CHAPTER XX.
ON BOARD A STRANGE CRAFT.
Once inside the main cabin Rob was thrust into a small stateroom openingoff the larger apartment. He heard the lock click as the door wasslammed to, and knew that he was a prisoner.
It was dark inside the cabin, but by feeling about he discovered a bunkon one side of the place. Critical as his situation was, the boy was sotired that he flung himself down on this, and, before long, while stillpondering his quandary, he sank into a deep slumber.
When he awakened it was broad daylight. By the motion of the craft Robknew that she was at sea. Getting up from the bunk he peered out of thesmall porthole of the stateroom. Outside nothing but the ocean was to beseen. Of course the boy had not the slightest idea where they were, orhow long the boat had been running.
All he did know was that he was a prisoner, ravenously hungry, achinglythirsty and almost fagged out. His slumbers had been uneasy and had notrefreshed him.
Outside he could hear voices in the larger cabin. Crawling to thekeyhole he listened intently. Berghoff was talking. Rob heard enough toconvince him that the plans of the band had been changed.
"There vill be a big hue undt cry ven dey findt oudt der boy is gone,"declared Berghoff. "We must findt some place where we can stop till derexcitement dies out."
"That's right, cap," agreed one of his companions, "but where can wego?"
"There are plenty of small islands further down the coast. One of thosewould suit our purpose," struck in another voice, which Rob recognizedas that of the pallid-faced Gyp.
"Dot's a good idea," agreed Berghoff; "gedt out der chart and look oneup."
The voice sank into inaudibility and Rob threw himself back on the bunk.At least he knew now what to expect, isolation and captivity with threedesperate men. It would be wrong to say the lad was frightened. Possiblythe very nature of his predicament had dulled his brain, as is sometimesthe case.
"I wonder if they are looking for me now?" he mused, and with thethought came a glad realization that Merritt knew of the signals fromthe island and would inform the ensign of them.
"If they only follow me up quickly, maybe they can overtake this craft,"he said to himself, "although she's a fast one."
At this juncture of Rob's cogitations the door was thrust open and Gypentered with some food and water.
He placed them on the floor and started to leave the room in sullensilence, when Rob stopped him.
"What are you going to do with me?" he demanded.
"Don't ask no questions and you'll get told no lies," growled the man,slamming the door and relocking it on the outside.
"Well," thought Rob, "it's plain that I'm to be kept in the dark as tomy fate. Well, it's no use worrying. I'll tackle this food and take agood long drink of water and then see if I can come to any conclusion."
The meal brightened Rob up wonderfully. After eating it he sat on theedge of the bunk casting about for something to keep his mind off histroubles, when he suddenly recollected the mysterious cipher found onthe _Good Hope_.
Reaching into his pocket he pulled it out and began figuring with thestump of a pencil on the back of an old envelope. But ingenious as hewas, he found it hard to decipher. He tried half a dozen well-knownsystems on it and was about to give up in despair when he recalled the"Letter" method of reading cryptic numeral ciphers.
This system requires the operator to figure out the recurrence ofdifferent numerals and the order in which they appear. Rob noticed thatthe number 5 occurred most frequently. Now E is the most used letter inany bit of English writing, so the lad set down 5 as answering for E.
After this he figured industriously till he had managed to makesomething like sense out of the first paragraph of the old writing.
It would be wearisome to take the matter step by step in all itsdetails. Suffice it to say, therefore, that Rob found that he had hit ona correct system and at the end of two hours had the following messagebefore him.
"It is buried twenty-four paces from dead cypress and to the west. Theisland lies in long. 80 degrees 50 minutes and lat. 33 degrees 24minutes. To whoever finds this and reads it, I will the ivory. Death isclose to me now. Good bye to all."
When his task had been completed, Rob sat gazing at the paper beforehim. Unquestionably it gave the location of the dead whaler's cache. Foran instant the boy thought, with a thrill, that he was within reach of afortune. But the next moment he recalled where he was, which, in theinterest of his task, he had forgotten. Then, too, he remembered thatthe dead man's two companions who marooned him on his own ship hadprobably carried out their intention of returning and carrying off theprecious hoard.
"So that's all of that," mused the boy, "but just the same, if I everget out of this scrape, I mean to hunt up that island and see if I canlocate the fate of those mammoth tusks."
All day the boat moved swiftly along, and it was not till the followingmorning that anchor was dropped, as Rob knew by feeling the motion ofthe craft stopped, and by hearing the rattle of the anchor chain.
"I wonder what is going to happen to me now?" he mused.
He had not long to wait.
"Come out on deck and help us row the dinghy ashore," Gyp muttered as heunlocked the door.
Heartily glad to get out of his cramped quarters, Rob obeyed.
Coming on deck he found Berghoff and Mike already there. The former hada formidable-looking revolver strapped on him. The boat was lying off asmall, sandy island, isolated from the others, in one of the groups thatare common on that part of the coast.
It was wooded and appeared to be a fine spot for Berghoff's purpose ofremaining in seclusion till Rob's friends gave him up for lost, and themystery of his capture blew over.
The dinghy, which hung on the davits astern, was lowered, and Robroughly told to "pile in and row us ashore." He obeyed the order,noticing that in the boat were tent and camping supplies. Evidentlythese had been placed in it before he was called on deck.
His heart sank as he observed these preparations for an extended stay onthe lonely island. Once ashore, he was forced to help in putting up thetent, building a fire and doing other jobs to make the camp habitable.Then, without food, he was set to chopping wood. After a hasty meal,Berghoff disappeared, leaving Rob guarded by Gyp and Mike, who lay atfull length smoking lazily while he worked.
When Berghoff returned he announced that there was no trace of humanityon the island. With this statement vanished Rob's last hope of help. Hehad nourished a secret aspiration that there might be some campers orfishermen living on the place.
When the sun set that night Rob's feelings were down to zero. The veryfact that he was not closely watched seemed to prove to him the utterimpossibility of his escaping. True, there was the boat, but that hadbeen drawn up on the beach by his wily captors so that it would beimpossible for him to move it without attracting their attention.