The Ocean Wireless Boys on the Pacific

He told Mr. Jukes of the conversation and of the start of a second party.

“I heard nothing in Bomobori of a second expedition,” mused Mr. Jukes, on receipt of this information. “But no doubt they are traders. It seems odd, though, that they didn’t join with us if they were coming this way, as is the general custom.”

CHAPTER XXV. – A JUNGLE HOTEL

The hostelry was divided into half a dozen rooms walled with bamboo, and all on the ground floor. Rough mats of cocoanut cloth alone interposed between the sleepers and the ground, and cockroaches and singing lizards abounded. But by this time the lads had become pretty well used to the night noises of the jungle, which are far more tumultuous after dark than in the day-time, and as for the hard beds, they were too tired to mind much where they slept.

Jack had not slept long when he was awakened by someone calling to him. It was Muldoon. The Irishman was plainly agitated by some excitement as he stood in the grass-curtained door-way.

“Whist!” he exclaimed, holding a finger to his lips, “is thot you Misther Riddy?”

“Yes, what’s the trouble, Muldoon?”

“Shure o’ive made a discovery, sor.”

“What?”

“Thot other party. Ther ones you was tiligraphing about.”

“Well, what about them?”

“They’re here, begob.”

“Where, in the hotel?”

“No, in the woods back of the house.”

“Camping there?”

“No, bejabbers. There’s something looks queer to me about the whole thing, that’s why I called yez. They’ve sent for the Dago that runs this shabeen, sor.”

“Maybe they want to get accommodations?”

“Thin why wouldn’t they stip up like min and ask for ’em?” was Muldoon’s unanswerable retort.

Just then Mr. Jukes, rubbing his eyes sleepily, appeared in the door-way. Behind him stood the giant negress. The millionaire had evidently dressed hastily.

“I’ve got news, Ready,” he exclaimed in a rather excited voice. “This woman has just told me that her husband wants to see me outside. I gathered it’s on some matter connected with my brother.”

“Yassir,” grinned the hideous negress, showing a double row of sharply filed teeth, “dat’s it, sah. It’s 'bout yo’ brudder.”

Raynor had awakened by this time and was sitting up on his mat listening sleepily. He eyed the woman narrowly as she spoke and an uneasy conviction entered his mind that all was not well.

“You’d better be cautious, sir,” warned Jack, who also felt an undeniable feeling of suspicion, “something may be wrong.”

“What can be wrong,” demanded Mr. Jukes, rather impatiently. “I’m going outside to see. If it’s about my brother it’s my duty to do so at once.”

“Then if you’re going I’ll go with you,” said Jack, hastily throwing on the garments he had divested himself of, and strapping on his revolver.

“And begorrah o’i second the motion,” declared Muldoon.

“Wait a moment for me,” begged Billy.

“No, stay here,” said Jack. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll fire three shots.”

A minute later, followed by the native woman, the three left the place. As they reached the door she took the lead and conducted them through a bamboo grove to a thick growth of trees under which her husband and a big man with black beard were conversing.

“You wish to see me?” asked Mr. Jukes, addressing the bearded one.

“Yes; zees gentleman say zat 'e ave good news for you,” said the landlord, spreading his hands.

“Begorrah, oi don’t see no gintilmin here excipt oursilves,” muttered Muldoon.

“Muldoon, be quiet,” ordered Mr. Jukes, then turning to the black-bearded man he went on with, “Well, sir, what is it you wish?”

“You are Mr. Jukes?” asked the other, in a deep, gruff voice.

“I am, what of it?”

“I want to see you. I have news for you.”

“But – but I don’t know you. Why didn’t you come to the hotel if you had anything to say to me?” asked the millionaire in a puzzled way.

“I wanted to talk to you in private about your brother,” was the reply.

“My brother! Why, we are searching for him now. That is the reason of our presence in the jungle. Do you know anything about him?”

“I do. It was he who sent me here.”

“Jerushah sent you?” the millionaire was fairly amazed now. “He is then alive?”

“Yes, but he is a prisoner and very sick. Through natives he heard of the arrival of your expedition and sent me even at this hour to bring you to him.”

“That is a strange story, my man,” said Mr. Jukes suspiciously. “I might say it is almost incredible.”

“I’ll admit it does sound strange,” said the other, “but strange things happen in this part of the world. I might add that the other Mr. Jukes wants to see you alone. Something about a pearl, I believe.”

