THE SENATOR'S SON SEEKS A KEY.
Jimmie and Jack were lying behind a great flowing vine which swung from a balete tree, looking keenly out in the direction in which they believed the camp to be situated, when four lusty men who appeared to be Filipinos crept noiselessly out of the jungle and sat down on their backs with chuckles of satisfaction.
"Quit it!" roared Jimmie, thinking they had been followed from the boat.
Then he saw it was no joke, for Jack was floundering about, and one of the little brown men was tying his hands with a hard cord. He flopped over on his back and looked up into the sinister face of a native.
"What's comin' off here?" demanded the boy, trying hard to get a glimpse of Jack from where he lay.
"We're pinched!" Jack called out.
Then the two were dragged hastily to their feet and pushed through the jungle toward the camp. Jimmie thought this a place for optimism, and decided to try it on the low-browed chap who was rather rudely forcing him along. "I was just thinking of going down to see your camp," he said with a grin, "but I didn't know the way exactly. I'm glad you happened along. I've got the left hind foot of a rabbit that was caught by a black cat at midnight, in the dark of the moon, in a negro cemetery, on the grave of a black man who was hanged for murder. Guess that's brought me luck."
"You'll need four rabbits' feet if you get out of this," Jack grumbled. "Suppose we take a quick hike for the boat, right now?" he added, believing the Filipinos would not be able to understand English.
In this he was mistaken, for one of the men said:
"Don't you ever try it. Your left hind foot won't protect you if you do."
The boys gazed about the group, now halted, trying to pick out the speaker.
"But this is a magic rabbit-foot," Jimmie retorted, scornfully as if any sane person ought to know of the virtues of a left hind rabbit-foot. "It used to be owned by an armless man who rowed over the Great American Desert in an open boat!"
This, of course, was all for the purpose of inducing the one who had spoken in English to speak again, in order that he might be sorted out of the others. Jimmie's imaginative powers proved equal to the occasion.
A man who, regarded closely, did not look at all like a Filipino—a slender, though broad-shouldered, man with sharp gray eyes and the awkward manner of one unused to disguise—laughed lightly at the boy's odd conceit and said:
"That will be about enough of that Bowery lingo. What are you boys doing here?" he added.
"We came over to see about puttin' up a couple of skyscrapers!" replied Jimmie. "The air seems nice an' high here. Guess we wouldn't have to push it up any to build fifty stories. Where you takin' us?" he went on. "If I owned this shrubbery we're borin' through, I'd have it manicured."
"Where did you leave the Manhattan?" asked the other, without taking the trouble to answer Jimmie's question.
"We didn't leave her," Jimmie lied, cheerfully arguing with himself that it wasn't any of the other man's business where they had left the boat. "She's left us, an' gone off on a cruise to the South; left us to reign on this island. She'll be back in a couple of days, an' then you'll get what's comin' to you."
"I'm glad you took over the government of the island," the other laughed. "Only for your appearance here we should not have known about the Manhattan being in these waters. Now we can look her up. We have a steamer here for that purpose."
"I guess I ought to have remained on board," Jimmie said, ruefully.
"It is a wonder that Nestor permitted you to leave the boat," observed the other. "It is said of the lad that he makes few mistakes," he went on, glancing from one boy to the other.
"So you know Ned, do you?" asked Jack. "Well, you know a good fellow. If you stay about here you'll be likely to know more about him before long."
"Oh, I mean to remain," was the cool reply. "Nestor is wanted at Manila for disobeying orders, and I'll take him along with me when I go. There's a steamer out here looking for him."
The boys knew that Ned had left Manila in defiance of the orders of Major John Ross, but they did not believe that a steamer had been sent out to arrest him. They knew that he had received his original orders from Washington, and believed that when Ross communicated with the authorities there he would be instructed to keep his hands off so far as Ned was concerned.
The man was, of course, lying, doubtless in the hope of creating the impression in the minds of the boys that he was still in the service of the government, and there on official business. The boys had no fear of their leader being taken back to Manila under arrest. They were more concerned for his life if he fell into the hands of this traitor.
