Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 25 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

pearance of the water, in the vicinity of the beach, ere the Malay proas approached to them. appearance of the water excited no alarm in the minds of the boys. All were at their stations, ready to do their duty, as the pirate fleet drew near. Suddenly the subterraneous roar was heard, seeming to come up from under their feet. When the island began to rock, Bolt shrugged his shoulders. ‘“‘Something’s going to happen out of the common, my lad,” he said to Sinclair. All round the yacht, the water now com- menced to bubble and boil. The Malay ves- sels showed signs of standing off from the island. ‘There'll be no fighting, to-day,” continued Bolt. “We must now think only of saving ourselves, as there’s going to be an earthquake, or some such “ catastroph.” Sinclair summoned the boys from the fort. They all came aboard the yacht in the boat, which had been left near the beach. ‘“‘The treasure!” exclaimed Sinclair. must try to get that aboard!” “*T don’t know who’d venture ashore, now,”’ cried one of the boys. “‘T will,” said the young captain. “TI think I will have time, at least, to fasten the end of a rope to one of ‘the rings of the chest, ere the island 3 There was a coil of rope on deck. Sinclair, seizing the end of it, sprung into the boat, and called for a pick and shovel. Bolt handed them to him. Then he sprung into the boat. “Tt shall never be said that Bolt let his young chum go dlone on such a duty!” ex- claimed the old tar. ‘‘If there’s dying to be done, why, then, we’ll die together ; do you see?” - The end of the rope aboard was loosely se- cured to the mast. The boys on deck stood ready to haul. One shove, with Bolt’s powerful hands, sent the boat to the beach. Sinclair and the old sailor, springing out, went to work. In a few minutes they had unearthed the treasure. The end of the rope was fastened to the ring, at one side of the chest, . “Haul!” shouted Sinclair. But, at that moment, the ground seemed to crumble away beneath the feet of the two on the beach» Roaring, gurgling and hissing, the water swept over them. Rising and clashing together in ridges, it rose around the yacht, and poured in torrents ever her deck. The strain of the sinking anchor dragged her down on her beam-ends, Terrified, her crew clung to rails and rigging, to save themselves from being washed over- board. Meanwhile, Bolt and Sinclair, feeling them- selves going down, caught at the rope attached to the chest. The water rolled over them. They struggled in the embrace of the mad waves. A mass of earth fell from the promontory near them upon their heads, nearly sweeping them from their hold on the rope. A sort of whirlpool, formed by the sinking of the ground under their feet, drew Sinclair, who was nearest to it, down into the pit. - Bolt, seeing him going, made a plunge and caught him by the shoulder with one hand. This enabled the youth to regain his hold of the rope. The two endeavored to draw themselves to the yacht. They had nearly reached it, when jor end of the rope aboard slipped away from the mast, to which, as stated, it was only loosely attached. Thus the old. tar and his companion found tnemseives aarnft. Vainly they endeavored to make head against the overwhelming waters. They were almost suffocated, when, suddenly, Sinclair’s hand struck against something. “ec We The ie Boy Ca: Captain. ——_—- ————— It was the boat in nen —_ had come ashore, The craft was now turned bottom up, The youth seized it, and, seeing the top of Bolt’s head, above the water, he grasped the old tar by the hair, drawing him toward the vessel, which he, too, thus succeeded in grasp- ing. They were swept toward the yacht, which they managed to board. The vessel, still down on her beam-ends, was now half full of water. Appalled-—awe-stricken—the boys all clung to ropes and shrouds, watching the island as it crumbled to pieces and sunk. With the water still pouring over her, it seemed as if the yacht mustsoon go down. A surging wall caught her, and drew her toward the sinking isle. At the same moment, with a hollow, deafening roar, the whole island van- ished beneath the sea. Caught in the white, circling eddies and whirlpools, the yacht spun round, and seemed about to sink, when, with a grating sound, her keel struck something, and she remained sta- tionary, nearly upright, The convulsions of the water gradually sub- sided. The crew looked at each other, speech- less and silent. Round them was the wilder- ness of waters, but no sign of the island they had so lately occupied. The surface of the sea where the isle had disappeared, soon became nearly calm. Then they realized that they owed their salvation to the yacht’s having struck upon a ridge of land, which had only sunk afew feet under water. Astern of them, they now beheld the man- drake, weirdly projecting above the sea, stand- ing on a point which had not quite disap- peared beneath the surface, The trees in the vicinity of the singular plant, had been torn up, but the tough roots of the mandrake. had withstood every shock. ‘‘ Here we are safe at last my lad,” said Bolt to Sinclair. ‘‘The first thing to do, now, is to pump the craft dry.” The