The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island Part 18

"My word! I believe the fellow takes our lights for the smuggler's, and thinks that he is in here. It would be just the place for him. By Jove! I have a mind to answer him myself, and get him in here. Then we could get out. Even if a smuggler takes us out that is better than waiting."

His pocket flash was in a convenient place, and he quickly got it out and flashed out through the port:

"In the bay. Come inside."

After sending this message he waited a few minutes, and then saw the reply being flashed to him:

"Cannot. Don't know the pa.s.sage. Come out"

"H'm! that's too bad," muttered Jack. "I was in hope I could get him in here. I'd like to know--I guess I'd better see the captain."

Partly dressing himself he hurried on deck, and looked for the light, but could see nothing.

An anchor watch was kept, or supposed to be at least, but Jack saw the man on deck fast asleep on a bench against the house on deck instead of keeping a lookout as he was supposed to do.

He could not see any vessel's light out at sea, and saw no more flashes, although he looked for them for several minutes.

"Well, I can't go to waking the captain in the middle of the night," he said, "and it is likely this fellow has gone. It is simply another disappointment. I think I'll go to bed."

CHAPTER XIV

THE MAN WITH THE WHITE MUSTACHE

In the morning Jack told the captain, Dr. Wise, and a few of his most intimate friends among the boys under the promise of keeping it quiet, the strange event of the previous night, asking the doctor if he had done right in not calling the captain.

"If you had aroused me I would probably have been mad," chuckled the captain, "and could not have done anything anyhow. It is clear that there is a way in here, although we don't know it, and that this fellow you saw signaling mistook our lights for those of one of his evil a.s.sociates. I'd like to watch him, but there is no use in crying over spilled milk, and you did all right in not calling me."

"It is all very singular," said the doctor, knitting his brows. "Of course we would like to get out of here, but as to seeking the a.s.sistance of a smuggler----"

"I'd as soon go out under his escort as that of any one else," laughed Storms, "although we might get in trouble afterward if a government vessel happened to see us in company with smugglers. Well, I guess it won't be long now before the relief steamer comes, but----"

"But they may not know the way in, and we are as badly off as before,"

finished the doctor. "I don't see that we have advanced any, except, perhaps, to let people know where we are."

"And you think there is little satisfaction in that?" with a grin. "We might be worse off, however, so I guess we had better wait and trust to good luck. Clever game, that of Jack's, wasn't it, stealing the fellow's despatches?"

"Why, yes, clever in a way," admitted the doctor, glaring at the captain through his big black-rimmed gla.s.ses, "but does it not savor somewhat of--h'm--of deception? Pretending to be one person when he was another, and quite a different one, by the way?"

"But he did not pretend to be anybody. He simply flashed a message, and if that fellow outside took him for another person it was not Mr. Sheldon's fault. All is fair in love and war, you know."

"H'm! so I have heard, but as I have been in neither I cannot say whether it is so or not. However, I am not accusing you, Sheldon, you understand?

I suppose, under the circ.u.mstances, that what you did was perfectly justifiable. At any rate, we shall not have to wait for this person to come and take us out. But where was the person to whom he was sending signals? You did not see him, Captain?"

"No, indeed, and I wonder that my man on deck did not see them. Asleep, I'll warrant. That means loss of sh.o.r.e liberty to him for some time. The other fellow was not here, of course. How could he get in?"

"I believe there is a way, sir," spoke up Jack, "and that this place is used as a retreat for smugglers. If not just here, then some part of the island. How about the calf we saw? I thought at the time that there were people here, but did not think of smugglers."

"Why, I guess you've been reading about Captain Kidd and Blackbeard and those old pirates, and have got your head full of secret lairs and all that sort of stuff."

"Oh, no," smiled Jack in reply, "but evil men hide in woods and mountains and all sorts of odd places as much now as they did in the old days. There is just as much of this in modern times as there was in the old, but it is accompanied with greater danger."

"Yes, I reckon it is. At any rate, I'd like to get hold of these rascals.

There'll be a pretty big reward for them, I fancy."

The boys left the cabin and during the afternoon Jack, d.i.c.k and young Smith set out for a stroll over the island, taking one of the paths already made, so as not to subject the younger boy to too much trouble.

"I hardly think these smugglers are on the island," said Jack, as they walked on, "or, at least, I don't think that they got in through the reefs. They could have landed on the other side, although there are many difficulties connected with it, not to say dangers. You remember the rocks, d.i.c.k? And there is a good deal of surf there also. One would need to be careful in making it. A vessel could lie to, of course, while boats landed the men, and that has probably been done."

"Yes, I suppose so," said Percival carelessly, thinking of other things at the moment, and not paying much attention.

The boys walked on without paying much attention to where they were going, young Smith being greatly pleased at being with the older boys, but at length Jack stopped, looked around him, and said with the least bit of alarm in his tone:

"H'm! I believe we are where Billy was treed by the calf the other day or pretty near it, at any rate. We thought there might be people in the neighborhood, but we did not see them."

"I suppose it might be as well to go back," said Percival. "It would not be pleasant to run across a lot of half-civilized natives to say nothing of smugglers."

"No, it would not," and at that instant there was a rustling in the bushes not far away, and two men stepped out, the singular appearance of one of them causing Jack to turn suddenly pale.

This man was of good height and build and evidently quite strong, and was, besides, a person of superior intellect if not of the best tendencies, as his face indicated, but what attracted most attention was the fact that while his mustache was snowy white his hair and eyebrows were quite dark, this making him noticeable in a moment.

"You here, George----"

"Rollins," said the other, evidently thinking that Jack was about to p.r.o.nounce another name, which was the fact. "Yes, I am here. It is safer than back in New York state or any of the states, in fact. May I ask what you are doing in this part of the world! I am as much surprised to see you here as you are to see me," and the man made a sudden quick signal with his left hand.

Jack heard a rustle behind him, and turned quickly, but not soon enough to escape the quick rush of three big, strong, bearded men who sprang upon him and his companions and held them fast.

"What does this mean, George--Rollins?" asked Jack, hesitating at p.r.o.nouncing the name, "Who are these men!"

"Friends of mine," laughed the man with the white mustache. "Business partners I might say."

"The majority of your business partners get in jail or are shot by the police, Mr. Rollins," said Jack. "Are these the same sort? What business are you in now?" and then a look of intelligence shot across the boy's face, as he remembered that Rollins was the name of the smuggler he had but recently heard mentioned.

The other saw this look, and said with an evil glance:

"I think you have heard the name before. What are you doing here? You are in the government service, you and your boy friends? What is this uniform you wear?"

"That of the students of the Hilltop Academy. You knew that I was one of them, for on the occasion of our last meeting----"

"I say, Jack," said Percival suddenly, "this is the man who was concerned in the robbery of the Riverton Bank, your----" and the boy suddenly paused, a deep flush on his face.

"His father, you were going to say," laughed the other, an evil look crossing his countenance. "Yes, you are quite right, I am----"

"You are not!" cried Jack hotly. "You married my mother a year or so after my own father's death, and made her life miserable, but that does not make you my father, and you well know that I have never admitted your claim. No court would admit it. Courts? You take good care to keep away from all of them, Mr. Rollins, as you choose to call yourself."

"Take them away," said the man with the white mustache. "Let no harm come to them. I don't understand why they are on the island, but it would be awkward if any of their friends should know of our presence here. Don't let them get away, but don't hurt them."