CHAPTER XI.
WRECKED!
"It's not a ship, Carl," said Dick.
"Ach, du lieber," wailed Carl, "don'd tell me dot!"
"But it's something just as good, and perhaps better. It's an island."
"Turtle Key!" jubilated Carl, shortsighted as usual and glad only thatthey were perhaps coming closer to the iron chest. "Hoop-a-la!"
"No," went on Dick, "not Turtle Key. It's another island."
"How you know dot?"
"I can see some palm trees. Townsend told us that Turtle Key has notrees."
"A good thing for us that it isn't Turtle Key!" declared Matt, pluckingup hope. "If we're to be wrecked, the more comfortable the place we'rewrecked in, the better. What could we possibly do on a sand hill inthe middle of the ocean? If there are trees on that island it may beinhabited. How far away is it, Dick?"
"A mile or more, matey, but just how far it's hard to tell. Bear off apoint to starboard--that'll lay us in a direct line with the land."
Matt's anxious eyes were on the gas bag. He watched its diminishingbulk and tried to figure on how long it would keep them out of thewater. The tendency of the air ship to settle was now most pronounced.Matt could only fight it by tilting the rudder upward and driving themotor to its full limit. This, of course, diminished somewhat theforward motion; but the breeze, fortunately, was freshening, and thespeed lost in keeping the bag in the air was more than compensated bythe increased force of the wind.
The island could now be plainly seen by the naked eye. It was low andsandy and only two or three palm trees could be seen. The size of theisland dashed Matt's hope of finding it inhabited.
"Keep her moving, mate!" shouted Ferral. "We're coming closer! Aquarter of a mile farther and we'll alight on solid ground."
Matt was fighting a fierce battle with the diminishing gas. Every movehe could think of was brought into play. From a five hundred-footelevation the Hawk descended to four hundred feet, to three and then totwo.
The craft was tilted sharply upward, the racing propeller trying vainlyto drive her back to the heights she was surely and steadily losing.
Matt called Dick and Carl back toward the stern in order to free theforward part of the car of their weight and make it easier to keep theHawk's nose in the air. This maneuver met with some success, althoughthe air ship continued to settle by the stern, coming nearer and nearerthe tumbling waves.
The island was so close now that those aboard could see a little covein its shore line. The tilted air ship, like some stricken monster, wasbeing carried toward this cove by the wind.
"That bit of a bay is a good place for us to come down, matey," saidDick.
"Almost any place will be good enough," answered Matt, grimly, "just soit's close enough to the shore."
"Der pag," cried Carl, "ain'd more dan haluf so pig as id vas."
"Throw over some of that plunder!" ordered Matt. "Not the water cask orthe provisions, but anything else you can lay hands on."
The binoculars went first, then the mooring ropes and a few otherobjects which could be of no particular use to castaways on a desertisland.
The effect was instantly noticeable and, for a brief space, the Hawkseemed to stay her descent. In a few minutes she had drifted almostover the cove.
Just at that moment the hissing of the escaping gas grew to redoubledvolume, proving that the rent had suddenly broken wide and that thebag's contents was pouring out. The ship began to drop more rapidly.
"I'll go overboard, mates," shouted Dick. "Maybe that'll lighten thecar so the two of you can reach land. It's only a small swim."
In a flash, Ferral had flung himself into the water. But the loss ofhis weight did not help--the air ship was losing gas too fast for that.
"Over with you, Carl!" cried Matt. "It won't be hard for you to getashore."
Matt wanted to get the air ship to dry land, but it was apparent to himthat this was impossible.
The Hawk was doomed! As quickly as he could, Motor Matt made ready tofollow Carl and Dick.
Standing on the rail and clinging to one of the ropes by which the carwas suspended from the bag, Matt paused for a second and then flunghimself outward and downward.
Coming up, he shook the water from his eyes and began swimming. Dickhad already dropped his feet on the bottom and was wading ashore. Carl,spluttering and floundering, was just ahead of Matt.
Dick's eyes were on the air ship. Something about the Hawk was claiminghis attention.
