“Hold us prisoners?” burst out several of the boys in chorus.
“That’s what, lads. I had a little work to do at the stern, and I overheard a talk between Ferguson and the mate. They got it all fixed with the cap’n to hold you till your folks pay a whole lot of money to have you set free.”
“The rascals!” cried Jack, indignantly. “I knew they had something up their sleeve! I said so several times!”
“I guess the quicker we make a break for liberty the better,” put in Gif.
“I’ll not stay on this schooner another night if I can possibly help it!” was the way Ralph expressed himself.
“Are you sure you can get the gasoline and the grub and water?” questioned Fred, hopefully.
“Yes, lad. But, of course, some o’ you have got to help me.”
“We’ll all help!” came eagerly from Randy. “Just tell us how we can work it.”
“I’ve found out where they keep the key to the oil room, and I’ve found two empty ten-gallon cans which can be filled with gasoline. There is plenty of water, and we can put it into anything that comes handy.”
“What about grub?” questioned Ralph.
“That’s goin’ to be the hardest part of it; but there is a good store of everything in the cook’s galley, and I think we kin git in there and help ourselves after he turns in. Of course we’ll have to be mighty careful. If the cap’n caught me tryin’ to git away, he might shoot me down as a deserter,” went on the lanky sailor, solemnly.
After that the boys, although trying outwardly to appear calm, were keyed up to the utmost excitement. They looked around the forecastle for some things which might hold drinking water and found a dozen or more bottles and likewise the corks that had been in them. Then they found a jug containing some vile-smelling liquor.
“We can empty that jug when the time comes and fill that with water also,” said Ralph. “We can tie it fast to the cable and let it slide down to the motor boat.”
“Gee, that’s an idea!” said Andy. “Maybe we can slide some other things down, too. Then we can cut the cable and haul the stuff on board.”
“I wish we had some chloroform to use on the whole bunch,” said Fred. “Then maybe they wouldn’t wake up until well in the morning, and by that time we might be out of sight.”
That evening all of the boys ate frugally, stowing away as much of the meal as they could in their pockets. Andy also watched his chance, and took half a loaf of bread from one of the other tables which the cook had served.
After another conference with Ira Small, it was decided that Jack and Ralph should aid the sailor in getting the gasoline. The others were to watch their chance and enter the cook’s galley and confiscate anything they could lay hands on in the way of food.
“And don’t forgit the water,” warned Ira Small. “On the ocean that’s more important than something to eat.”
“We know all about that,” answered Fred.
It was not until nearly midnight that the boys managed to crawl forth from the forecastle one by one. Several of the sailors were asleep close by, and the lads felt that all might be lost if any of these were awakened.
“I’m going to arm myself,” whispered Ralph. “And if anybody starts anything, I’m going to try to knock him in the head.”
The others thought this a good suggestion, and in the end every lad picked up whatever was handy in the way of a weapon. Then, watching their chance, one crowd made its way to the cook’s galley while the other slunk like shadows to the oil room at the bow.
It proved an easy matter to open the door of the oil room with the key Ira Small had found. But it was not near so easy to run the gasoline from one of the barrels into the two ten-gallon cans. They did not dare make a light for fear of an explosion, and it was difficult to work in the darkness.
But at last they had the cans filled and then Ira Small led the way to the deck once more.
“Now each of you follow me and carry one of the cans,” he said. “I’ll go ahead an’ see if the coast is clear. Don’t make no noise.”
As silently as a ghost the lanky sailor moved toward the stern of the schooner, on the lookout for any one who might be on deck. Not far behind him came the two boys, each struggling with his ten-gallon can of gasoline, a weight by no means light.
“Now go slow,” whispered Small, as he stepped back and brought the lads to a halt. “I don’t believe that fellow at the wheel is more’n half awake, but we don’t want to disturb him.”
As silently as possible, Ralph and Jack followed Small up the few steps leading to the stern deck. There in the semi-darkness they saw one of the sailors leaning heavily on the wheel. He had been drinking freely that evening, and for that reason was not near as alert as he might otherwise have been.
As they passed the cabin they saw the swinging lamp was turned low, but no one was in sight, and they reasoned that the captain and the mate, as well as Ferguson, had retired.
In the meantime, the other boys had made their way to the cook’s galley. It was so dark inside that they could not see a thing, and so were compelled to light one of some matches which Randy had obtained from Small. Then they found a candle and lit this, shading it with their hands so that it might not let out any more light than was needed.
“Here’s a pan of baked beans,” whispered Fred. “What about taking those?”
“Fine—if we can carry them,” answered Spouter.
“Here are some old flour bags. Why can’t we put some of the stuff in those?” suggested Fred, bringing the bags forward.
“A good idea, Fred!” said Andy. “Let’s put all the stuff in bags; then we can tie it over our shoulders and thus keep it out of the water as much as possible when we slide down that cable to the Fancy.”
In a very few minutes the boys had collected a miscellaneous lot of food, including the beans, several loaves of bread, some biscuits, some canned vegetables, bacon, butter, cheese, coffee, condensed milk, sugar and some dried fruit. Everything was placed in the empty bags and in a bit of sail cloth they found tacked up over some shelves.
