The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island Part 23

"All right, Jack, just as you say," and d.i.c.k bent his back so that his companion could get upon his shoulders, and then straightened up slowly, Jack holding on by some of the projections in the rock and going up with him, being able to reach a bit higher when Percival was at his full height and saying, with some satisfaction:

"That is fine, d.i.c.k. I should reach the top now. Catch me if I come tumbling down, however."

"I don't think you will, Jack. You are a regular cat to keep your feet, and I guess you are all right."

Clinging with toes and fingers to the rock and going up inch by inch, Jack at length reached a point whence it was easier climbing, and here he advanced more rapidly than before, Percival watching him closely, and standing ready to catch him in case he happened to lose his footing.

Jack did not, however, and at last, as he reached the top of the rock, threw himself forward and found himself on a flat, but somewhat rough surface a few yards in extent with higher rocks on one side, but nothing in front of him.

Beyond, at some little distance, there were other rocks, but he judged that if he went to the edge of the rock to which he had climbed he might see something, and he, therefore, crept along cautiously for fear of being seen, until he reached the edge.

Here he looked over and saw that there was water below him, quite a good sized cove, in fact, which ran up from the sh.o.r.e to a considerable distance, apparently, but had a turn a few rods farther up in sh.o.r.e.

Looking the other way Jack could see the bay in which they lay, and said to himself:

"That is the way they could come, but now let us see if they did, and if there is room beyond for a vessel of any size to pa.s.s."

The higher ma.s.s of rock on his left prevented his going much farther, however, and he was thinking that he might be obliged to climb to the top of this, being unable to get around it, when he heard a suspicious sound below him, and lay flat on his face, peering cautiously over the edge.

There were some bushes and coa.r.s.e gra.s.s here and these hid him somewhat from observation, while they did not prevent his seeing anything going on below.

The sound he had heard was the splash of oars and the hum of voices, and in a few moments he saw a boat containing two men appear around a corner of the higher rock, which descended sheer to the water's edge, and make its way slowly toward the open bay.

"I tell you there is one, Davis," Jack heard one of the men say, recognizing the voice as that of the man with the white mustache, as he always thought of him, and not as his stepfather.

In fact, he had long since repudiated any relationship whatever with the man, and regarded him as a stranger who had come into his life without any wish of his own, and whom he would willingly put out of it, and be satisfied never to see or hear of again.

"But weren't you in here the other night when I signaled?" asked the other man, who was rowing. "You answered and told me to come in."

"Me?" with a laugh. "I tell you I was not. I don't know the way in any more than you, though I know that there is one."

"But I saw lights, and I got flashes from some one on deck, in the regular code, too."

"They were from the deck of this yacht I told you of, and I will show her to you if you are patient. Go easy, though, for we may come in sight of her at any moment."

"But how about the signals I got? How could any one know I was out there, and how would they know the code?"

"They got you by accident, perhaps, and then were smart enough to take your signals and answer them. I know a boy who is clever enough for that.

He is on the yacht, too. She has a lot of schoolboys who are on a trip to these seas. They were carried in here by a tidal wave, and now cannot get out, not knowing the pa.s.sage."

"Well, I don't know it myself, and I never would have come in only for finding a pilot who knows the ins and outs of all the islands in the Caribbean, but if I noticed any lights when I came in I must have thought they were yours."

The men rowed on out of sight, for Jack did not care to lean over too far, partly from fear of falling and partly because he might be seen if any one else should happen to pa.s.s that way.

There had a vessel come into the bay, then, and she was now probably up the cove out of sight, and the man in the boat with the other was her captain.

"That is the man whose vessel I signaled the other night," thought Jack.

"Rollins must have come over to this side and met him. They know each other, it seems. Birds of a feather flock together."

Not caring to expose himself to the risk of being seen by the men when they returned, Jack now crept back to the other side of the rock and began to descend carefully, Percival being at length able to help him.

"Well, Jack," said the latter when his friend was safe on the ground, "did you discover anything!"

"Yes, I did," and Jack told him briefly what he had seen and heard.

"H'm! then there was a vessel coming in last night, and old Ben was not mistaken?" exclaimed Percival.

"No, he was not, and she is in a cove somewhere on the other side of the rocks. I don't know how far up it goes, but there is one there. I could not see the vessel either."

"We must try to find it, Jack."

"Yes, and we must get around these rocks. There is no way of getting to the cove this way, unless we climb another high rock, and it is dangerous and we might be seen also."

"Then let's look for another way."

They went back for a distance, and then began clambering over ma.s.ses of other rocks they came to, getting higher and higher, but at last coming to a great ma.s.s of ledge rock, which rose sheer above their heads for twenty feet without a single projection upon which they could rest their feet and without a crevice where they might get a finger hold.

"There is no use trying to get up there, Jack," murmured Percival in disgust. "A goat could not climb up there. Nothing without wings could manage it, in fact."

"No, there is clearly no getting around this way, d.i.c.k. We shall have to go back and try some other place. There is a vessel on the other side of those rocks, but how to get a sight of her is the question. I think we would better try to find the head of the cove."

They went back, therefore, to where they had tried to ascend the rocks, and pushed on toward the interior of the island, finding the way difficult, but at length getting clear of the rocks and after struggling through a perfect jungle coming out upon one of the paths they had themselves made in their explorations.

"Well, we know where we are now!" exclaimed Percival with considerable satisfaction, "but we seem to be no nearer the head of the cove than before. What are you going to do, Jack?"

"Look for the cove," said Jack tersely.

"All right, my boy, I am with you," said d.i.c.k with a chuckle, as if the idea was a most amusing one.

"Seems funny, doesn't it?" said Jack, smiling. "Well, we have had a lot of trouble, I admit, but you are not the one to give up when you undertake a task, and you know that I do not like to."

"Not only that you don't like to, Jack, but that you don't do it."

They set out toward the sh.o.r.e again, determined to find the cove if it were a possible thing, and looking for every possible clue to its whereabouts, and plunging into what seemed the most impa.s.sable thickets in their efforts, halting at nothing, in fact.

"We should have brought axes, Jack," muttered Percival in disgust, as both boys paused at length, tired and hot in a little glade where the way was clearer than before, and yet having no a.s.surance that they were anywhere near the place they sought.

"Yes, but that is just like a couple of boys who are bound to do a thing and don't make all their calculations ahead. Our hind thought is better than our forethought, d.i.c.k."

"Yes, but we could not think of everything. I think we have done pretty well, considering."

"Yes, I suppose so, but it rather takes the conceit out of a fellow to meet with so many obstacles. Why, I always thought I was good in making my way through tangled woods, but I begin to think that I am not."

"There is one thing you have forgotten, Jack. We are in the tropics, the woods here are regular jungles and the temperature is something considerably above what you have been used to. You must not scold yourself too much, Jack. I think we have done very well--'sh, what's that!" in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, and looking around him with alarm.

"Some one coming, d.i.c.k. Hide, quick!"