“Yes, and what happened that you think concerns me?” asked Oscar impatiently.
“Excuse me for being so personal. What I was going to say was this. During the night my friend had occasion to go back to his room for something; he was feeling sick, and in need of some medicine he had there. So, as I was sitting with him, he asked me to just keep an ear open, and pick up anything that passed by worth while. Well, I caught a message from a man who signed himself Captain Badger. He was calling Curacao, and asking if a submarine under the American flag had put in there, and promising a reward for an answer. He spoke of those boys being aboard, and I made out that the name of one was Oscar. Somehow I just guessed that was you.”
Oscar nodded his head. He remembered that the Dauntless was equipped with wireless apparatus, so that it was nothing unusual for the steam yacht to be casting out feelers in every direction.
“Thank you for telling me of this,” he said to the other. “It is of considerable importance to me and my friends, also the skipper of the submersible. If you will come back with me on my return, I’ll see that you are given what money is needed to take you to Savannah. Of course when the operator returned to his post he had that message; what answer did he send?”
“Oh! he told Captain Badger that such a vessel as he mentioned had arrived at Curacao yesterday afternoon, and was even then in port. He even explained about your boat taking aboard empty oil barrels and lumber. I reckon that must have just pleased this Badger a heap, for he promised to see my friend when his boat came into port for supplies, perhaps tomorrow.”
Oscar was as good as his word, and later on before the Argonaut left the Dutch island, he saw that John Baxter was given a sum more than enough to pay his passage to Savannah, Ga.
This news, while interesting, did not cause any of them great concern. It simply confirmed their suspicion that after finding the “orange had been sucked dry,” as Ballyhoo expressed it, Badger had once more set out to chase after the undersea will-o’-the-wisp boat, determined to try again and again in the hope of outwitting his rivals, and, perhaps, securing all the prizes that had already fallen to their share.
Forewarned was forearmed, and they would keep a bright lookout for that same steam yacht of the sable hue.
Once more they were off on the bounding waves, and with a secret destination in view. The splendid success that had been their portion thus far encouraged all hands in the belief that fortune smiled on their enterprise, and that, consequently, the future would have more like triumphs to reward their energy and perseverance.
Two days later they approached another island in the Caribbean Sea. This time they were further to the west, and, indeed, not more than two days off the Mosquito Coast, where the great canal starts across the isthmus of Panama.