“That’s what it was, pretty near, for us,” said Phil, quietly. “Look!” and he pointed toward the mountain lifting its threatening bulk against the sky. A thin, curling line of smoke was hovering above it, a line that thickened even while they looked.
There was a gasp of dismay from the boys as they realized what that sinister film meant. To their suddenly cleared minds it could mean only one thing. The mountain was on the verge of eruption!
“Looks as if they’d got us comin’ or goin’” said Steve, trying to speak lightly, without in the least disguising his true state of mind. “If the earth doesn’t open and swallow us up, the volcano will erupt and bury us. Fine prospect, I should call it!”
It took them a long time to get back to the cave, retarded as they were by the piled-up trunks of uprooted trees and the yawning fissures in the earth.
And all the way they kept a wary eye on that film of smoke above the mountain that grew in volume with every minute. There was no doubt about it, the volcano was getting ready for action.
When they came near the cave they saw that Benton and Bimbo were looking for them anxiously, and when they appeared Jack looked as though a thousand ton weight had fallen from his shoulders and the faithful Bimbo almost wept in his joy.
“I sho did think yo’ was a goner that time, Marse Phil,” he kept repeating over and over, pawing over Phil as though he could not satisfy himself that his young master was really alive and unhurt. “Dat earthquake done make so much noise, I done thought you’d gone clean to de bottom of it.”
“What—the earthquake?” asked Phil, with a shaky laugh. “Never as bad as that, Bimbo. Trust this old penny to turn up every time.”
Then they talked things over and decided that the only wise thing to do was to recover the chests from the pirate ship as soon as possible and desert their perilous position on the island.
“That’s all very well,” said Steve at the end of their “pow-wow.” “But how are we going to do anything, I’d like to know, as long as this storm keeps up.”