As soon as they had fortified themselves with food, they set about to barricade the cave. For, as Phil had said, the odds were tremendously on the side of Ramirez and his men and in order to overcome these odds it was necessary that their position be strongly fortified.
They barricaded the mouth of the cave, leaving a gap only wide enough for one person to squeeze through with difficulty. They were careful to leave peep holes, however, through which they might watch the movements of the enemy.
A heavy stone had been rolled inside the cave so that even the narrow aperture might be blocked up if it became necessary.
“There,” said Phil, grimly as he regarded the operations. “Now let ’em come on.”
CHAPTER XXVI
THE VOLCANO WAKES
Then began the hardest part of it all for the boys—the waiting part. There was no telling what time Ramirez and his men might take for the attack so that all they could expect to do was to keep a close guard upon the cave and—wait.
They thought constantly of the rest of the treasure which still lay in the hold of the sunken ship. If only they had been able to recover the remainder of those precious chests before they had learned of the new danger that threatened them!
Dick was for going ahead anyway on the chance that Ramirez would not attack that day. But the rest were all against such a wild plan.
“There is no use risking what treasure we have already—as well as our lives,” said Phil. “What’s to prevent Ramirez and his men from sneaking up while we were out there on the raft and barring our way back to shore? With the heavy odds against us, what chance would we have?”
“We’d have the choice,” Steve took up the argument, “of pitting our six men against their twenty or staying out on the raft to starve or be caught in one of the sudden storms that we have around here and drown—”