The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove: or, The Missing Chest of Gold

“Get up the sail,” shouted Lester, rushing to the tiller. “He’ll capsize us if we don’t.”

Teddy and Bill sprang to help Fred, and the sail was quickly hoisted. The wind caught it at once, and as the breeze was a stiff one, it swelled out the sail to the fullest extent, and with this added resistance against the struggles of the shark, the Ariel was soon on an even keel.

“There!” exclaimed Lester, with a sigh of relief, “now we can hold our own. I thought for a minute that we were going over. And just now I wouldn’t want to get too close to that pirate. Something seems to have ruffled his temper.”

The rage of the shark was beyond belief. At first he tried to disgorge the hook. But it had a secure grip and his efforts only served to exhaust him. Then he snapped furiously at the chain with his mighty jaws.

“Do you think he can break it?” asked Bill anxiously.

“Not on your life,” answered Lester serenely. “If it were rope, he’d snap it as though it were thread. But even the jaws of a shark can’t bite through a three-inch iron chain.”

The shark darted here and there, trying by sudden jerks to break the chain. But it held fast despite his tremendous efforts. Then he changed his tactics and hurled himself against the Ariel with a force that made the timbers shiver.

“Do you think he can start a leak?” asked Fred, as the deck shook under him.

“I hope not,” answered Lester, “but he might. The Ariel is a mighty stout boat, but she wasn’t built to stand the rushes of a crazy shark.”

“What about giving him a clip with the hatchet the next time he comes close enough?” suggested Fred.

“Suppose you try it,” was the answer. “Get a tight grip on the rail and bend away over. Then the next time he hits the boat, hit him on the nose. If you catch him right it will stun him, and then I can finish him with the harpoon.”

Fred grasped the hatchet and disposed himself to take advantage of the next rush. He gripped the rail with his left hand, while Bill and Teddy held his legs tightly.

“If you go over, we go over with you,” Teddy assured him.

“The shark would have a square meal then for fair,” laughed Fred.

But the shark seemed to understand the trap laid for him and refused to fall in with their plans. He resorted again to fierce lunging and diving, but did not again approach the boat.

“He’s laughing at you,” jibed Teddy.

“I don’t think he feels like laughing at anything just now,” replied Fred, as he rose to his feet. “But he’s evidently given up the idea of dashing his brains out against the boat.”

“He’ll be tired out before long,” judged Lester, “and then I’ll give you a chance to see what an expert I am at throwing a harpoon.”

It was clear that the sea pirate was exhausting his strength in his futile struggles. His long career of cruelty and rapine was rapidly coming to an end.

“I think I have a chance now,” said Lester, after a few minutes more had passed. “You take the tiller, Teddy, while Bill and Fred haul him in.”

But this was not an easy task. Fred and Bill strained until they felt as though their arms were being pulled out of their sockets. But the shark still had enough strength left to make them pay dearly for every inch they gained.

But they were gaining, nevertheless. They wound the slack around a cleat as they pulled it in, so as not to lose what they had once won. Lester joined them after he had got the harpoon ready to throw, and with this reinforcement they soon had the shark within three feet of the stern of the boat.

“That’s near enough,” said Lester, rising to his feet and grasping the harpoon. “Now hold fast while I throw.”

He took careful aim, poised himself so as to get his full force into the cast and let his weapon go. It hissed through the air straight at its quarry. But the shark lunged aside, and the harpoon clove the water three inches to the right.

“Good shot, old scout!” cried Fred, as Lester, a little chagrined at the miss, drew the dripping harpoon in over the side. “It wasn’t your fault that you didn’t get him. It was going at him straight as an arrow when he dodged.”

“I’ll get him yet,” muttered Lester to himself, as he straightened up for another effort.

He took his time in aiming and summoned up all his strength. Then he threw.

The sharp point caught the shark a little behind the head and went clear through his body. It must have struck a vital point for the monster gave one convulsive leap and fell back in its death flurry, lashing the water into yeast. Then it turned part way over and remained motionless, the leverage of the shaft preventing it from turning wholly on its back.

A yell of triumph went up from the delighted boys.

“Glory, hallelujah!” shouted Teddy.

“That was a dandy throw, old scout!” cried Bill, clapping Lester on the back.

“This is our lucky day,” yelled Fred in great exultation.

