in the sandybeach, and these the Lieutenant counted over for the second time. Thenhe beckoned to a dignified looking native and went over the ranks ofboxes with him.
"Is it correct?" asked Carstens.
The other nodded and passed a slip of paper to the officer.
"Yokohama exchange," Ned heard him say.
"It must be that the native is paying for the guns," Ned said, and Ben,looking half frightened, half angry, nodded his head.
The Lieutenant now turned to the unloading of the _Martha_, which wasnow at the north Tusk. The hatches were soon lifted and the unloading ofthe cargo began. It consisted principally of boxes and barrels.
"Ammunition," Ned whispered.
Again the sailor nodded.
"Nice old government officer he is!" Frank said, in a half whisper.
"He doesn't act like himself," Ben said, "not since he came out of thecabin after being ill for a day and a night. And the boxes coming out ofthe hold now do not look like the boxes that were put in it on the Chinacoast. I don't know what to make of it all."
During all this talk Ned had been listening intently for the shriek of arocket, casting his eyes up the mountain side in the hope of seeing thegreen light of a signal reflected there. But no reports of rockets inthe sky had come to his ears, and there were no signal lights reflectedon the mountain.
The moon was well up in the heavens when the unloading of the _Martha_was completed. Then the Lieutenant called the dignified native to hisside again, and once more the toll of the boxes was taken and a slippassed over to the officer. This done, the men went back into the holdagain and began unloading small boxes, evidently containing tinnedprovisions.
"There," whispered Ben, "those are the goods Lieutenant Carstens took onboard at the Chinese port."
"Then where were the guns and the ammunition taken on?" asked Ned.
"That is what gets me," was the reply.
"Tinned goods were also put into the _Clara_?" Ned asked.
"Yes; and they are going to take them out."
"Thought they'd get the guns out first," said Ned. "Don't you see," headded, "that this man Carstens is a traitor! Can't you see that he isturning guns, undoubtedly stolen from the government, over to the rebelchiefs, and getting his pay for them?"
"It looks that way," was the slow reply, "but what am I to do about it?"
"Talk with some of the men," urged Ned. "If those arms are taken awayfrom this island by the natives they will be used to murder soldiers andsailors."
"I know it," said the sailor, "but what can I do?"
"Go and talk to the officer he just ordered under arrest."
"And have him report the conversation in order to get back into the goodgraces of the Lieutenant!" said Ben. "I'm not quite so green as that."
"What sort of a reputation does this man Carstens bear in army circles?"asked Ned, presently, seeing that it was of no use to argue with thesailor, who was afraid of being brought into trouble if he tried to aidthe boy.
"First-class," was the reply. "He is known as a brave and dependableofficer."
"And any action he might take he
re would be endorsed at Manila?"
"Yes; I think so."
"Then," Ned said, grimly, "if the _Manhattan_ doesn't get withinspeaking distance of the gunboat very soon there will be a couple offunerals on this island."
"I am afraid you are right," said Ben. "If I could do anything for you Iwould, but--"
"Stop that clatter there!" shouted Carstens, pointing the end of hispencil toward Ned. "Didn't I tell you to put a stick in his mouth if heopened it again?"
Ben saluted and said that he was trying to get a confession out of theprisoner, and the Lieutenant turned back to the work of tallying thetinned goods. It was quite evident that he did not intend to leave thatimportant duty to any subordinate.
Ned knew that he was in the tightest hole his love for detective workhad ever fitted him into. He knew that the Lieutenant suspected him, andwould not hesitate to order him shot after a mock trial. He had littledoubt that the officer had, after his return from Yokohama, managed topoison the minds of the officers at Manila against him. That was why, hethought, he had been ordered by Major John Ross to remain at Manilauntil instructions could be received from Washington.
He understood that Carstens might murder him there at will and so closehis mouth forever. After the murder there would be no one to tell of thesecret meetings on the islands where the rebel chiefs were assembled, noone to tell of the murder of Brown at the Yokohama tea house, no one totell of the arms unloaded there and turned over to the Filipinos--unlessthe sailors should take it into their heads to investigate the longboxes and take their lives in their hands by reporting theirdiscoveries.
Lieutenant Carstens certainly had everything to his taste there, and Nedwas of the opinion that he would not be very long in exercising hisauthority to the limit. While the boy was thinking over the situation,trying to find some way out of the peril he was in, a sleepy-lookingyoung man came out of the cabin of the _Clara_ and stepped ashore. Hewas neatly dressed, with a handsome face and alert figure. LieutenantCarstens bowed to him as he approached the place where he stood andpointed to the prisoners.
"Do you know who that is?" whispered Ned to the sailor.
"No," was the reply, "except that he is the son of a prominentpolitician in the United States."
Ned did not need to ask another question then. Jimmie had described thesenator's son, and Ned knew that the young man who had held possessionof the treaty box was there, in conference with the Lieutenant.
"I guess," the boy mused, "they've got the top hand. The Lieutenant hashis military authority, and also has the senator's son here to swear toanything he asks him to!"
"You should have made a getaway in the _Manhattan_," Ben said, in amoment.
"Then I wouldn't have seen the unloading of the arms," Ned answered.
Ben arose and stood yawning by the side of his prisoner. The Lieutenantand the senator's son approached and stood for a moment looking down onthe two captives.
"Why not call the drum-head now?" asked the senator's son. "It will helpto pass a couple of hours which might otherwise be dull."
"Call it, then," said the officer. "The sooner it is over the better."
Ned looked up to the mountain as one looks to a friend for assistanceand cheer when things are going hard, and the mountain did notdisappoint him. For there, high up, was the green light of a distantrocket.
The _Manhattan_ had found the gunboat and was using the signals.