Part 39 (1/2)

CHAPTER XXVI

HOPE DEFERRED

There was a wild babble of questions and answers, and it was a long time before all had calmed down enough to talk coherently.

The captain and Tyke in their frantic search had come just abreast of the outlet at the moment when Ruth and Allen had burst out into daylight and safety.

Their hearts thrilled as they listened to the dreadful perils through which had pa.s.sed the two who were dearest to them on earth and the narration was punctuated with expressions of consternation and sympathy.

”Well now,” suggested Ruth after a half hour had pa.s.sed, ”let's get back to work.”

”No more work this afternoon,” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain. ”You're going straight back to the s.h.i.+p.”

”Indeed I'm not, Daddy,” rejoined Ruth. ”I'm all right now and I'll be vastly happier sitting here and seeing you go on with the work than to feel I've made you lose a day. We've got some hours of daylight yet.”

The captain protested, but Ruth coaxed and wheedled him till he consented and they all went back to the ditch they had started and went to work, Ruth alone of the party being forbidden to lift a finger.

They excavated to the volcanic ledge in half a dozen places. In none did they find a trace of treasure--not a sign that this soil had ever before been disturbed by the hand of man.

”Bad mackerel!” grumbled Captain Hamilton, finally climbing out of his last pit. ”This looks as if we'd been handed a rotten deal from a cold deck.”

Tyke looked up from his work, and began:

”Mebbe that--Now, if I was superst.i.tious--Oh, well,” he went on hastily, ”you can't expect to find a fortune in a minute.”

”But we got the bearings all right, according to the map, didn't we?”

demanded the captain with some asperity.

”We certainly did,” Drew put it.

”We can't dig over the whole island,” complained Captain Hamilton. ”It would be foolish. Hus.h.!.+ What's that?”

A rumble, a sound from the very bowels of the hill, smote upon their ears. Ruth ran to them.

”Oh, Daddy!” she cried, ”is there going to be another earthquake?”

”Look there!” Drew said pointing upward.

Over the summit of the whale's hump hung a balloon of smoke, or of steam, its underside of a lurid hue.

”I say I've had enough for one day,” declared the master of the _Bertha Hamilton_. ”Let's get back to the schooner before anything else occurs. Maybe a night's sleep will put heart in us. But I tell you right now, I, for one, would sell my share in the pirate's treasure at a big discount.”

The captain was the most outspoken of the treasure seekers; but they were all despondent. They hid their digging tools, and departed for the sh.o.r.e of the lagoon, the volcano rumbling at times behind them.

They emerged from the forest just as the sun was setting. As they came out on the beach they were surprised to see that it was bare. Neither the longboat nor the smaller one was in sight, nor could anything be seen of the crews.

The captain called some of the men by name. There was no response.

Then he cupped his hands at his mouth, and his stentorian voice rang over the waters of the lagoon.