Lester flushed with pleasure. He had vindicated his throwing ability, and had proved himself a worthy son of his sea-going forebears.

“Father will be tickled to death when he hears of it,” he remarked, trying to speak coolly, as though harpooning a shark was a daily occurrence with him. “He hates the brutes with all his soul. He was nearly nipped by one while in the water off the Bahamas, and his mates just hauled him on board in time.”

“Well, now that we’ve got him, what are we going to do with him?” asked practical Bill.

“Could we pull him on board, do you think?” inquired Teddy.

“Not in a hundred years,” replied Lester. “If we had a pulley big enough and rope strong enough, we might hoist him up, but in no other way. I guess the best way to do is to crowd on sail and tow him in to Milton.”

“How much further do we have to go?” asked Fred.

“Oh, it’s a matter of ten or twelve miles yet,” was the answer. “If we were free, we could make it in a little over an hour the way this wind is holding up. But the shark will be a big drag against us, and it will take us at least twice as long. The harpoon sticking out at that angle helps to keep us back.”

“What do we care how long it takes us to get there!” gloated Teddy. “We have all the time there is and I don’t care whether it takes us two hours or ten. We’ll have something to show the natives when we do get there.”

“Oh, they’ve seen plenty of sharks,” said Lester. “But I don’t think they’ve often clapped eyes on one as big as this.”

“After we reach Milton, how are we going to get the shark ashore?” persisted Bill.

“Oh, that will be no trick at all,” was the answer. “The beach shelves out gradually there and I can take the Ariel pretty close in. Then you fellows can tumble overboard and wade in, dragging the shark with you. We couldn’t lift him, but it will be easy enough to drag him up on the sand.”

“I’m anxious to get close to him so that I can study him,” said Fred.

“You might have been nearer to one than you liked the day you went over after Ross,” laughed Bill.

“Yes,” admitted Fred, “he’d have had the laugh on me then. But they laugh best who laugh last.”

“And we’re laughing last, all right,” declared Lester.

“Thanks to your good arm and the old harpoon,” added Bill.

“We have with us to-day, gentlemen,” said Teddy, assuming the air and tone of a professional introducer, “two renowned throwers. Indeed, I may say three.

“This gentleman at the tiller, Mr. Lester Lee, throws the harpoon. This other at the sheet, Mr. Frederic Rushton, throws the baseball. This idler at my right, Mr. William Garwood, throws the lasso. I admit, gentlemen, with deep regret, that of all this illustrious company I am the only one who doesn’t throw something.”

“Oh yes you do,” put in Bill quickly.

“What?”

“You throw the bull,” said Bill.

CHAPTER XVII

A PLEASANT SURPRISE

The other boys roared, and for a moment Teddy was disconcerted. But he quickly recovered his balance.

“I suppose,” he retorted, frowning severely at the culprit, “that this low-brow means to intimate that I am a Spanish athlete. I should be deeply pained to know that any one who has been under the refining influence of Rally Hall should indulge in the practice of slang. What would our dear Doctor Rally say if he heard one of his pupils–”

But the question remained forever unanswered, for just then a piece of pork that Bill had picked up from the deck whizzed past the orator’s face, and, in the quick and undignified duck he made, Teddy lost the thread of his discourse.

“Suppose you two cut out the fooling and get down to business,” grinned Lester. “Fred and I are the only ones doing anything, and it’s time you loafers got busy. Bring out the grub and let’s have something to eat.”

“That’s always in order, like a motion to adjourn,” acquiesced Teddy. “Come along, Bill, and we’ll show these fellows how to cook.”

Teddy and Bill went down into the little cuddy, got out the tiny oil stove, and the odors of sizzling bacon and steaming coffee soon made Lester and Fred sniff the air hungrily.

“I didn’t know how hungry I was till just now,” said the latter.

“I didn’t either,” returned Lester. “I was so worked up over that tussle with the shark that I didn’t have time to think of anything else. But now I’m hungry enough to eat nails.”

“If that’s the way you refer to the meal we’re getting up, you can’t have any,” threatened Teddy. “We may not be hotel chefs, but we’ll not stand for having our eats compared to nails, will we, Bill?”

“Not by a jugful!” answered Bill, as he scrambled some eggs in the bacon grease.

“Take it all back,” laughed Lester.

Teddy cut some slices of bread and Bill opened a jar of marmalade, which they put with the other eatables on the tiny table leaves that they propped up on both sides of the centerboard.

