Dave Porter on Cave Island Part 30

"Never mind what it is!" answered Andrew Geswick, sharply. "Did you read what was on it?" he demanded, an instant later.

"We saw it was a chart," answered Dave, and looked knowingly at his chums, to make them keep silent.

"It-er-it belongs to Mr. Pardell and he is very particular about it,"

went on the Englishman. And then without another word he walked away.

"My, isn't he sweet!" muttered Phil.

"Just as sweet as a can of sour milk," answered the senator's son.

"Dave, I guess you wish you had allowed that map to blow overboard."

"Not exactly that, Roger. But he might have been a little more thankful for saving something that he thinks so valuable."

"Do you think there is anything in this treasure idea?" questioned Phil, after a pause.

"No, Phil. That is, there may be some lost treasure, secreted by the pirates and buccaneers of old, but I doubt if anybody will ever find it-excepting by accident."

"If there was a treasure on this Cave Island, we might hunt for it,"

went on the shipowner's son.

"Phil, don't let that bee get into your bonnet!" cried Roger. "Many a man has gone crazy looking for pirates' gold. Better drop it, and think of how we are to round up Merwell and Jasniff."

"Well, I'd like to go to Cave Island anyway," said Phil. "We might--"

And then he stopped short, as he saw Geswick and Pardell near by. The Englishmen had been listening to part of the conversation.

"So you'd like to go to Cave Island, would you?" cried Andrew Geswick, his face red with rage. "You take my advice and keep away from that place!"

"Say, do you own that island?" demanded Phil, getting angry because of the other's dictatorial manner.

"No, we don't own the island. But we--" Andrew Geswick stopped short as his companion plucked him by the sleeve. "Never mind, you keep away from it, that's all," he growled.

"We'll go there if we want to," called out Phil.

"If you do you may get into trouble," called back Pardell. Then he and his companion disappeared in the direction of the cabin.

"They are touchy enough," was Roger's comment. "Phil, you had better drop Cave Island after this."

"I'll talk about it as much as I please," grumbled the shipowner's son. "Those fellows make me tired. They act as if they owned the earth!"

Sunday was a quiet day on shipboard. The Englishmen did not show themselves excepting at meals, and the boys were content to leave them severely alone. They told Captain Sanders of the chart and of the talk that had occurred.

"Let them alone, lads," said the commander of the _Golden Eagle_.

"I'll venture to say that sooner or later they'll find out they are on a wild goose chase."

"The only one that seems to be anyway nice is the fellow named Giles Borden," said Dave. "He is rather quiet. The other fellow, Rumney, is almost as bad as Geswick and Pardell."

"So I've noticed, Dave. And the queer part of it is, Borden paid for the pa.s.sages. He appears to be the only one with money."

"Maybe he is backing the expedition," suggested Roger.

"I'm sorry for him if he is," answered the captain.

The Bahama Islands had been pa.s.sed, and now they were in the vicinity of Porto Rico. Then commenced the trip southward, through the Lesser Antilles.

"This is the spot for active volcanoes," observed Phil. "Don't you remember how the Island of Martinique suffered?"

"Oh, don't speak of volcanoes!" cried Roger. "I have no use for them-or for earthquakes either."

"There must be hundreds of islands around here," observed Dave. "The charts are full of them."

"That must make navigation difficult," came from Phil.

"Oh, I reckon Captain Sanders knows what he is about."

"Wonder how soon we'll run into the harbor at Bridgetown?" mused the shipowner's son, the place he mentioned being the main seaport of Barbados.

"Inside of three days, I hope, Phil," answered our hero.

"Merwell and Jasniff must be there by this time."

"It's more than likely-unless something happened to delay them,"

returned Dave.

At last came the day when they sighted Barbados and ran into the harbor of Bridgetown. The place was a picturesque one, but the boys had just then no time to view the scenery or the shipping. As soon as it could be accomplished, they went ash.o.r.e, and Captain Sanders went with them, leaving his vessel in charge of the first mate.

"You may have trouble with those two rascals, if you find them," said the commander of the _Golden Eagle_. "I'll be on deck to help you all I can."

"Shall we go to the hotel first?" questioned Roger.

"Might as well," answered Phil. "They'd strike for the hotel first thing, after a sea trip like that. Maybe they were both seasick."

"I hope they were-it would serve them right," growled the senator's son.

Dave and the captain were willing, and a little later walked into the Royal George Hotel. Here the boys looked at the register, but found no names that they could recognize. Then Dave brought out his photographs of Merwell and Jasniff and showed them to the hotel proprietor and his clerk.

"n.o.body here that looks like either of them," said the proprietor, while his clerk also shook his head.

"They came in on the _Emma Brower_," said Captain Sanders.

"The _Emma Brower_!" cried the hotel man. "Is she in?"

"Why, I suppose so," and now the commander of the _Golden Eagle_ showed his surprise.

"She wasn't in last night, and the agents were a bit worried about her. I know the agents personally, you see."

"Then maybe she isn't in yet!" cried Dave. "Let us go down to the docks and find out about this."

They lost no time in visiting the docks and the shipping offices.

There they learned that nothing had been heard of the _Emma Brower_ since the vessel had left Jacksonville.