Jack gave a tug at Mr. Jukes’ sleeve. The lad had been peering about him through the dark trees and had seen something the others had not. If his eyes had not deceived him, and Jack did not believe they had, several forms were moving about in the gloom beneath the interlaced branches.

“Mr. Jukes,” he whispered, “I don’t believe this man. I think we are in some sort of a trap. Why didn’t he come to the house with this cock-and-bull story?”

Mr. Jukes hesitated. It was strange that this man of great affairs, before whom board meetings quailed, and who ruled almost supreme among the great money kings of New York, appeared to be lost now that he was out of his little world and among the great elemental things of the untraveled jungle.

“I’m sure I don’t know, Ready,” he replied.

“Ask him,” suggested Jack, with his hand on his revolver. He felt that a crisis of some sort was at hand, but it was too late to retreat now.

Mr. Jukes, with some of his old pomposity, put the question. The bearded man’s reply was brief and to the point.

“That is beside the question,” he snapped. “Are you coming with me?”

Before any reply could be made the bearded man’s eye caught the glint of Jack’s weapon. Instantly a shrill whistle sounded. From the trees leaped a dozen or more men.

“Howly saints! A trap!” yelled Muldoon.

“A trap!” echoed Jack. He raised his pistol to cover the black-bearded man. But before he had it leveled both he and Mr. Jukes were thrown from their feet by a combined attack and in a twinkling both the millionaire and the boy were helpless.

“Run for the house, Muldoon. Warn the others. Come after us as quick as you can.”

“Hold your horses there,” roared the black-bearded man, who, as our readers will have guessed, was ‘Bully’ Broom himself, with his band of renegade followers. He tried to block the boatswain’s path as Muldoon darted off.

Biff, the old seaman’s knotted fist shot out and caught the redoubtable ‘Bully’ between his eyes. He staggered but did not fall.

“Take that, you murtherin’ spalpeen,” shouted Muldoon, as he darted off among the trees and was speedily lost to sight. Three or four of the band pursued him, but ‘Bully’ Broom called them back.

“We’ve got the fellows we want,” he said; “bind and gag them and if they show fight don’t be too gentle with them.”

CHAPTER XXVI. – PRISONERS OF ‘BULLY’ BROOM

Jack fought desperately, but as he was helpless, and in return for his struggles received only a rain of brutal blows, he deemed it wiser to remain quiet. Soon both he and the millionaire had their hands tied behind their backs and gags of dirty grass were thrust, none too gently, into their mouths.

“Now march, and behave yourselves or you’ll be shot,” snarled ‘Bully’ Broom, whose temper had not been improved by the blow Muldoon’s strong fist had given him.

As it would have been folly to have resisted, situated as they were, the two prisoners did as they were told. Jack wondered where they were being taken and why they had been attacked. Even his acute mind did not connect their captors with ‘Bully’ Broom and his gang. The boy thought they had fallen into the hands of one of those bands of free-booters, known to frequent parts of the bush, holding up helpless travelers.

He felt sorry for Mr. Jukes, though. The millionaire was stout and accustomed to his ease. After his tiring day this night march must have been cruel exertion to him. But if he lagged, the man of millions received a vicious jab in the back with the stock of a rifle.

Even in this trouble, Jack could not help reflecting on the strange turn of the wheel of fortune that had brought Jacob Jukes, man of millions, into the heart of a lonely jungle, a shirt-sleeved, perspiring prisoner, in the hands of a band of men of undoubtedly desperate character. He wondered, too, if the millionaire himself was not contrasting this cruel march through the forest with his magnificent town and country houses, his automobiles, his lavishly furnished offices and his elaborate entertainments. If he were doing so, Jack surmised that his thoughts must be bitter. In thinking thus, Jack contrived largely to keep his mind off his own misfortunes.

A journey of some hours, at the close of which Mr. Jukes began to give every outward sign of deep physical exhaustion, brought them to a clearing, once cultivated, but now neglected, overlooking the river. Here, on a bluff about fifty feet above the water, in years gone by, a trading company had maintained a post. It had been built in the days when the natives were troublesome in that section and it was a strong structure like a fort. It was almost overgrown with rank tropical vines, but evidently the way to it was not unknown to the men conducting Mr. Jukes and Jack.

Lanterns were lit and when the two captives had been ushered in both were made fast to the logs that formed the walls of the place. Jack glanced at Mr. Jukes. The millionaire was assuredly a pitiable-looking object. His fine white shirt was torn almost to ribbons by thorny vines encountered along the path, his carefully groomed appearance had given way to a general disreputableness that would have gained him recognition by any tramp as a member of the fraternity, his face was almost purple, from his enforced exertions and the gag in his mouth.

