The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle Part 38

"He came at me in my sleep," cried Bahama Bill. "He had something in a little white paper and he was trying to put it into my mouth when I woke up an' caught him. I think he was going to poison me!" And he leaped forward and caught the prisoner by the throat.

"Le--let up!" gasped the deck hand. "It--it's all a mis--mistake! I wasn't going to poi--poison anybody."

"Maybe he vos poison does sandwiches, doo," suggested Hans. "I mean dose dot made Bahama Pill sick."

"Like as not he did," growled the old tar. "He's a bad one, he is!" And he shook the deck hand as a dog shakes a rat.

"He is surely in league with Sid Merrick," said Anderson Rover. He faced Walt Wingate sternly. "Do you dare deny it?"

At first Wingate did deny it, but when threatened with severe punishment unless he told the whole truth, he confessed.

"I used to know Sid Merrick years ago," he said. "He used me for a tool, he did. When we met at Na.s.sau he told me what he wanted done and I agreed to do it, for some money he gave me and for more that he promised me."

"And what did you agree to do?" asked Anderson Rover.

"I agreed to get a job as a deck hand if I could and then, on the sly, cripple the yacht so she couldn't reach Treasure Isle as quick as the _Josephine_--the steamer Merrick is on. Then I also promised to make Bahama Bill sick if possible, so he couldn't go ash.o.r.e and show you where the cave was. I wasn't going to poison him. The stuff I used was given to me by Merrick, who bought it at a drug store in Na.s.sau. He said it would make Bahama Bill sleepy--dopy, he called it."

"Did he tell you what the stuff was?"

"No."

"Then it may be poison after all," said Captain Barforth. "You took a big risk in using it, not to say anything about the villainy of using anything."

"Oh, jest let me git at him, cap'n!" came from Bahama Bill, who was being held back by Fred and Songbird. "I'll show him wot I think o'

sech a measly scoundrel!" And he shook his brawny fist at the prisoner.

"I'm sorry now I had anything to do with Merrick," went on Walt Wingate. "He always did lead me around by the nose."

"Well, he has led many others that way," answered Anderson Rover, remembering the freight robbers.

"I am willing to do anything I can to make matters right," went on Wingate.

"O' course you are, now you're caught," sneered Bahama Bill.

"Can you tell us if the _Josephine_ was coming to this spot?"

asked Captain Barforth.

"Is this the south side of the isle?"

"Yes."

"Well, Captain Sackwell said he knew of a landing place on the north side of Treasure Isle, and he was bound for that spot."

"The north side!" cried Anderson Rover. He looked at Captain Barforth.

"Can they have tricked us?" he asked.

"I never heard o' any landing on that side," said Bahama Bill. "But then I never visited the place but onct, as I told ye afore."

"Did the Spaniard Doranez know of the landing on the north side?"

questioned Songbird.

"So he told Merrick," answered Wingate. "He said he was the one to speak of the isle first, for he had visited it half a dozen times during his voyages among the West Indies."

"Then they may be on the north side of the island now!" cried Fred.

After that Walt Wingate was questioned closely and he told all he knew about Merrick and his plans. He was very humble, and insisted upon it that he had meant to do no more than put Bahama Bill into a sound sleep.

"Well, you are a dangerous character," said Captain Barforth. "For the present I am going to keep you a prisoner," and a few minutes later he had Wingate handcuffed and placed under lock and key in a small storeroom. The deck hand did not like this, but he was thankful to escape a worse fate.

Anxious to know if the _Josephine_ was anywhere in the vicinity of the isle, some of those on board the _Rainbow_ ascended one of the masts and attempted to look across the land. But a hill shut off the view.

"We'll have to wait until morning," said Mr. Rover, and was about to go down to the deck when something attracted his attention. It was a strange shaft of light shooting up from along the trees in the center of Treasure Isle.

"A searchlight!" he cried. "Somebody is on sh.o.r.e, and it must be Merrick with his crowd." And this surmise was correct, as we already know.

CHAPTER XXIV

A MISSING LANDMARK

The searchlight was watched with interest for fully quarter of an hour.

It was, of course, visible only now and then, but from the shafts of light seen, those on the steam yacht were certain somebody was moving from the north side of the isle to the location of the treasure cave.

"We ought to head them off, if possible," declared Anderson Rover.

"Should that be Merrick's crowd and they meet my sons there will surely be trouble!"

"Let us go ash.o.r.e without delay!" said Songbird, who was sorry he had not accompanied the Rover boys.

"That's what I say!" added Fred. "We can take plenty of lights."

"I vos not von pit sleepy," declared Hans. "I go kvick, of you said so, Mr. Rofer."

"If yo' go, don't forgit Aleck!" pleaded the colored man.

"You shall go, Aleck," answered Mr. Rover, who knew he could depend upon the colored man in any emergency.

"I hope you find d.i.c.k, and Tom and Sam," said Dora. "It was foolish for them to go off alone."

"And don't let Merrick hurt anybody," pleaded Nellie.

It was quickly decided that the party to go ash.o.r.e should be composed of Mr. Rover, Bahama Bill, Aleck, and the three boys. Nearly everybody went armed, and the party carried with them a small electric searchlight, run by a "pocket" battery, and two oil lanterns. They also took with them some provisions, and a pick, a shovel and a crowbar, for Bahama Bill said there might be some digging to do to get at the treasure.

Had it not been for the small searchlight it would have been next to impossible to find the opening through the reef during the night. But the light was all that was needed, and they came through with little more than a shower of spray touching them. Bahama Bill and Mr. Rover rowed the boat and soon brought the craft to a point where they disembarked without difficulty.

"The boys did not land here," said Anderson Rover, after a look along the sandy sh.o.r.e for footprints. "But they must have come in somewhere around here."