"You know a fat lot about it," Jack said, disdainfully. "What you know about Ned's business won't swell your head any. Where's this steamer you're talking about?"
"I suspect," replied the other, "that she is now circling the island in order to pick up the Manhattan. Nestor was wrong to run away with a government boat. He'll serve time for it, I reckon."
"I suppose," Jimmie said, in as sarcastic a tone as he could bring forth, "that you're lookin' among these bushes for the Manhattan. She might have climbed one of these big trees," he added, with a grin.
The leader made no reply, none being required, and the party pressed forward toward the center of the island. The jungle grew thinner as they advanced, and presently the encampment came into view.
It was evident to the boys that some of the native chiefs were there in state, for some of the tents—doubtless stolen from the government—were gaudily decorated, and attendants were flying about as if their lives depended on the speed with which they covered the ground. It seemed to the boys that there could not be less than three hundred persons present, and the decorated tents, marking the stopping place of a chief, indicated a large collection of native rulers.
The boys were not taken through the encampment, but led into a tent on the outskirts, where they were securely tied up and left alone.
"Cripes!" Jimmie said, when the flap of the tent fell behind the figure of the disguised man, "this reminds me of a drammer we used to have on the good old Bowery. In this play there was a girl that was always bein' captured an' rescued. Any scene that didn't witness a couple of captures and a couple of rescues was no good. This is just like that. We're bein' captured, all right, but we ain't bein' rescued—not just yet!"
"Ned's somewhere about," Jack said, confidently. "He'll manage to turn us loose before long."
Then through the jungle, and ringing snappingly on the clear air, came the snorting of the Manhattan's engines. At that moment she was entering the little creek which Pat had pointed out. In a moment the explosions ceased.
"If they didn't know before," Jack said, "they know now. It won't take them long to geezle the Manhattan now. Say," he added, "roll over here and eat these cords. If I could get down to them I'd soon be free."
"I wonder if I could?" asked Jimmie.
The cords were hard and strong and tightly knotted, but after a long time the boy succeeded in releasing Jack's hands, and the rest was easy as they were alone in the tent. In a very short time both boys were free of bonds.
The tent did not seem to be guarded, as the captors doubtless believed escape from the island impossible, even if the boys succeeded in getting away from the camp. They did not know, of course, that the member of the Wild Cat Patrol from Manila had noted the capture of the lads, and had started away to notify their friends as soon as the explosions heard so plainly by the boys notified him of the whereabouts of the Manhattan.
Jimmie and Jack remained quietly in the tent for some moments after their freedom from their bonds had been gained, then Jimmie crawled to the wall nearest the center of the camp, lifted the canvas and looked out. He crouched there a moment and then dropped the canvas and turned to his chum.
"You remember the night in Yokohama?" he asked.
"I should say so," Jack replied. "Didn't I wait around a bum old hotel until almost morning for you to come back?"
"Well," Jimmie went on, "the man that sat in disguise in the tea house, and the men who were there with him, are out there."
Jack approached the little opening made by the lifting of the canvas and looked out.
"Which one?" he asked. "Which one was disguised!"
"The military-lookin' chap," was the reply.
"On the night them gazabos chased us down the Street of a Thousand Steps he was made up like a Jap. When we came to the marines he ducked, as if afraid of Uncle Sam's uniforms."
"Ned rather thought he'd be down to this conference," Jack said.
The man to whom the boy called special attention was in the garb of a civilian, but the military manner was unmistakable. He now stood talking with half a dozen Filipinos, occasionally pointing to the eastern coast of the island.
"He's sendin' his natives after the Manhattan, all right," Jimmie said. "There's goin' to be somethin' doin here before long. Look who's here!" he added, as a young man of perhaps twenty-five sauntered toward the tent.
Under his arm the young man carried a steel box, like those used as receptacles for cash and important papers in safe deposit vaults. The box seemed to be quite heavy, for the young man frequently shifted it from one side to the other.
"There's your treaty box!" laughed Jack, poking Jimmie in the ribs.
