The Blue Grass Seminary Girls on the Water Part 39

"I guess they are coming at last," he said.

The three watched the approach of the boat eagerly. At last it came close enough to make out the occupants. There was not a woman aboard.

Cries of alarm issued from the lips of the three watchers. At the same moment there came another blast from the steamer's siren.

"They are not in the boat!" exclaimed d.i.c.k. "What shall we do?"

Mr. Willing did not stop to reply. He hurried toward the bridge where Captain Anderson stood, ready to give the signal to up-anchor immediately the small boat was hoisted aboard.

Mr. Willing, closely followed by Colonel Ashton and d.i.c.k, rushed up to him.

"Captain!" exclaimed Mr. Willing. "My daughter and the colonel's daughter and Mrs. Sebastian are still ash.o.r.e. They are not in the last boat. What is to be done?"

The captain turned the matter over in his mind.

"We should be on our way now," he replied at last. "I am afraid we shall have to go without them."

Mr. Willing let out a roar of protest.

"No you don't!" he cried. "You can't go and leave my daughter behind like that."

"Well, what would you have me do?" asked the captain.

"Wait!" was the reply. "Wait for them!"

The captain looked at his watch.

"It's five thirty now," he said. "I shall wait until six thirty."

With this the others were forced to be content.

"If they haven't come then, we'll have the captain set us ash.o.r.e," said the colonel.

The pa.s.sengers from the last boat came over the side, and Mr. Willing questioned them eagerly. None had seen any sign of the missing ones.

d.i.c.k, gazing over the rail, uttered a cry and pointed across the water.

A boat was putting off from sh.o.r.e and coming toward the steamer.

"I guess they are coming at last," said Colonel Ashton. "I'll read Mabel a lecture when she gets here."

As the boat approached closer it became evident that it had but a single occupant; and as it drew still nearer, that the occupant was a young native.

Captain Anderson hailed him through his megaphone.

"What do you want?" he shouted in Spanish.

"Message for Senor Willing!" came the reply.

Five minutes later, bowing and sc.r.a.ping, the boy put a message into Mr.

Willing's hands.

The latter tore it open quickly and his eyes devoured the words in a moment. Then he gave a cry of rage.

"What's the matter?" asked Colonel Ashton and d.i.c.k in a single voice.

For reply, Mr. Willing read them the contents of the letter-a demand for $20,000 if the girls were ever to be seen again.

Mr. Willing and the others rushed again toward the captain on the bridge. The captain read the letter gravely.

"I wish I could help you, sir," he said at last. "But it is impossible.

I must get under way within half an hour.

"Hey! Where you going?" This last to the native boy who had suddenly leaped into the water, climbed into his boat and was making off toward the sh.o.r.e.

"Get him!" cried the captain to his first officer.

One of the _Yucatan's_ boats put off and gave chase.

But the distance was too great to overtake the fugitive, and it was soon apparent that he would make his escape.

"If we had laid hold of him we might have learned something," said Captain Anderson. "He knows where the girls are. But it's too late now."

"What can we do?" demanded Mr. Willing anxiously.

"My advice," said the captain, "is that you stay behind and put the matter in the hands of the American consul. He can tell you better what to do than I can."

"Where did the message say to leave the money, Willing?" asked Colonel Ashton.

Mr. Willing pa.s.sed him the letter.

"Nine o'clock, southeast corner San Francisco street, Tuesday. Check payable to Miguel Martinez will do. Come alone," read the colonel.

"H-m-m, must have lots of confidence in themselves if they can use a check."

"Now gentlemen," said Captain Anderson, "the best I can do is to set you ash.o.r.e. I must get under way immediately. I'm sorry, but I have my other pa.s.sengers to think of."

Mr. Willing acknowledged the justice of this.

"Give us ten minutes to get some things together and a boat to set us ash.o.r.e then," he said.

The captain consented, and d.i.c.k and the two men hastened to their cabins, where they gathered what few belongings they could.

"We'll have the captain dispose of the rest in Frisco," said the colonel. "We'll get them when we get there."

This the captain agreed to do, and ten minutes later the three were rus.h.i.+ng sh.o.r.eward in the steamer's powerful gasoline launch. Immediately they clambered out, the launch put back to the s.h.i.+p.

"Reckon we had better go straight to the consulate, colonel," said Mr.

Willing.