CHAPTER XXVII
ON THE ALERT
The night of terror had been a severe strain on the boys, and, coupled with the loss of sleep, made them feel completely fagged the next morning. Nature had seemed to be in league with their human enemies. Either would have been formidable enough alone, but combined they presented a grim problem that it would tax all their resources to meet and overcome.
But there was no relaxation in their determination to defend themselves to the last gasp. No one of them yielded to panic fears. They might go down, but if they did they would go down fighting.
“There’s one benefit anyway that this eruption has brought us,” remarked Benton, as they were dispatching a hasty breakfast.
“That’s what I call looking on the bright side of things with a vengeance,” remarked Dick. “I can’t think of a single thing besides trouble that it means to us.”
“What I mean is this,” explained Benton. “Up to now we haven’t been at all certain as to when the bandits would attack us. It might be in a week, it might be in a month. But now we know for certain. They’ll try to rush us tonight as sure as shooting.”
“You must be the seventh son of a seventh son to fix the time so precisely,” observed Tom.
“I see where Jack is right,” exclaimed Phil. “It’s been all that Ramirez could do to hold his men in check so far. He’s done it by sheer force. But after last night there’ll be no use trying to keep them in. They’ll be terror-stricken and want to get off the island just as soon as possible. But of course they won’t go until they have a hack at the treasure. It’s a dead certainty that they’ll come for it to-night.”
Tom and Dick yielded to the force of the reasoning.
“That being so,” said Benton, “it’s up to us to get busy, for we’re going to have about the hardest day’s work we ever did. They’re figuring on a surprise. Well, they’ll get it all right, but it won’t be the kind they’re looking for.