Part 24 (1/2)

That's what Wally and I are going to do.”

”Oh, but boys are so different; aren't they, Inez?”

”It matters not to me. A few things are all I have.”

The Spanish girl looked helplessly and almost hopelessly at the opened valise. And then, as Jack and Walter went out to and what they could learn by cautious questions, the two girls ”tidied up” the room, and went to tell Bess and Belle the news.

Jack and Walter could learn but little. Senor Ramo had departed suddenly, alleging a business call as an excuse for leaving the island on a steamer that sailed soon after the arrival of the one he had come in on. That was about all that could be safely learned.

Little else could be done, now, toward making plans for the rescue of the father of Inez. When Mr. Robinson was located, he might have something to suggest, but now all energies must be bent on the rescue work.

The news soon spread through the hotel that the ”amazing Americans”

were about to undertake a most desperate venture--that of cruising about in the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, in search of their relatives who might have been able to save themselves from the wrecked s.h.i.+p. After a first glance at the map, and a consideration of the situation, Jack had voted for the inside, or Caribbean route, as being less likely to offer danger from storms.

Satisfactory arrangements for chartering the Tartar were made, and the engineer, Joe Alcandor, was engaged to look after the machinery, which, on the Tartar, was not a little complicated.

”With him along we can be more at ease,” said Cora.

”Yes, we won't always have to be worrying that one of the cylinders is missing, or that a new spark plug is needed,” added Bess.

”Oh, I do hope we can soon start!” sighed Belle. ”This suspense is terrible!”

Indeed, it was not easy for any of them, but perhaps Walter and Jack found it less irksome, for they were very busy preparing for the cruise.

Plans were made to leave some of their baggage at the hotel in San Juan, and the rest would be taken with them. A goodly supply of provisions and stores were put aboard, and a complete account of the events leading up to the cruise, including the story of the missing Ralcanto papers, was written out and forwarded to Mr. Robinson's lawyers in New York.

”That's in case of accident to us,” said Jack.

”Oh, don't speak of accidents!” cried Cora.

The last arrangements were completed. Jack made final and guarded inquiries, concerning Ramo, but learned nothing. Then, one fine, sunny morning in December, the little party of motor girls and their friends, who had so often made motor boat trips on the lakes or streams of their own country, set off in the Tartar for a cruise on waters blue.

”All aboard!” cried Jack, with an a.s.sumption of gaiety he did not feel.

”Oh, I wonder what lies before us?” murmured Cora.

”Courage, Senorita! Perhaps--happiness,” said Inez, softly.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SHARK

Looking at a map of the West Indies, the reader, if he or she will take that little trouble, will see that the many islands lay in a sort of curved hook, extending from Cuba, the largest, down to Tobago, one of the smallest, just off Trinidad. In fact, Trinidad is a little off-set of the end of the hook, and, for the purpose of this ill.u.s.tration, need not be considered.

The problem, then, that confronted the motor girls, and, no less, Jack and Walter, was to cruise in among these islands, in the hope of finding, on one of them, Mrs. Kimball, and Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, who, by great good fortune, might have been able to save themselves from the wreck of the Ramona.

Looking at the map again, which is the last time I shall trouble you to do so, the problem might not seem so hard, for there are not so many islands shown. The difficulty is that few maps show all of them, and even on the best of navigating maps there may be one or two that are not charted. The s.h.i.+pwrecked ones, providing they lived to get off on a life raft, or in a boat, might as likely have been driven to one of these little islands, as to a larger one.

”But we can cut out a lot of them,” said Jack, when they were in the cozy cabin of the Tartar, and he and his sister, with the others, were bending over the charts.

”It's like this,” Jack went on, pointing with a pencil to where Porto Rico was shown, in shape and proportion not unlike a building brick.