Matt, swerving his gaze in the direction of the air ship, was surprisedto see her still hanging in the air with the wind slowly wafting hershoreward. For a moment Matt was puzzled, then it flashed over him thatthere was enough gas in the upper point of the cigar-shaped envelope tokeep the empty car and the bag out of the water.
Matt gained the shore and sank down on the sand beside Dick and Carl.
"How do you explain that, matey?" queried Dick.
"Why," answered Matt, "there's enough gas in the point of the bag,above the hole, to keep the fabric aloft. Had we stayed in the car we'dhave brought the air ship down into the water. I was afraid the Hawkwas lost to us, but now we'll be able to save her, and without injuryto the motor. When she gets close enough, we'll catch hold of the carand pull her down."
"Vat good vill it do to safe der air ship, Matt?" asked Carl,lugubriously. "Meppy ve could patch oop der hole, but vere ve going toged some more gas to fill der pag oop again?"
"We can't get away from this island in the Hawk," returned Matt, "butsome ship may come along and pick us up. In that event, we'll be ableto take the Hawk away with us. We've got too much money wrapped up inthat machine to leave it here on this island."
"Right-o!" exclaimed Dick. "Not only is the Hawk saving herself for us,but she's bringing ashore our supplies. And it's a cinch we're going toneed those supplies, mates. I'm a Fiji if I think there's anything butturtles here to eat."
By that time the air ship had drifted over the beach. By running up theslope leading down to the beach, the boys were able to grasp the lowerend of the car, and they easily hauled it to the ground. This movecaused most of the gas that still remained in the bag to escape, andthe envelope flattened itself out in the sand, twisting and writhing asthe last of the gas worked its way out.
"This is the end of our cruise in the Hawk," muttered Dick, staringgloomily at the useless air ship, "and if this tight little islandhadn't bounced up right in front of us just when we needed it most,the cruise would have been the end of us, too. But there's no useoverhauling our hard luck. We're here, and we're safe, and we'd beworse than cannibals not to be satisfied. Let's slant away for thosepalms, doff our wet gear and sit in the shade till the sun dries ourclothes."
"A good idea," assented Matt. "After we get dried out we'll pitch somesort of a camp and try and run up a flag of distress on one of the palmtrees. We could be a whole lot worse off than we are, pards."
"Anyvay," grumbled Carl, while he was getting out of his clothes andspreading them in the sun to dry, "we don'd findt dot Durdle Islandt,und ve von't efer know vedder dere iss a iron chest on der islandt ornod."
"Fiend take the iron chest!" grunted Dick.
"You don'd care nodding for dot?" queried Carl, mildly surprised.
"Not a hap'orth. The time has come, Carl, when Motor Matt and hismates have got to look out for Number One. Maskee! If we're hung upon this two-by-twice turtle-back for long, the five thousand we're toget from Townsend won't be a whack-up to what we're losing in AtlanticCity. It's a fair bad break we made, coming off on this jamboree. Wewouldn't have done it if it hadn't been Townsend that asked us."
"That's the plain truth of it, Dick," said Matt. "Townsend had a claimon us and we were in duty bound to help him."
Carl, in his eagerness to be looking around the island, got into hisclothes before they were fairly dry. Leaving Matt and Dick to talk, theDutch boy ambled away and was quickly out of sight over the knoll thatformed the backbone of the island.
"T
his looks like a case of where the wrong triumphs over the right,"observed Dick. "Jurgens, who's a swab and a crook from heels tosky-piece, puts as brazen a piece of work as I ever heard of right overthe plate. And it seems as though he was going to score, at that."
"He'll get his come-up-with before long," declared Matt. "That sort ofcrookedness may win for a little while, but it's bound to lose out inthe long run."
"Where Townsend missed it was in not letting the authorities sendJurgens up that time he crawled into Townsend's office and was caughtred-handed going through his desk. If Townsend had done what he oughtto then, there'd have been no trouble like this now. Sometimes it's badpolicy to be too easy with----"
A loud yell came floating over the top of the sandy ridge.
Both Matt and Dick sprang excitedly to their feet.
"Carl!" exclaimed Dick.
"Sounds like he was in trouble," cried Matt. "Come on and let's seewhat's up."