For the next few hours they were as busy as beavers. Phil sent out his signals winging their way through space and before an hour had passed had several answers and offers of help. One especially appealed to him that came from the American naval cutter Centaur doing patrol duty in those waters. She was over a hundred miles distant at the time, but the captain, after Phil from Benton’s figures had given him the exact latitude and longitude of the island, promised to be on hand and take them off the following morning.
He kept his promise and the boys’ hearts thrilled as the smart cutter with the Stars and Stripes flying over it hove into view the next morning. She stopped a little way out and sent a boat under the command of an ensign to take them off. The ensign proved to be a fine upstanding young fellow of their own kind, and was most cordial and helpful. The transfer of their belongings was made without delay or difficulty, and before noon they were on their way to Jamaica, which for obvious reasons they had chosen as their first landing place instead of San Domingo, with its lurking dangers from the discomfited members of the gang of Ramirez.
They stood in a group on the after deck of the vessel that afternoon, looking back at the old pirate’s island that was just sinking below the horizon.
“Well,” remarked Dick, with a sigh of huge satisfaction, “it wasn’t a wild goose chase after all. We got the treasure.”
“And a mighty hefty one too,” put in Tom. “I wonder how much it will pan out.”
“Fully a hundred thousand dollars, I should say at a rough guess,” replied Benton. “That’ll be a pretty nice nest egg for each one of the five of us.”
“It’ll come in mighty handy,” observed Phil. “And just think of the adventures we had in getting it. I don’t suppose we’ll ever have such exciting times again in all our lives.”
But how far he was from the facts will be seen by those who read the next volume of this series, entitled: “The Radio Boys In the Rockies; Or, The Mystery of Lost Valley.”
They landed safely in Jamaica, and then as fast as boats and trains could carry them made for home. At Bimbo’s earnest entreaty, Phil agreed to take him along with them.
“The one thing this trip has taught me is that it pays to take chances,” Dick remarked, as they were speeding along in the last lap of their journey. “We took big chances and got away with them.”