boys went to work, and, in a few bours, they had pumped all the water out of their vessel. ‘Now, then,” remarked the old sailor, ‘I think it will be an easy thing to get the yacht clear.” The crew, having got up the anchor, low- ered one of their boats, and commenced the work of towing their vessel off the ground upon which she was stranded. This task was soon accomplished. The yacht floating clear of the land, the crew care- fully inspected her, but they could not discover that she had sustained any injury. ‘« Now for the treasure,” said Sinclair, The vessel, headed away from the sunken ridge, was brought within ten fathoms of if, when the boys commenced their search for the treasure. They pulled hither and thither, hoping they would see the rope attached to the chest, but they could discover no sign of it. Toward nightfall they neturned aboard the yacht. “*Don’t be Gehearraged.” said Bolt to the young captain. “ We'll find itin time. Blast me, though, if I don’t wish it was aboard, now. I’m afraid those Malays, do you see, will be upon us, while we are hunting for it.” As he spoke, his gaze chanced to wander to the mainmast. He then noti¢ed that the spar was badly cracked, a few feet above the deck. - “That will never do,” he said, pointing out the injury to Sinclair. ‘It wouldn’t take FD te A NTE over the side, Hy ‘* What shall we do? We have no more spare spars aboard,” said the youth. “We will have to go where we can get one, Teak wood grows on some of the islands here- about,” Next day, from morn till night, the search for the treasure was continued, but still with- out success. . “TI tell you what we. want,” said. Bolt, “We want a good diver. You and I are as 17 good as most white men, but we can’t compare to some of the blackshins hereabout, on some of the islands. Them fellows, I tell you, is almost ‘amphidious.’” Sinclair sat looking despairingly at the water. “T am afraid we have lost that treasure, at last,” he remarked. Bolt, however, ssemed hopeful. “‘I dreamed, last night,” said he, “of find- ing a basket full of gold-fish. What d’ye think of that, my lad? What does that mean but that we shall find the treasure? But the first thing to do is to get our new mast. Nobody will meddle with the treasure, while we are gone.” The two went down into the cabin and con- sulted their chart. They then discovered that there was an island about twenty leagues to the northeast, inhabited by a peaceful race of cowrie fishers. ‘* The ridge is again in sight,” remarked Sin- clair, when they returned on deck, and stood by the rail. As he spoke he pointed to a ridge of land, about forty feet in length, and about ten feet above the water. It was the same strip of Jand on which the yacht had struck, and which the crew had discovered was visible at low tide. The old sailor looked at the ridge, and from the ridge to the yacht’s mainmast. Some peculiar thought, evidently, had occurred to him, ‘*T have been thinking,” he said, at length, “that, if the Malays should come upon us while we are fishing for the treasure, they would guess what we were doing, and, having driven us away, would succeed in getting the chest, themselves.” “ Ay, ay,” said Sinclair, ‘“‘ Having lost our fort and rendezvous, we couldn’t make much of a fight, now, against two or three proas,” “Right, lad. But, do you see, I have an idea. In the first place, them islanders is ‘all superstitious. They have been frighted half out of their wits, by seeing the island vanish so suddenly. They think the yacht—all of us, in fact—have gone to Davy Jones. They will not revisit this place, for some days, you may depend on that. Well, do you see, if they should come here and get sight of the yacht, they would think she was a specter oraft, or something of that sort. They’d think so, at Just, but they’d be likely to soon get over it. To prevent their getting over it, I have a plan, my lad; which is to have the yacht so that, at any moment, at a reasonable distance from ‘them’ who see her, we can make her appear to vanish out of sight.” “‘ How can that possibly be done?” “Tt can be done, my lad, if the Malays will only happen to come in sight of us while the ridge is above water. We can have the yacht lie so that, at any moment, we can swing her around behind the ridge, and lower our mast.” ‘* Lower our mast?” “Ay, ay, I can arrange that. The new mast shall be so fixed that we can lower it, at any minute. The mast wants to be set in iron sockets, and have good strong ropes with pulleys attached to it above, and commu- nicating with the deck.” Sinelair approved of this plan. They set sail at once, heading for the island where they were to get their new mast and also an expert diver. In due time they arrived at the island. They found some good teak wood, when Bolt at once went to work. In about ten days the new mast was fitted on the yacht. It was arranged so that it could be lowered at any moment, With an islander for a diver, the crew then returned to the place where the island had disappeared. All day long the diver worked, looking for the treasure. He was a tall, lithe native, who could remain under water five minutes at a time. Toward nightfall, he made what he intended to be his last dive for the day. EOMMIC OOOKS (E (E (0)