Part 51 (2/2)

Then Drew's eyes flashed and he strained at his bonds.

”You vile scoundrel!” he cried. ”If my hands were free I'd choke the life out of you!”

”So you can talk, after all?” sneered the mate, his cold eye becoming still more reptilian.

”And more than talk--give me the chance,” Drew flung back at him.

”Smart boy,” jeered the mate. ”Smart enough to translate Spanish and the pirate's old map, eh? An' now you're goin' to smart more when you see me an' my mates walk off with the doubloons,” and he laughed.

”Yes. When I do!” the young man said boldly. ”You'll be a deal older when that happens, Ditty.”

”I'll show you!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the mate, and kicked him again.

”The brute!” gasped Parmalee.

”Parmalee,” Drew said in a trembling voice, ”I never wanted the use of my hands so much as I do now. When I do get free, I shall be tempted to kill that fellow.”

”He deserves it--the double-dyed villain!” groaned Parmalee. ”And he threw me overboard.”

”I knew he must have done so,” said Drew. ”But why did he do it? Not just to put the crime on me? How were you saved and how did you get here? Let's hear it all.”

”I had overheard the rascal plotting with some of the men,” returned Parmalee. ”Ditty must have caught a glimpse of me. I suppose he felt the time was not ripe for exposure; so he put me out of the way. He must have been lurking near us that night when you fell. I was stooping to help you when he grabbed me and flung me over the rail. I didn't have time to cry out.

”I'm a good swimmer--one of the few active accomplishments I possess--and I swam as long as I could. Just as I lost strength, my hand touched a cask lashed to a grating that must have fallen from some vessel, or been thrown from it. That held me up till morning. By that time I was about all in. But just then a sloop--a turtle catcher she was--bore down on me, sighted me, and answered my frantic appeal, and picked me up. It was a terrible experience.”

”It must have been,” breathed the other. ”Go on. How did you get here to this very island where the doubloons were buried?”

”Are they here?” asked Parmalee eagerly. ”Do you know?”

”s.h.!.+” whispered Drew. ”Don't say a word. We have 'em--pecks of them!

And jewels and other stuff besides--enough to make us all as rich as Midas.”

”Humph!” commented Parmalee, with sudden gravity. ”And he had a.s.ses'

ears. I'm afraid this mess we're all in shows that we did an asinine thing in coming down here after the doubloons. What is wealth compared to life itself?”

”True,” murmured Drew. ”And what we've been through besides. But go on. Tell the rest.”

”When those turtle catchers landed here I had no idea that this island was the one marked on the pirate's map which Captain Hamilton showed me,” pursued Parmalee. ”I was treated well enough. But I happened to have no money in my pockets, and the men disbelieved my claim that I would pay them if they would get me to a civilized port! So they made me work. That was all right, but the work was too heavy for me; so I went off into the interior of the island to see if there were not some inhabitants. Then the first earthquake came. It frightened those half-breeds and negroes blue. They set off in the sloop, leaving me behind.

”Day before yesterday I came up this way. I guessed that the fortification must have been thrown up by one party from the _Bertha Hamilton_ and that this was the island we had been seeking; but hesitated to come nearer, unarmed as I was, fearing that Ditty and his gang of cut-throats were fortified here.”

”Ruth saw you,” Drew volunteered. ”She thought you were an apparition.

And so did I, this morning. But you must have had a frightful time of it.”

”I've been keeping myself alive on fruit and sh.e.l.l-fish since the turtle catchers deserted me. It's not a satisfying diet,” Parmalee said with a little laugh.

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