“Come along now, you aristocrats,” called out Teddy, “and profit by the labor of us poor working men.”

The wind was steady, so that Lester could fasten his tiller while Fred hitched the sail rope round a cleat. Then they crowded into the little cabin and passed judgment on the dinner. That it was a favorable one was shown by the magical rapidity with which every crumb disappeared.

“No dyspeptics in this crowd,” laughed Fred, when the board had been swept clean.

“Not so that you could notice it,” returned Bill. “A doctor would starve to death if he had to depend on our patronage.”

“My belt is so tight that it hurts,” admitted Teddy, loosening it a few holes.

They lay around lazily for a few minutes, too happy and satisfied to move. Then Fred and Lester resumed their places, while the other two drew a bucket of water and washed the dishes and pans. This done, they slumped down comfortably in the stern, watching the body of the shark that lunged along clumsily in the wake of the Ariel.

“He has an open countenance, hasn’t he?” grinned Teddy, as they caught an occasional glimpse of the huge mouth on the under side of the head.

“And look at those teeth,” shivered Bill. “They say that an alligator’s jaw snaps shut with the power of fifteen hundred pounds. But I’ll bet that the alligator has nothing on the shark.”

“I guess you’re right,” agreed Teddy. “Those jaws would cut a man’s leg off as neatly as if it were done with a razor.”

“I shouldn’t like to have him practise on me,” said Bill.

“If that fellow ever had a toothache, it would be some ache,” put in Fred.

“I wouldn’t care to be the dentist that had the job of pulling one of them,” laughed Bill. “I’m afraid the patient would be a little peevish.”

“I’d get my assistant to pump a ton of chloroform in him first,” declared Fred. “And even then I’d want to get into a suit of armor before I operated on him.”

“No wonder the sailors hate the brutes,” mused Teddy, as he thought of the poor fellows who had been devoured by the monsters.

“No one of them knows but that he may be the next,” added Bill.

“The sailors get even whenever they have the chance,” chimed in Lester. “The minute they see any of the beasts near the ship, they trail a hook over the stern in the hope of catching him. Sailors are superstitious, and they believe that as long as a shark is in sight some one on board is doomed to die. So they try to kill the hoodoo, by putting the shark out of business.”

“It’s a great thing to feel a good deck beneath your feet, when a shark heaves in sight,” remarked Bill. “Even in a boat no bigger than the Ariel, we’re reasonably safe. But think of what it must be like to be on an open raft on the ocean with a crowd of these hungry pirates swimming all around you.”

“And flinging themselves half way across the raft sometimes, trying to upset it,” added Teddy.

“It must be something fearful,” agreed Lester. “But there are some people who are not afraid to meet the shark on its own ground–if one can call water ground.”

“It must take a lot of nerve,” declared Teddy. “I don’t want to take their job away from them.”

“Of course it takes a lot of nerve,” was the answer. “It takes a heap of skill too. No one could do it, if he couldn’t swim just about as well as the shark himself.

“Dad has told me of what he has seen with his own eyes. A native of some of the South Sea Islands, when he learns from a fisherman that a shark is cruising around, will take his knife between his teeth, slip into the water and swim out to meet him.

“As the shark is looking for him too and can smell him, it isn’t long before they come together. The native knows when the shark is coming by the fin that shows above the surface, and when the shark gets close the native dives under.

“Of course you know that the shark has to turn over on his back in order to bite. The second it takes to do this has saved the life of many a poor fellow, and it is that that gives the diver his chance.

“The instant the shark turns over, the native plunges his knife into its stomach. He knows just where to aim, and that one stroke usually does the business. If not, he tries it again until the shark is killed. But everything has to be timed to a second. The least little slip, and it’s all up with the native.”

“I should think there’d sometimes be a chance of meeting a school of sharks instead of a single one,” commented Bill. “What would the native do in that case?”

“That does happen sometimes, but it doesn’t worry the South Sea Islander much,” explained Lester. “He can usually keep the sharks off by shouting and splashing. Then, too, if he kills one of them the others are attracted by the blood of their comrade, and they tear him to pieces, while the native swims back home.”

“Nice lot of cannibals those sharks are, to prey upon each other,” said Teddy.

