CHAPTER V
WIG-WAGGING A WARNING
Tom and Harry quickly followed their chum to the cabin, where their eyeswere greeted by the sight of water rising above the floor of the forwardcompartment.
"She's started a butt!" declared Tom with a tremor in his usually cheeryvoice. "She's started a butt and we'll have to beach her or she'll sinkright out here in the Gulf of Mexico!"
"No, she won't!" snapped Harry. "Get the hand bilge pump going and I'llstart the power pump with the electric light engine!"
Quickly the directions were followed. Tom and Arnold speedily assailedthe rising water with the hand pump, while Harry started the gasolineengine that operated their dynamo, connecting it to the power pump.Together the two agencies gained on the rising flood that threatened toswamp the sturdy Fortuna. Eagerly the boys plied the handle of the pump,keeping an eye upon the bilge.
Harry went about lifting floor boards and peering here and there in aneffort to discover the source of the great leak.
"Ha!" he shouted from the after cabin. "Here's the trouble! Come here,you fellows, and bear a hand. Get something to plug this hole in theFortuna's side. This is sheer murder!"
Trusting the power pump to keep abreast of the incoming water, Tom andArnold deserted their post at the hand pump and sprang to assist theirchum whose cries told them that something had been found.
The sight that met their eyes was a startling one.
Harry had removed the floor boards from the center of the cabin and wasreaching down to the bilge. A spray of water squirted up into his facedrenching him thoroughly.
"Get something to plug this hole!" he gasped. "I'm drowning!"
Looking about hastily for means to plug the hole, Tom offered a jackethe had picked up from the locker. Arnold seized a fid from anotherlocker. Harry shut his eyes, turned his head side-wise and gasped forbreath. Reaching out for the jacket he took it from the hand of hisfriend and tried to push it into the hole through which the water waspouring steadily. His efforts were fruitless.
"Here, take this," urged Arnold. "This fid will plug a big hole and jamit tight, too. Is it a butt started?"
Harry took the fid from his chum. Quickly he inserted the pointed endinto the hole he had been trying to cover with his hand.
"Give me a hammer or something to knock with and I'll try to drive thisinto the hole. It's not a butt, it's an auger hole!"
"An auger hole?" both boys gasped in horror.
"An auger hole!" repeated Harry, his lips set and white. "Just a littlemore and we'd have been beyond all help. I think this idea of helpingunfortunate castaways is getting to be a good thing."
"Why, who on earth could have been so cold-blooded as to have bored ahole in our vessel?" cried Arnold. "Surely it wasn't the man whose lifewe just saved a short time ago!"
"I came into this cabin," asserted Harry "and could hear the rush ofwater. I thought the leak must be here. Of course, I thought at firstthat we had started a butt in the rolling a while back, when our friendCarlos Sneakodorus Madero boarded us and left us."
"But that seems impossible," incredulously offered Tom. "The Fortuna wasbuilt at Manitowoc where they have a reputation of doing first classwork and she hasn't had rough handling at all."
"It was impossible!" cried Harry. "Just as I knelt to raise the floorboard I saw that auger lying there. Then as I raised the board, I saw ahandful of white chips float up through the hole."
"And then you saw the stream of water?" queried Arnold.
"That's all there is to it, except the fact that the life-belts arepulled from their places on the ceiling," answered Harry.
"Sure enough, they're down in a heap," declared Arnold.
"And if you count them," Harry continued, "I'll wager my next meal thatyou'll find one missing. I can also guess who is wearing it at thismoment if he hasn't thrown it away!"
"Do you mean the man we picked up--the man who was knocked off theschooner?" breathlessly queried the younger boy.
"That's the man we want!" announced Harry. "And maybe I won't do a thingto him when I lay hands on him. Boy Scout or not, I'll put a dent in hisdome that'll hold coffee like a saucer!"
"Will that fid hold?" questioned Tom examining the spot.
"No, I don't think it will," was Harry's reply. "We'd better get a plugof that soft pine in the lazarette, then when it gets soaked it'll swelland hold tight. This fid's made of hard wood. It may hold all right fora while, but it'll work loose just when it should hold. If you'll getthe pine, Arnold, I'll make a plug."
Arnold hastened to bring the wood while Tom looked to the pumps andexamined the cabin for further damage.
"He got an automatic or two from the locker in the kitchenette," heannounced returning to the after cabin after his search.
"If he took those two lying on the lower shelf," announced Harry, "hegot only one automatic! That's a joke on him."
"What do you mean by that?" Arnold asked returning with the desiredpiece of wood. "If the man took two, he took only one!"
"Because" explained Harry fitting the plug into place, "the other is aflashlight made in the shape of an automatic."
Laughing over the joke unconsciously played upon himself by their latevisitor, the boys repaired to the pilot house where the gravity of thesituation was repeated to Jack, who had been at the wheel controllingthe movements of the Fortuna and keeping a lookout.
"I was examining the coast a moment ago with the glasses and saw what Itook to be a man wading ashore back of our present position," explainedJack. "He looked as if he had on a life belt, but I couldn't be surebecause I couldn't hold the glasses steady and handle the boat, too.Suppose one of you take the glasses and see what you can make out alongthe shore line in both directions."