“Now I guess we’ve got about all we can carry,” whispered Gif. “We don’t want to overload ourselves nor stop ourselves from making a quick get-away.”
The boys were on the point of leaving the galley with their spoils when suddenly they heard a noise outside and a moment later a burly form darkened the doorway.
“Who’s knockin’ round in my galley?” demanded the voice of the colored cook. “You-all ain’t got no right to take no food, and you know it! You had your supper. Now you got to wait for breakfas’. Come out o’ there!”
The boys were so taken by surprise that for the instant they did not know what to do. Then Gif whispered to Spouter:
“Let’s try to capture him. If he raises an alarm, we’ll never get away.”
“All right. Let’s jump him, boys!” called out Spouter to the others, and then leaped upon the cook, and Gif followed.
The colored cook was as much surprised as the boys had been, and before he could recover from his astonishment he found himself dragged into the galley and five boys doing their best to bear him to the floor.
“Hi! Hi!” he sputtered. “What you-all up to? Stop that! Let go of me!”
“Shut up! Don’t dare make a sound!” whispered Gif, in his ear. “Shut up!”
“Who is you?” questioned the cook. “Is you one o’ those boys we done took aboard the other day?”
“If you don’t keep quiet, we’ll heave you overboard,” added Fred, although he had no intention of doing anything of the sort.
“Chile, chile! don’t heave me overboard!” groaned the cook. “I can’t swim! Let go of me! I ain’t done nothin’!”
During their days on the schooner the boys had noticed a small hatch only a few feet from the door to the galley. This hatch had been open to ventilate the hold, and Gif had looked down to find the spot beneath empty.
“You keep quiet,” he ordered, and then he said to his chums: “I know what to do with him. As soon as I tell you to come out, bring him along. And somebody had better put his hand over the fellow’s mouth for fear he may start to yell.”
Slipping outside, Gif made his way to the small hatch and raised it. Then he called softly to the others, and they came outside, dragging the cook with them. Randy had his hand over the fellow’s mouth, and it must be confessed that the colored cook was thoroughly frightened.
“Drop him down the hatchway, quick!” ordered Gif.
Without ceremony, this command was carried out, and the poor colored cook found himself shooting through utter darkness, to land in a heap in the hold of the schooner. Then the boys replaced the hatch and ran back into the galley to get the food they had packed up, and also the bottles and the jug of water. They were just starting for the stern when they found themselves confronted by Ira Small.
“Got the stuff?” whispered the lanky sailor, hoarsely.
“Yes,” answered Andy.
“I thought I heard a little noise up here.”
“You did,” answered Gif. “We were spotted by the cook.”
“And we dropped him down the hatchway over there,” added Spouter.
“Good for you, lads! Good for you! Now come on—there ain’t no time to lose. That fellow hangin’ over the wheel may rouse up at any moment. Besides that, it’s almost time for the next man to take his trick.”
Once more Ira Small led the way to the stern of the Hildegarde. There the other boys found that Jack and Ralph had provided themselves with a number of short pieces of rope.
“We’re going to loop each of the oil cans fast to the cable leading down to the motor boat,” explained Ralph. “You might as well loop all your bundles also. Of course, a good deal of it will get wet, but that can’t be helped. We can’t get it to the boat any other way while we’re riding through these swells. We’ll be lucky to get on the boat ourselves.”
While the boys were looping the last of their bundles fast to the cable where, one after another, the bundles began to slide down from the stern of the schooner toward the motor boat, Ira Small drew back.
“I’ll be with you in a couple o’ minutes,” he said. “You fellows kin follow the stuff down the cable if you want to. But don’t cut it—I’ll do that myself as soon as you’re safe on board and have salvaged the stuff.”
The sailor disappeared in the semi-darkness, and one after another the boys crawled over the stern of the Hildegarde and caught hold of the cable leading down over the ocean to where the motor boat rested. Fortunately, both wind and waves had calmed down considerably, so that the schooner was making but little headway.
It was no easy matter for the boys to reach the motor boat, and they would have had great difficulty in getting aboard had it not been that Captain Gilsen had left an arrangement on the craft so that a sailor from the Hildegarde might get on board whenever it was deemed necessary. This was a sort of rope ladder left across the bow with a line running from the cabin top to the cable just above the water line. Floundering around in the waves and the darkness, one after another of the boys slid along the cable and finally managed to reach the motor boat. The last to come aboard was Jack, and it must be confessed that he was almost spent with his exertions.
“Are we all here?” questioned Gif, hanging fast to one side of the cabin, for they could not as yet get into the motor boat on account of the tarpaulin lashed over the cockpit.
Each lad quickly answered that he was there, for which the whole bunch were thankful.
“Now if only that sailor would come along, we could cut the cable and let the schooner go on her way,” said Ralph, as they began to loosen the tarpaulin.
“Look! Look!” exclaimed Fred, excitedly. “Look at that light on the schooner!”
“Fire! Fire!” was the sudden cry from the Hildegarde. “Everybody on deck! The ship is on fire!” And as the boys gazed in consternation, they saw the flames on the deck of the schooner mounting higher and higher.