“Same here,” muttered Tom dismally; “but can you form any idea as to why we’re being treated in this way?”
Jack shook his head.
“It’s all a Chinese puzzle to me,” he said. “Of course, that ruffian on deck hinted that there had been a mutiny of some sort, and that between the time that we answered the signal guns and the moment we reached the ship the Professor had been made prisoner.”
“Didn’t you see a struggle to pull down the flag when you looked through the glasses?” asked Tom.
“Yes, two or three men on the stern deck appeared to be battling with some others whom they finally drove off.”
“Then depend upon it, the whole crew has not mutinied. Probably the men you saw were the Professor and the Captain or some other officer who had remained loyal,” struck in Dick Donovan. “Come to think of it, I believe I saw a despatch in the paper some time ago about this very yacht,” he went on. “The cable came from the Canary Islands and said that the Valkyrie had put in there with a mutinous crew and shipped another one. She then proceeded on her voyage across the Atlantic. There was some mystery about her destination, but it was generally supposed that she had on board a party of treasure hunters bound to recover lost treasure somewhere in South America.”
“From what I’ve heard dad say about Professor Von Dinkelspeil,” said Jack, “I don’t think the professor is much of a chap for that sort of thing. Dad said that he was a famous naturalist.”
“Maybe he was going to combine natural history and treasure hunting in South America,” suggested Dick. “Anyhow, one thing is sure; for some reason this new crew has mutinied like the old one. They now have possession of the ship and we are their prisoners. The question is, what are they going to do with us?”
Dick’s clear way of putting it made them all look serious. It was plain enough that, after treating them in the manner that they had, the mutinous crew could not afford to chance setting them ashore. In that case their ultimate fate remained a mystery.
“What do you think about it?” asked Tom, turning to Dick. In some way he felt that this bright-eyed, alert lad was more likely to have the key to the situation than any of them. But Dick shook his head perplexedly.