“Gracious, he looks as if he might have apoplexy at any minute,” thought Jack, who, although he was in as bad a plight, characteristically did not spend any sympathy on himself. Perhaps the members of the band that had captured them noticed what Jack had, and feared fatal consequences, for Mr. Jukes’ gag was soon removed and so was Jack’s.

When this had been done, and before Mr. Jukes could recover his breath enough to speak, the rascals withdrew to the other end of the building, which was like a long mess hall and may indeed have been used at some time as such.

“What does this outrage mean?” demanded Jack, as the black-bearded man strolled off last of all, after looking them over with a cynical smile.

“You would like to know, eh, Jack Ready?”

“So you know my name?” exclaimed Jack in some surprise.

“Yes, and that of your companions who will join you here before long. We hope to have the pleasure of your company for quite a long time.”

“You abominable ruffian,” cried Jack, overcome by indignation, “you will pay dearly for this some time,” but at the same time the boy did not believe that the rest had been caught napping and captured. They were a strong party and, led by Muldoon, he knew they would put up a stiff fight.

“I wish you had taken my warning, Mr. Jukes,” Jack could not help saying, as soon as they were left alone.

“You wish it no more fervently than I do, my boy,” was the despondent reply. “Wall Street and New York seem like a dream to me. Only this horror is real.”

“I would like to know what it all means,” said Jack. “These men can’t be just common robbers; they appear to have a regular hang-out here.”

“I can’t help thinking that I’ve seen some of these ruffians loitering about Bomobori,” said Mr. Jukes.

“That struck me, too. At any rate they must be the party Thurman wirelessed to me about as leaving just behind us. They’ve followed our trail pretty closely, too. We should have been more on our guard.”

Slowly the hours wore by till daylight began to show in the narrow windows of the old barracks. The positions of both prisoners were most uncomfortable. The strain on their arms from the tightly tied cords was almost unbearable.

“And to think I used to complain of discomfort if my chauffeur allowed my car to bump over a rut,” groaned Mr. Jukes, with a comical pathos that would have made Jack smile had they been in any other situation.

All the men had left the place, but they could hear the murmur of their voices outside. A smell of wood smoke drifted in and then the tantalising odors of frying bacon and the aroma of coffee combined to remind both prisoners that, in spite of their sufferings, they were both hungry and thirsty.

“I wonder if we are going to get any breakfast?” asked Jack, after a silence broken only by Mr. Jukes’ pathetic groans.

“I’d risk a month of dyspepsia for a plate of beans and bacon right now,” wailed the unhappy millionaire.

“Yes,” thought Jack. “There are decidedly situations where all the millions in the world wouldn’t do you much good, and this, apparently, is one of them.”

At last footsteps were heard approaching from the opposite end of the ramshackle building.

“Somebody at last,” cried Jack.

He had hardly spoken when ‘Bully’ Broom stood before them, followed by – Donald Judson.

CHAPTER XXVII. – AT THE OLD FORT

Jack found it difficult to credit his eyesight as he gazed at the boy who formerly had made so much trouble for them and the gigantic ruffian who stood beside him.

“Judson! Is it possible?” he gasped. “What brought you here?”

“Are you a prisoner, too?” demanded Mr. Jukes.

“A prisoner?” laughed Judson. “Well, that’s a good one, I must say. Only fools walk into traps.”

“Well, what are you doing here then, boy?” demanded the millionaire, recollecting his former kindness to Donald. “You ask him, Ready. He’s a friend of yours.”

“He’s no friend of mine, Mr. Jukes,” denied Jack. “Can’t you see it all?”

“See what?”

“Why, the contemptible turn-coat is in with these rascals.”

“Impossible!”

“So, Judson,” went on Jack, “this is how you repay our kindness to you?”

“Your kindness,” sneered the boy. “I want none of it. I’m in with a good crowd now. Besides, I told you in Bomobori I didn’t want to go with your old expedition.”

“But you didn’t refuse the money I got you from Mr. Jukes,” said Jack.

“Oh, he’s made of money,” chuckled Donald, “and we mean to get some more of it.”

“You miserable young whelp,” panted the helpless millionaire, purple with rage, “if I had you in America – ”

“And anyhow,” continued Judson, thoroughly enjoying this, “you are only getting what’s coming to you, Ready. In the States you tried to have me put in pris – er that is you wanted to tell lies about me.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t have you locked up, now,” said Jack bitterly. “I suppose you put this gang of scoundrels on our trail.”

