“It will be possible to get into the engine-room, and if that can be done without raising an alarm, I count on regaining possession of the steamer with but precious little trouble.”
“How?” both boys asked in the same breath.
“Here is the scheme, and mind that you understand it perfectly, for there will be no opportunity to explain matters after we begin operations. There is a speaking-tube from this room to the pilot-house, isn’t there?”
Yes,” Vance replied wonderingly. “Father had it put in so he could talk to the man at the wheel without being obliged to go on deck.”
“Very well: when I give the word, you must whistle through and claim to want to talk with Manuel. That will bring him up to the pilot-house. Then you are to ask him on what terms he will agree to set us adrift at some point where we can reach Key West without difficulty——”
“But we mustn’t think of leaving the yacht until it becomes absolute necessary,” Roy exclaimed.
“Wait till I finish. You are to keep on trying to make a trade with Manuel until you hear me whistle, and then you can stop. While he is there the sailing master will beat the wheel as a matter of course, which leaves no one but the steward and the engineer below. I shall pull out the panel the moment you nod to show me Manuel has come to the tube. Then each of us carrying a revolver, Vance and I will slip through. I count on surprising the engineer so much that I shall have the weapon leveled at his head before he knows we are anywhere near. Vance mustn’t stop, but keep right on to the kitchen and make the darkey a prisoner in the same manner. Then I shall whistle; you must rush down as quickly as possible and secure all the hatches leading to the upper deck, and with one of the revolvers run back here to shoot the first person who attempts to get in this way.”
“But we shall be shut up below the same as we are here,” Roy said thoughtfully.
“Yes, but it’ll be for us to say whether the yacht shall go ahead or astern, and those fellows will be forced to come to our terms, for if a craft of any kind should heave in sight she’d be certain to bear down on us for the purpose of learning what was the matter, and then if the truth didn’t get out it would be our own fault.”
“It’s a big scheme,” said Vance approvingly, “only we had better understand beforehand what is to be done if the engineer and steward don’t give up when we cover them with the revolvers.”