"It may be, at that," the boy replied.
The young man passed from group to group in front of the tents, apparently seeking some one. Occasionally he pointed to the keyhole of the box and the others felt in their pockets.
"He's lost the key to the treaty box," Jimmie grinned.
"Probably he's got cigarettes in there and wants to dope himself with one," Jack replied.
"Anyway," Jimmie went on, "I wish Ned was here. I'll bet he could open that box for him."
"Now he's talking with the man who chased you out of the tea house in the Street of a Thousand Steps," Jack said, "and the fellow is raving about something."
"They can't open the treaty box!" laughed Jimmie.
"You'll be seeing things next," Jack grunted. "Now, what do you think of that?" he added. "The chap is bringing his box here."
"Then fix yourself up so you'll look like you was in captivity," Jimmie advised. "If he finds out we've released ourselves he'll tie us up again."
The boys found pieces of the cord with which they had been tied and managed to put up a very fair imitation of being bound good and hard. When the young man entered the tent he stood over them for a moment with a supercilious grin on his face.
"How do you like it, boys?" he finally asked.
"Fine!" Jimmie sang out.
"Isn't it most dinner time?" Jack added.
The young man sat down on a bundle of freshly cut grass, placed the box by his side, placed his chin on his hands, his elbows on his knees, and sat for some moments regarding the boys with an amused smile on his rather weak face.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"We're doin' acrobatic stunts on a high wire just now," scorned Jimmie.
"Don't get gay, now," the other growled. "I'm the son of a United States senator."
"I'm the sister of the sun an' moon," Jimmie replied. "So don't be givin' me no guff."
"You're a cheeky little baggage," the son of the senator replied, rising to his feet.
"You might leave that box here," Jimmie called out, "if it's got anythin' to eat in it. We could eat a crocodile."
"Be careful that the crocodiles don't eat you," warned the other and, seizing the box in a firmer grasp, walked out of the tent.
"What do you make of it?" asked Jack.
"The son of a senator," Jimmie replied, "is here representin' some big interest, an' that's the treaty box he's got. Say, if they ever get all these native kings an' queens an' prime ministers to goin', there'll be bloody war in the Philippines, an' Japan, or China, or Germany, or France will butt in, an' there'll be a fine time."
"Of course," Jack replied. "That's why we've got to stop it."
"It might be stopped by scatterin' these chiefs, an' kings, an' all the rest," Jimmie concluded.
"Not so you could notice it," Jack insisted. "Didn't we scatter them when they met on that other island? Well, they've come together again, haven't they? I've heard Ned say that the only way to stop this thing is to get a good grip on the man at the head of it. The thing now is to find who that man is."
"I should say so, with the military men all mixed up in it!" Jimmie said. "It seems to me that the head of it must be in Washington, in Manila, or in Yokohama. I wish Ned was here."
"Tied up?" echoed Jack. "If he was, we'd never get out. Let me tell you this, little man," he went on, the tan on his cheeks showing browner than ever against the sudden paleness of his face, "let me tell you this: These men are here in the guise of soldiers to put this treaty through. These chiefs think they represent men high up in our government. If they didn't think so they wouldn't listen.
"When it is all over, and war has been declared, and our title to the islands has gone up in smoke, these traitors will go back to their posts in the army. Now, this being the case, they won't want to see us around, will they?"
"Hardly," was the reply.
Jimmie saw what his chum was coming to and opened his eyes wider than ever.
"You mean," he added, "that when the ruction breaks out, or even before, we'll be put out of the way?"
"Of course."
"Then I'm goin' to duck right now!" Jimmie said, moving toward the wall of the tent. "I'm not goin' to stay here an' be bolo meat. If we can get to the first thicket we stand a chance of gettin' to the Manhattan."
"That's all right, but it won't do," Jack said. "Don't you suppose these gazabos heard the fuss the engine was makin'? Well, then! But we've got to go somewheres, so come on. Me for a point opposite to the direction of the sounds we heard."
There was a sudden commotion in the camp just then, and the boys reached the first thicket.