The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island Part 8

"Not pieces of eight, Jack?" asked Percival with a broad grin.

"No, American twenties and tens, and a few English sovereigns," said Jack, taking out a handful of the coins. "Why, there's more than a hundred dollars right in my fist."

"And a lot of bags, too, Jack," and Percival bent over and looked into the chest. "There must be thousands of dollars there, Jack."

"Yes, if they all contain gold. Take care of this one, d.i.c.k, while----"

At that moment there was a sudden heavy sound outside, and both boys started up in surprise.

"What's that, d.i.c.k?"

"I don't know, but I don't like it."

"There is no water coming in?"

"Not that I can see."

The sound was repeated, louder than before, and Percival said nervously, while his cheek was noticed to have perceptibly paled:

"Let us get out of here, Jack. I am frightened, I admit. If anything should happen to you I would never forgive myself."

He closed the lid of the chest with his foot, caught Jack by the arm, and said as he hurried away:

"I don't know what it is, but I am not taking any risks."

They hurried along the pa.s.sage by which they had entered the cabin, reached the hole in the bow by which they had entered and then, as Percival turned on his flashlight, which he had extinguished after entering the cabin aft, they hurried forward toward the hole in the rocks.

"There is no water here, d.i.c.k, at any rate," said Jack.

"No, there is not, but I can't think what made--h.e.l.lo!"

"What's the matter, d.i.c.k?"

"Where is the way up? I can't find it. The pa.s.sage was not a wide one, was it? We cannot have gone astray?"

"No, I don't see how we could," muttered Jack, as he looked around him, the place being well lighted by d.i.c.k's flash. "h.e.l.lo! I see what the trouble is, and now I know what the noise was."

"Well?" asked Percival.

"Some of the rocks have fallen in, d.i.c.k. That was what made the noise.

Here is our rope. We are in the right place, therefore. The way up is closed, however. Or, at any rate, it is closed here, but I don't believe----"

"The rocks were not loose, were they, Jack?"

"I did not notice that they were, and there has been no rain to send them down. They must have been loose, however. How else could they have tumbled in?"

"I don't know, unless some one took a bar or a pole, and sent them down that way."

"Nonsense, d.i.c.k! Who would do that?"

"I know plenty who would do it. Who pushed you into the ravine, back at Hilltop at the risk of your life?"

"Yes, but there is no one around, and no one knew where we were going. You don't suspect little Jesse W., do you?"

"No, indeed," said Percival, with a hearty laugh, "but some one has seen us go down here, and they have thrown down the rocks to make it harder for us to get out."

"It does not seem likely, d.i.c.k," said Jack in a doubting tone. "There was no one about, and we are the only ones who know the place. We said nothing about it, and young Smith will keep quiet. Come, that is hardly worth thinking of. Let us see how we can get out. There must be some way."

d.i.c.k turned his light this way and that, and Jack lighted a match, saying with a significant chuckle:

"That is all very well, but this is better for our purpose. Watch!"

The flame presently began to flicker, and indicated the presence of a draught of air, Jack noticing the direction whence it came, said:

"Try this way, d.i.c.k. There is a draught which makes the flame flicker. Try the axe on the rocks and see if you can loosen them, or, better yet, see if there isn't a fissure somewhere."

"Yes, there is," said Percival, climbing a ma.s.s of rock somewhat to one side of where the others had fallen. "Yes, I see it, Jack."

Between them, working with the axe and their hands, the boys opened up a pa.s.sage between the rocks wide enough for them to crawl through, and in a few minutes were on the top of the wooded point only a few yards from where they had entered the strange place.

"The boat's gone, Jack!" exclaimed Percival.

CHAPTER VIII

DISCUSSING THE FIND

The boys could see the water and the bank from where they stood, and d.i.c.k had been the first to notice that the boat was not where they had left it before going down into the buried wreck.

"I suppose it might have drifted away," said Jack. "The warp could have become loosened."

"Yes, it could have done so," sputtered Percival, "but it did not do so without help. The same fellows who tumbled the rocks into the hole took away the boat. I have an idea who they were. I spoke pretty sharp to Herring the other day, and he has probably been nursing his wrath ever since."

"You are too suspicious, d.i.c.k, and--h.e.l.lo! did you bring that bag with you?" for the first time noticing that Percival had the bag of coin which he himself had handed to his friend.

"Yes, you told me to take care of it, and I did," and Percival put the bag in the outside pocket of his jacket. "Well have to hail the yacht, old chap. We can make our way in that direction along the top of the bank. It is not such bad going, and then we have the axe if it is necessary to cut our way through the undergrowth."

They set out along the top of the bank, keeping a lookout for the vessel, now and then having to cut their way on account of the thickness of the growth, which was often as high as their waists.

"The rocks could not have fallen in by themselves, and the boat gotten adrift at the same time," muttered Percival as they went on. "Both of these things were done by some one who wished to annoy us. Watch and see how some of the fellows look when we get back."

"Very well, I will, but I don't see why any one should have done it, perhaps both of these things were accidents."

"Either one of them might have been, but is it likely that both were, and that they happened at the same time? Of course not. You will find that Herring or Merritt, or perhaps both, have had a hand in it. They don't like you, and do everything to hurt you, and they don't care any more for me than they do for you. Bother this tangle! It keeps you busy every moment. I believe things grow up here in a night. There will be bare rocks one day and a regular forest on them the next. It beats all how things do grow in these tropical islands!"

Keeping on, now in sight of the water, and then having to leave it on account of the thickness of the jungle, they pushed on till they saw the yacht lying at anchor.