“You can suppose anything you want,” was the rejoinder, but a bit of the old boastfulness crept into his tone, “and you’re going to pay up, too, before you get out of this. Have you had them searched, Captain Broom?”

“What – ?” shouted the millionaire, almost beside himself at this sudden revelation of the black-bearded man’s identity, “are you ‘Bully’ Broom?”

“My name’s Broom all right,” was the surly reply, “but I want my proper handle, which is Captain.”

“What have you done with my brother, you infernal rascal?” stormed the millionaire.

“Now you ain’t going to get along any better by cutting up rough and losing your temper like that, pard’ner,” was the cool reminder. “You may be my guest for quite a time, so let’s you and me get along peaceable. Otherwise we’ll find a way to make you keep a civil tongue in your head.”

“Did you have them searched?” repeated Donald greedily. “If you did I want my share of it.”

“They were searched, Judson, but they only had a few dollars; not more than a hundred at most.”

“Bah!” growled Judson; “then they left some behind at old Baroni’s place. If we don’t capture the others, then – ”

“Never mind that, now,” commanded Broom; “you tell ’em what I told you.”

“All right,” assented Judson, and then, turning to Jack, he said:

“Do you know why you were brought here, Mr. Fresh?”

“To be robbed, I suppose. I see no other explanation to it,” was Jack’s reply, with a steady look at Judson that made the other drop his eyes. “I always knew you were a bad lot, Judson, but I never thought you were as bad as this.”

“Don’t talk to me like that. I’m as good as you,” stormed Judson, although he looked uneasy. Jack’s shot had told. “To be brief, we want to make money out of you.”

“In what way?”

“First of all, you must answer our questions.”

“That’s the way,” approved ‘Bully’ Broom, stroking his huge beard. “How much money did you bring with you from America?”

“Very little cash,” replied the millionaire, who had found it more prudent to control his temper, “most of the money is in the form of a letter of credit.”

“Where is that letter of credit?” demanded Judson, interfering.

“It is in Bomobori with the bankers,” was the reply, and Jack rejoiced to think that Mr. Jukes had managed to tell him that, as most of the money had been left behind at the hostelry with Captain Sparhawk, who had been appointed a sort of pay-master to the party.

“Well, now we’ll come down to brass tacks,” growled Broom, after an interval of thought. “How much is your liberty worth to you?”

“So that’s your game, is it, you rascally blackmailer?” sputtered the infuriated millionaire. “You won’t get a cent out of me.”

But ‘Bully’ Broom only smiled.

“Perhaps in a few days you’ll sing a different tune,” he said, and something, not in the words, but in the way they were uttered, sent a cold shiver down Jack’s spine.

CHAPTER XXVIII. – THE FREE-BOOTER’S DEMANDS

“Well, what do you demand?” was the millionaire’s next question.

Donald Judson drew ‘Bully’ Broom aside and whispered to him. The other nodded.

“The least we will take is one hundred thousand dollars,” he said.

The millionaire grew purple.

“What?” he almost shouted.

“That is for the liberty of both,” said ‘Bully’ Broom coolly. “Fifty thousand for the boy and fifty thousand for you. If you don’t want to take the boy, you can pay up fifty thousand and we will keep him.”

“What would you do with him?”

“Well, the river is full of hungry alligators – ” grinned the wretch.

“You scoundrel,” thundered Mr. Jukes, “do you suppose I’d leave him behind, anyway?” Jack cast him a grateful look. “But what have you done with my brother, you ruffian?”

“Ah! I was coming to that,” said the rascal with an insolent smile, “but you can also have him for the very insignificant sum that I have already mentioned as being the price for you and the boy.”

“You’re worth a whole lot more than that, Jukes,” put in Judson, with an equally insolent air. “You’re a regular old money-bags, you know.”

“You’ll never get my money,” raged the millionaire.

“We won’t, eh?”

“Never.”

“Hunger makes a lot of difference, Mr. Jukes,” smiled Broom.

“So you mean to starve us into submission, eh?” demanded Jack. “I don’t see how such rogues can exist. Judson, you are the worst young hound I ever heard of.”

In high rage the boy’s enemy stepped up to him and deliberately struck him a heavy blow in the face, which Jack was, of course, powerless to return.

“Yes, a cowardly trick like that is in perfect accordance with what I know of your nature,” said Jack with menacing quietness.