“Just like a pack of wolves,” agreed Lester. “Let one of them be wounded, and the others tear him into bits. These wolves of the sea do the same thing.

“Dad says that sometimes the native won’t even take a knife, but will just carry with him a stick of hard wood, sharpened at both ends. When the shark turns over to nab him, the native thrusts the stick crosswise between the open jaws. They close down on it, the points sink in so far that the shark can’t shut its mouth, and the water flows in and chokes it to death.”

“Seems funny to choke a fish to death with water,” laughed Fred.

“Think of thrusting your arm into jaws like that,” said Bill. “If the stick didn’t go straight up and down–?”

“There’d be a one-armed native,” Lester grimly completed the sentence. “But here’s a boat coming up this way, and we’ve been so busy chinning that we hadn’t noticed it. What do you make her out to be, Bill?”

“She hasn’t any sail,” pronounced Bill after a brief scrutiny. “Here, hand me those glasses.”

“It’s a motor boat,” he announced a moment later, “and she’s coming straight for us.”

“A motor boat!” exclaimed Teddy. “Do you think it can be Ross?”

“It’s more than likely,” answered Lester. “But he’ll be near enough in a few minutes for us to make sure.”

The boat drew rapidly nearer.

“That’s who it is,” cried Teddy jubilantly. “It’s Ross and the Sleuth. Now we can compare notes about the chest of gold!”

CHAPTER XVIII

TOWING THE PRIZE

The boys forgot all about the shark for the time, and their thoughts went with redoubled intensity toward the object of their search, the missing treasure.

“I wonder if he’ll be in a more talkative humor now than he was when we saw him last?” mused Fred.

“I hope so,” said Teddy. “He’s had time to think us over and size us up, and he may decide to make a clean breast of all he knows.”

“Assuming that he really does know more than he has told us,” remarked Bill, the skeptic. “We fellows may have drawn wrong conclusions from the start he gave and that exception of his.”

“Well, at any rate, we know a great deal more than we did when we saw him last,” declared Teddy. “We know for a certainty many things that he only guessed, especially that partial confession of Dick’s as to the way Mr. Montgomery met his death.”

“I wish we had had time to hear from Uncle Aaron,” said Fred. “He may be able to give us some pointers, though I don’t suppose he knows much outside of the fact that he loaned Mr. Montgomery money and didn’t get it back.”

“I’m banking a good deal more on Mark Taylor than I am on what your uncle may know,” said Lester, “although of course we may get nothing from either.”

“What do you think we’d better do in regard to Ross?” asked Teddy. “Tell him right off what we know, or wait for him to tell us everything first?”

“I think that instead of trying to wait or to swap, we’d better be perfectly frank,” advised Fred. “If he’s a bit suspicious now, he’ll grow more so if he thinks we’re trying any kind of a game. Confidence breeds confidence, and we’ll set him the example.”

“I guess that will be the better way,” acquiesced Lester. “After all, he’s got so much more at stake than we have in this matter that we shouldn’t blame him for being a little cautious.”

By this time it was evident that Ross had recognized them, for he was standing up, waving at them vigorously.

“Seems to be glad to see us,” remarked Teddy, as the boys waved back. “I take that as a good sign.”

“Hello Ross,” they yelled over the water when he got within earshot.

“Hello, yourselves,” the boy in the motor boat shouted eagerly in reply. “What good wind blew you up to meet me?”

“What good engine drove you down to meet us?” Teddy flung back at him with a grin.

“I was on my way down to pay you a little visit at the Shoals,” replied Ross. “I didn’t think I’d be able to get over there so soon. But when I got back to Oakland I found a letter from my mother saying she had been delayed in starting, and wouldn’t be here for three or four days yet. So I thought I’d scoot over and make hay while the sun shone.”

“That’ll be bully,” said Lester warmly. “Dad will be glad to see you, and I hope you’ll be able to stay with us at the Shoals until you have to meet your mother.”

“I’d like nothing better and it’s good of you to ask me,” responded Ross. “But where are you fellows bound for now?”

“We’re going up to Milton on an errand that will interest you, when we get time to tell you about it. Come right along with us.”

“Sure thing. I’ll just round to under your stern and we’ll travel up alongside.”

He started his engine going, and then for the first time he noticed the huge bulk that was trailing along in the wake of the Ariel.

He gave a startled shout, while the boys viewed his astonishment with expressive grins.

