The Voodoo Gold Trail Part 20

"G.o.d help Wayne and Ray!" said Norris at last.

"They're safe," said Robert, pointing southward.

In the dim light we could make out a vessel lying some hundreds of yards away and in the lee of that same land.

"Thank G.o.d!" said Norris. "Then this is an islet that lies across the outside of this harbor."

"Yes," said Captain Marat. "They come in the other side."

The storm presently lost its fury; in a half hour it was gone, and full light came to show us the _Orion_ with her foresail in shreds.

And so it is now that Wayne will take up the story again.

CHAPTER XV

AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONS

Ray and I were escorted down the companionway into the cabin of the _Orion_, and were thrust into a room on the port side. A pair of blacks cut away the cords from our arms; and when they went out we heard a bolt pushed home in the door.

"We travel in style," observed Ray, surveying the pair of bunks, one above the other. "Let's see," he continued, "does your ticket call for an upper or a lower?"

A small, round, glazed porthole gave light, and a porcelain wash-bowl with faucets was fixed in the wall.

"And even a bathtub," said Ray, fingering the piece. "It's almost like being back on the _Pearl_ again."

We were waited on by the blacks, who brought our food. The day pa.s.sed uneventfully; though we spent much time at the porthole (which we finally succeeded to open, or we must have stifled) we saw not so much as a sail, nor a glimpse of the land. This last would be explained either on the score that the island lay on the other--the starboard--side, or that the _Orion_ had sailed out of view of the land.

She might even be on a course to the west, going back home again, now.

It was not till the stars were out that this point was settled. It was by those twinklers we learned we were on an eastern course.

The next morning we got a view of the land. It was just after the _Orion_ had gone about on the starboard tack. The mountains loomed up but four or five miles away. And while the vessel slowly came up into the wind, I eagerly scanned the horizon for a sail that should seem to be the _Pearl_. But there was no s.h.i.+p of any kind in view. My heart sank. Could it be that after all they had not ferreted out our secret message?

The day following, sometime before noon, we heard sounds of excitement on the vessel. And we heard Duran's voice; "cussing in French," Ray said he was doing.

We got to the porthole.

"They must have got sight of the _Pearl_," I said. Our hopes were high.

Even on the starboard tack, we saw nothing but the sea, now fallen almost calm.

A half hour pa.s.sed; we were again at the porthole.

"There she is!" cried Ray and I together. The _Pearl_ was in view.

Soon the wind was on us, as we could hear; and it grew dark. There was much scurrying on the deck overhead. Spray began to come in through our porthole, and we must close it. We could see birds rus.h.i.+ng by. Our course was changed; no longer could we see the _Pearl_. The roar of the storm increased every moment.

"It must be a hurricane," said Ray.

At last we saw land close by our porthole. Directly, we were in lee of it, and we heard the anchor go overboard.

"Well, we're in some kind of a harbor," I told Ray.

"But where's the _Pearl_?" returned he.

"I hope she'll make the same harbor," I said.

The storm blew over, and broad daylight came once more. We watched continually at the window of our prison; but while we saw land all about, beaches and palms, and hills beyond, no vessel showed to us. If the _Pearl_ were near she must be off our starboard. But we were not left long in doubt.

The bolt clicked, and our door opened. Duran appeared, and four blacks, who set to work to bind our arms again to our sides. We were led up on deck.

There lay the _Pearl_, some hundreds of yards away. My heart jumped at sight of her.

Accompanied by Duran, we were hurried over the side into a boat, which set off immediately toward a beach to the south-east. We could see our friends but imperfectly on the deck of the _Pearl_, where their figures moved about in some hurry.

We were nearing the sh.o.r.e when we saw a boat put off from the _Pearl_.

Then a second boat moved out from the _Orion_, filled with blacks, bearing guns. A few minutes, and we were startled by the boom of an explosion, and smoke rose from the _Pearl_.

My heart sank. But then I saw the blacks in the water, and their boat seemed knocked to bits. The smoke dispersed, and I saw the _Pearl_ as right as ever.

"They've got a cannon," murmured Ray in my ear. "That is Norris."

The blacks swam toward the _Orion_. Duran gazed, rage in his look; and he swore roundly. He directed the men to a hurried landing. We were hustled out, pushed in among the cocoa palms, thence back into the brush. We came to a stop, and the four blacks, leaving their two guns with Duran, went back. It was doubtless to pull the boat up into concealment; for they soon appeared again, and the march was taken up.

What direction we went I had no means of knowing, but the ground gradually rose, and we came to where the undergrowth was less dense.

This proved an agreeable change--if anything in our situation could be called agreeable, for in the briars and brush, Ray's and my arms fast, as they were, we could not protect our faces from the growth, that whacked and scratched us, as we were pushed hurriedly forward.

At last, after some casting about, Duran had the blacks get down on their hands and knees and literally drag the two of us into a most dense thicket, Duran going before, cutting a way. Many yards we went thus, sc.r.a.ping the ground; and we were finally dropped at the foot of a great tree which appeared to stand alone in the midst of the thicket. Here was a small s.p.a.ce free of thicket growth; knives removed encroaching pieces of growth. Bags of food, that had been hanging by the necks of the blacks, were transferred to the low-hanging limbs of the trees, and preparations were made for some stay.

Duran crawled out of the place again, doubtless to reconnoiter.

Ray called after him as he started off on hands and knees--"Hey' there!

You!" Duran stopped and looked back. "Don't be late back for supper,"

continued Ray.

Duran cursed him and went, upon which Ray turned with a serious face on one of the blacks, he that spoke English, and said, "Your boss' Sunday School education has been neglected. What do you say we start a mission right here?"

The black grinned. It was not his first experience of Ray's drollery.

We had indeed cause for cheer--knowing that our friends were so near to us. I was now sure that they had fathomed our hidden message. We felt confident, too, that Duran would not attempt again to get us away on board the _Orion_; and that one way or another we would win back to the _Pearl_. Ray and I contrived to talk on these things, by veiling our speech beyond the comprehension of that one black listener.

"And where do you think they got their dog?" said Ray, meaning, of course, the barker--cannon.

"Back in that town, of course," I returned. "I've no doubt if we'd have gone sight-seeing, we'd found many old dogs of that species on the tumble-down ramparts."

"Just like Norris," said Ray. "And I suppose the 'skunk's' new game of 'p.u.s.s.y wants a corner' is like the old one."