“You dare say that again,” screamed Donald, beside himself with anger, “just you dare and I’ll – ” He ended with a shake of his fist.

“Oh, you can’t scare me, even if I am tied,” said Jack scornfully.

His perfect calmness added fuel to the fire of Judson’s rage.

“I’ll fix you,” he yelled, “I’ll – ”

“Judson, be quiet,” ordered Broom, and the boy subsided. “Now,” went on the free-booter to Mr. Jukes, “your best plan, if you don’t want to lose a few pounds, will be to make out a check for that money. Of course, we’ll have to keep you here till it’s safely cashed, otherwise you might, and probably would, stop the check. But – ”

“Don’t pay a cent, Mr. Jukes,” interrupted Jack.

Judson stepped suddenly forward and struck the helpless lad another stinging blow. It was such a hard one that Jack’s senses swam for a minute.

“Shame on you, you young villain,” cried Mr. Jukes. “He is helpless, otherwise you wouldn’t dare lay hands on him.”

“Who says so? I could lick him any day,” swaggered Judson imprudently.

“Have you people no sense of right and honesty in your compositions?” demanded Mr. Jukes.

But this appeal had no more effect on Broom than it would have had on adamant.

“We’re no worse than you millionaires, if all the papers say is true,” he retorted. “You rob in your way, we rob in ours. We’re not quite so refined about it, perhaps. That’s the only difference, Mr. Jukes.”

“You ruffian! Do you compare business, – legitimate business, – with your rascally trade?”

“My rascally trade, as you please to term it, is business, – legitimate business, – to me,” returned Broom.

“Are we to have any food?” demanded the millionaire abruptly.

“When you listen to reason, yes.”

“And your idea of reason is that I consent to pay that preposterous ransom?”

“Your insight does you credit, Mr. Jukes. Sign that check and you shall have all you want to eat within the poor limits of my larder, and reasonable liberty till it is cashed. After that you are free to go where you will.”

“Our friends will raise a hue and cry for us,” declared Jack. “They’ll find us and put you where you belong, behind the bars.”

Broom and young Judson turned away and left the hut by another door from the one by which they had entered.

“You think they will pay?” asked Broom, with some anxiety in his voice.

“I’m sure they will. Even a tight-wad old millionaire will pay up when it comes to a choice between that and starving.”

“Then you think they are sure to give in?”

“Without a doubt. Then it is only a question of waiting for the money and getting out.”

“I don’t mind that. But I didn’t like what they said about their friends following us here.”

“Why you said nobody knew the way here through the swamps but yourself along that path we came last night.”

“That’s true, but then there’s the river. However, it would be impossible to see the old fort from below and anyhow the cliff is fifty feet high and easily guarded.”

“Of course you are foolish to worry. However, perhaps if they don’t give in in a day or two we had better be moving along. That young Ready’s chum, Billy, has given me trouble before.”

“Well,” said Broom, “we’ll see how things come out. If they don’t want to perish in the swamps they’ll have to come by the river. From now on I’ll have that cliff guarded.”

“Yes, and if any rescue party comes they’ll get a big surprise,” was young Judson’s reply.

CHAPTER XXIX. – THE RESCUE PARTY

“I wish I’d gone along with them,” muttered Raynor to himself as he slipped on his socks and boots so as to be ready instantly in case of alarm. “I don’t like the look of this thing at all.”

For some minutes he sat there listening intently. But no sound came from outside.

“I guess I’ll just join them anyhow,” he resolved to himself, getting on his feet. “This waiting is too nerve-racking. I’ll – ”

The boy halted where he stood. A loud shout from the jungle reached his ears.

“Something has happened!” cried the boy.

He reached for his pistol, and hastily buckling it on, he was about to rush out of the hostelry when a wild figure appeared.

“Help! There’s murther goin’ on. Help!”

It was Muldoon, fleeing before three of Broom’s followers. But as the pursuers came in sight of the hotel they halted. The next moment they were in active retreat.

“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” gasped Raynor.

“Those spalpeens out yonder. They’ve captured Misther Jukes and Jack Riddy.”

“We must rouse the others at once and go in pursuit,” decided Billy.

He hurried off to awaken Captain Sparhawk, while Muldoon aroused Salloo, who in turn, soon had his native followers astir. It did not take Captain Sparhawk much longer to get into his clothes when he heard Billy’s alarming news than it did for the natives, who were not embarrassed by garments, to adjust what few they did wear.