Part 4 (1/2)

CHAPTER V

KIDNAPPED BY SMUGGLERS

When Hugh regained his senses, about half an hour later, he found himself lying on the bottom of a canoe, bound and gagged, staring up at the sky. The sun beat down upon him, full in his face, causing him to close his eyes until he could just see through the lashes,---a trick he had learned in many games played in the woodlands. In the present instance it served him well, for the three men who were paddling the canoe swiftly toward the mainland believed that he had not yet recovered fully from the punis.h.i.+ng they had given him; so, after their first glance, they paid little attention to the captive.

Though the threatened storm which Captain Vinton and Dave had looked for on the previous evening had given way to a mild and sunny day, the breeze was still brisk and the sea was choppy. The canoe bobbed up and down on the short waves, and Hugh was rolled from one side to the other or bounced roughly with every motion of the light craft.

He felt sick and sore, his head ached miserably, and though he had had no breakfast, the very thought of food was repugnant to him.

On the island, he mused, his friends would have discovered his discarded garments by this time, and would be calling and hallooing to him---in vain. What would they think of his prolonged absence?

That he had been drowned, or attacked by sharks, or lost in a quicksand?---what on earth would they imagine had happened to him?

And Billy? Poor Billy, he would be quite frantic over the strange disappearance of his chum! The actual state of affairs would be about the last guess to enter their minds.

Well, it could not be helped now. He would have to bide his time and await developments, trusting that his friends would not delay their coming to the rescue. Meanwhile, where were these three villains taking him against his will?

After dodging from one island or key to another, slipping along the shady sh.o.r.es, the canoe suddenly struck out across the wider stretch of water, beyond which lay the mainland. Presently it thrust its nose into the soft bank of a stream, or, rather, a sluggish water-course which made a clear channel in an ocean of waving saw-gra.s.s. The men s.h.i.+pped their paddles, stepped out, and lifted Hugh to his feet; then they dragged him ash.o.r.e.

He was able now to look about him, to see where they had landed.

A desolate spot it was, being merely an indentation in the swampy coast, a deep cove formed by two projecting arms of land which boasted of no vegetation except the tall gra.s.s and a group of stunted palmettos. Into this cove flowed a stream, and at a little distance from the mouth of the stream stood three log cabins, thatched with bundles of gra.s.s. They were all that remained of a little camp of fishermen and beach-combers, which had once shown promise of becoming a village before it had been finally abandoned to the wilderness.

From the stove-pipe chimney of one of these cabins, the largest, a thin spiral of blue smoke rose and drifted away on the breeze. This was the only sign of human occupancy. The other two dilapidated buildings might readily be imagined to shelter only spiders and snakes. Toward this habitation the smugglers now led their young captive, having first removed the gag from his mouth.

”Now you can shout an' yell all you've a mind to,” said Branks, his black eyes twinkling with grim mirth. ”Raise the roof, if you want; there won't be anybody for miles around to hear you.”

Hugh made no reply, though his quick temper was at the boiling point.

He did not believe a word of the taunt; indeed, on the way over from the island, listening to the men's talk, he had formed the opinion that they were trying to ”bluff” him, trying to impress him with the idea that he was helpless and far away from his friends.

The chief thing which puzzled him was:

Why had not the _Arrow_ given chase to the canoe if his friends had caught sight of it, as they must have done? It seemed very unlikely that no one of his party had seen the canoe stealing out across the water. Hugh did not know that Vinton, as soon as the canoe had been sighted, had given orders to go aboard the sloop at once, and that the _Arrow_ had promptly gone in pursuit, but such was the case. Only, by some accident, the sloop had struck shoal water and was now stuck fast on a sandbar, waiting for the tide to lift her afloat.

Meanwhile, approaching the hut, Branks strode forward, paused, and gave a weird, low whistle. He was answered by a similar one, and then the cabin door was opened by a man dressed in a brown flannel hunting-s.h.i.+rt, corduroy trousers, and hip boots rolled down to the knees. He stood shading his eyes with both hands, as if blinded by the sunlight on emerging from the windowless cabin.

”That you, Harry?” he inquired.

”No, it's me---Branks,” replied the other man. ”Confound your eyesight, Joe! can't you tell an honest poor cuss from a crook?”

He laughed at this merry sally, and Joe Durgan responded with a snort.

”Who you-all got thar?” was his next question, as the others came up. ”A kid, eh? What you-all doin' with _him_?” He blinked at Hugh, much as a sleepy owl blinks at a hunter who has discovered its nest.

Then a thought crossed his mind: ”O-ho! you're one o' the crowd campin' o'er yonder!”

”Right you are, Mr. Durgan!” declared Hugh with calm politeness. ”But why I've been captured and brought here, I don't quite see. I wasn't doing any harm that I know of just prowling around the islands for the fun of it,---nothing more.”

”Whar your frien's?”

”Don't know, I'm sure. They'll be over here looking for me in a short while, I guess.”