Frontier Boys in the South Seas Part 10

THE JOURNEY BEGINS.

"Well, boys," said the professor, "have you had enough breakfast?"

"I don't know whether I have had enough or not," responded Jo. "But I'm afraid I can't eat any more."

"That's bad," remarked the professor. "I'm afraid there is something wrong with you. Still, if you go on deck, perhaps you will be better by dinner time. But while we are down here you might pick out your staterooms. This is the captain's room, and this is mine. That is the engineer's room. But you can take any of the others you want."

Looking over the rooms about which there was really little choice, Jo and Tom selected one to their liking, and Juarez decided on the invitation of John Berwick to room with him as he was going to act as a.s.sistant engineer on the voyage. This left Jim with a cabin to himself.

The boys had but just settled the matter when they were startled by a series of loud and angry exclamations from the professor.

"Now, what do you think of that?" he cried, when the boys rushed into the saloon where he was standing holding up his handbag in which a long slit had been cut with a sharp knife.

"Their audacity pa.s.ses all bounds!" he went on wrathfully. "They have got it at last."

"What is lost?" asked Jim.

"The chart, the map of the island," replied the professor. "I don't know as it will do any one else much good. Besides the points of the compa.s.s it has only mystifying figures on it, but it's a bad loss for all that."

"Are you sure it is gone?" asked Jim.

"Well, it isn't here," replied the professor. "Fortunately, I can remember the lat.i.tude and longitude, which is really the important thing."

"What was the paper like?" put in Tom.

"It was just a rude chart," answered the professor. "It was in a flat box. I put it in the box to keep it safe from getting wet or worn out. I got tired of carrying it with me so I put it in the bag last night, not intending the bag should get out of my sight. And I don't know when it did."

"Looks as if we had spies all around us," said Jim.

"It certainly does," agreed the professor. "But now that we are on the yacht we will be safe."

"Humph!" muttered Tom, who had just returned to the cabin after a moment's absence, "I'm not so sure about that, but," he continued, "was the box anything like this?" He held up to their gaze a thin oblong tin box.

"Why, it looked like that!" exclaimed the professor, taking the box Tom offered to him. "Why, it is it! What are you doing with it?"

"I found it in my bag this morning," explained Tom. "I thought that it belonged to Jo, and that he had dropped it in by mistake."

"I suspect that is just what I did in an absent-minded spell this morning," said the professor. "The joke is on me, boys. Perhaps it is a lucky thing that I did it, for I think now, seeing this slit in my bag that the best thing I can do is to have you take care of it for me."

"Don't you think you had better keep it?" protested Jim.

"Not after this experience," replied the professor, holding up the cut bag. "Besides, I think it will be decidedly safer with you."

"Very well, then," replied Jo. "We will do our best to take care of it."

"I know that," said the professor.

Jo and Tom spent the morning going over the yacht getting acquainted with its equipment and with the crew. The latter were mostly Hawaiians with one Irishman, an Englishman and the Mexican steward. Juarez was busy down in the engine room with Berwick, and Jim and the professor were in consultation in the cabin over their plans to outwit Broome.

"The Marjorie of Liverpool," remarked Tom. The speaker was standing on the after deck studying the vessels in the harbor. He read the name he spoke through a pair of binoculars. It was a small steams.h.i.+p anch.o.r.ed not far from the Storm King. They had pa.s.sed it early in the morning on their way to the yacht, but he had not noticed it particularly until now.

"I wonder where she came from, and where she is going?" went on Tom.

"From Liverpool, I suppose," replied Jim, who had joined them, "and quite likely she is going back again."

"Wonder how she got way out here?" continued Tom.

"You are full of wonder to-day," laughed Jim. "Steams.h.i.+ps go anywhere and everywhere. Here comes the captain. We can ask him."

"What is it you want to know?" inquired the captain, who had overheard Jim's remark.

"We were just talking about that steams.h.i.+p there, the Marjorie, and speculating as to what she is and what she's doing here."

"It's pretty hard to tell that," replied the captain, after taking a look through the gla.s.ses. "She's English built and rigged, that's certain, but I don't know what she's doing so far from her home port."

"She has good lines and looks as though she might have speed,"

criticized Jim.

"Ay, ay, lad, ye're right there," agreed the captain. "She looks like a cross between a yacht and a trader. I suspect that is what she is, a trader."

"She seems to have a big crew for a trader," said Jim, who had been studying the vessel while talking. "And she looks as though she might carry a pretty heavy armament, too."

"Have you noticed that?" observed the captain. "Ye have a good eye, lad, and a quick mind. I was just thinking the same thing myself. I wouldn't wonder if she was doing some contraband trade down the coast. I see she is going out, soon."

"How do you know?" asked Jo.

"She is getting steam up."

"So is the Sea Eagle," exclaimed Tom. "They have started their fires.

She must be going out, too."

"Looks like it," put in Jo. "There is Broome now, with some of his men."

Pulling along close under the stern of the Marjorie, there was seen a small boat in which was Captain Broome with his chief subordinates.

"See anything of Manuel in their boat?" asked Jo.

"No," replied Tom. "He isn't in the boat. They must have left him behind."

"He must have been drowned," said Jo.

"I don't know about that," replied Tom, "but it is certain he isn't in the boat; there are four men besides the captain and on top of their other baggage is a big hamper."

"How's the engine, Mr. Berwick?" asked the professor of the engineer, calling down into the engine room.

"All right now, sir," replied the engineer. "We are just going to get up steam."