Tom took the binoculars, mounted to the cabin roof, and swept diligentlythe shore line in both directions.
"What can you make out?" inquired Jack from the pilot house.
"I see a fellow just as you described, only he's not wearing a lifebelt. He seems to be crossing the strip of beach sand to the fringe ofpines a short distance inland. I don't see any automatic flashlight inhis hand, though!" whimsically announced the watching lad. "Then on theother hand, I can see two smokes that look like a Boy Scout call forhelp and between the two fires I can see a Boy Scout running back andforth and waving his hat."
"How do you know he's a Boy Scout?" challenged Harry.
"Well, if he started Boy Scout signals, he'd be a Boy Scout, wouldn'the?" replied Tom. Besides, he's red headed like Arnold and homely likeHarry and kind hearted like Jack and good like Tom. That's enough forme."
"You're just right, that's enough for you!" declared Harry. "You maythrow on your shovel--you've got a load."
"Honest, now, Tom," put in Jack, "what's the straight of this? Quit yournonsense! We must be serious."
"All right," agreed Tom. "What I said is all so except the foolishness.I can't see what the boy looks like. I can just make out a figurebetween the two fires. It looks slight like a boy. That's all I can makeout. There are some trees over there just this side of the fires, and itlooks as if we could make a landing close up to the fires. There seemsto be a little bay there."
"Thank you," said Jack in a tone of relief. "We'll run close in and tryto find out what's the matter. Maybe the stranger can help us get ourbearings. Lucky the fog lifted when it did or we would have piled uphigh and dry on this beach!"
As the Fortuna approached the little bight indicated by Tom, theydiscovered that there would be plenty of water to enable the Fortuna torun close inshore and permit of their landing easily. Tom and Harrybusied themselves with clearing away one of the metal boats carried onthe cabin roof and preparing to lower it when the Fortuna should come torest. Upon completing their task, Tom stood up for another view of thebeach which they were approaching.
"Look, Jack!" he cried. "Can you see the boy over there wig-wagging atus? Isn't that the Boy Scout wig-wag?"
"Sure enough, it is!" declared Jack ex
citedly. "Take this flag andanswer him. You're in a good place up there."
He passed the flag up to Tom as he spoke. All four lads watched withintentness the figure on the beach, while Tom prepared to reply to hisfurther signals with his flag grasped in both hands.
"He's got two flags, I believe," announced Tom.
"He's going to use the Semaphore code, then!" declared Jack.
"There it comes!" cried Harry. "He's calling us! Answer him."
"All right, Scout!" assented Tom. "Here comes the message!"
"Right arm at head, left arm down in front--that's 'D,'" announced Harrywho was watching with the glasses. "Then right and left both down anddiagonal to the right--that's 'A.' Next both arms diagonally down awayfrom the body--that's 'N.' Oh, he's telling us his name--Dan! Hurray!He's introducing himself!"
"Here comes the rest," cried Harry excitedly, "both arms diagonallydownward and to the left--that's 'G.' Now the right down in front andleft diagonally up and out from the shoulder--that's 'E.' Next both armsout horizontally from the body--that's 'R.' Why, that spells 'DANGER!'What does that mean?"
"Search me!" declared Tom. "I'm not a bit surprised, though for we'vebeen in danger ever since we left Mobile. Anything goes here. I'd thankhim to tell us some news, though."
"Well, here comes some more!" announced Jack who had shut off the power,permitting the Fortuna to ride the smooth waters of the little bightwithout headway.
"Here's some more!" cried Arnold, who has again taken the glasses. "Leftarm over head, right arm diagonally down--that's 'K.' I learned thatcode last fall. Here's another. Left arm up from the shoulder diagonallyand right down in front--that's 'E,'and he repeats it. Then right outhorizontally and left straight up from head--that's 'P.' Next, right outhorizontally and left diagonally up and across the breast--that's 'O.'Now the left is out horizontally, and the right down in front--that's'F.' He repeats it. Why, that says 'DANGER, KEEP OFF'! What does hemean?"
"Maybe he means what he says," suggested Jack. "Answer him, Tom, andtell him we're coming ashore. Arnold and Harry, will you get the boatoverboard and we'll go ashore to see what's up. Better take yourautomatics and see that the boat is properly equipped."
"Right-o, Captain!" cried Tom. "I'll do my best."
The boat was quickly brought around and Arnold, Harry and Jack preparedto go ashore. As they pulled away from the Fortuna, Harry cautioned Tomto watch the plug in the after cabin and keep dry.
As the boat approached the shore the stranger on the beach franticallymade signals indicating that he wished them to return to the Fortuna atonce. Putting his fingers to his lips he glanced about as if in alarmand then put out his hand in a gesture of caution.
"I'll bet there's some monkey business going on somewhere!" venturedHarry. "Why should he send up smoke signals for help and then tell us tokeep away because of danger. He's kidding us!"
"I think I can see someone running toward us through those trees andbushes over there!" announced Arnold standing and pointing.
A figure broke from the cover of the bushes indicated just as Arnoldspoke. It was the figure of a man. He stopped a moment.
Tom from the Fortuna gave a wild cry and waved his arms.
A shot rang out and the strange boy on the beach fell forward.