“A shark!” he exclaimed.

“That’s what it is,” said Fred. “And for all we know it may be the same fellow that might have bitten us in two the other day. What do you think of him?”

“He’s a monster!” ejaculated Ross, who seemed unable to believe his eyes. “Do you really mean that you fellows hooked and killed him?”

“Here’s the fellow that gave him the finishing touch with his little harpoon,” affirmed Teddy, indicating Lester.

Ross circled about the body, viewing it from every side.

“He must have been a terror when he was alive!” he exclaimed with a shiver. “Even now, I’d feel a little nervous if I fell in alongside of him.”

“He’s good and dead all right,” declared Bill. “Teddy and I have been watching him for the last half hour, and he hasn’t made a movement. That harpoon knew its business.”

“What are you going to do with him?” asked Ross.

“Oh, we’ll tow him up to Milton and land him on the beach,” replied Lester. “We’ll have a better chance to look him over then.”

“I want to get some souvenirs from him before we cast him away altogether,” said Fred.

“You might get enough teeth to make a necklace and go strutting around like a cannibal king,” grinned Bill. “I hear that those ornaments make a great hit with the dudes of the South Sea Islands.”

“They’d go well with that bunch of rattles we brought back from the ranch this summer,” laughed Teddy.

“Not if mother sees them first,” said Fred. “She was half scared to death when we brought home those rattles, and we had all we could do to get her to let us keep them. Even as it is, they have to be kept out of sight, and to bring home some shark’s teeth would be the finishing touch.”

“I’m going to cut a strip of the hide to make a belt,” declared Bill. “They say they last forever.”

“A hat band for mine,” voted Lester.

“A watch case will hit me hardest,” said Fred.

“There’ll be plenty to go round, I guess,” laughed Ross. “From the size of that fellow, you could cut out enough hide to make all the belts and other gewgaws that could be used if you lived to be as old as Methuselah.”

“Come along now, fellows,” called out Lester. “We’ll have plenty of time for a gab-fest when we get to Milton. We want to be getting on.”

“How about taking off some of your passengers, Lester?” volunteered Ross. “That carcass makes a big weight for you to pull, and I can just as well take two of you aboard as not.”

“That’s a good idea,” agreed Lester. “Take Bill and Teddy. They’re no earthly good here anyway. Fred and I are doing all the work.”

“I like that,” replied Teddy in mock indignation. “Who was it that got up a dinner that was good enough, I notice, for you fellows to stow away in a hurry.”

“It wasn’t because it was so good that we bolted it,” chaffed Fred. “It was a disagreeable duty and we wanted to get it over with as soon as we could.”

“Come along, Ted,” said Bill with dignity, “and don’t bandy words with those common sailors.”

“It was only that I wanted to lift them up to our own level,” rejoined Teddy. “But I guess you’re right, Bill. They can’t appreciate the value of our companionship, and we’ll leave them to herd together. They’ve had their chance, and there’s no use our wasting time trying to make them into human beings.”

Ross brought the Sleuth alongside and the two boys leaped aboard.

“I’ll take the shark too, if you want me to,” proposed Ross. “I guess my engine could stand the strain.”

“No, thank you,” replied Lester. “You’ve got two sharks on board now, and I guess that’ll be all you can manage.”

The boats fell apart and the lightening of the Ariel’s load showed results at once as the little boat leaped through the water at a quickened pace. Ross dropped away to a distance of perhaps a hundred feet, in order that the Ariel might have plenty of sea room, and with their noses pointed toward Milton the two craft went on in company.

“How much further have we got to go?” asked Fred, as he let out the sheet in order to get every ounce of wind.

“Not more than eight miles, I reckon,” answered Lester.

He looked over the side to gauge the speed at which they were traveling.

“It’s a ten-knot breeze,” he conjectured, “and if we didn’t have that ugly customer in the rear to tow along, we’d make it in less than an hour. But even as it is, we’ll surely do it in an hour and a half.”

But the wind freshened and cut some time off their schedule, so that it was only a little over an hour when Lester gave a turn to the tiller that swung the Ariel in toward the coast.

“There’s Milton,” he said, pointing to a tiny village of small, straggling houses that came down close to the beach, “but we don’t go so far as that. Mark lives in a little hut about a mile this side of the town. Take the glasses and you can make it out. It stands all by itself and you can’t miss it.”