“I can tell you we exchanged blank glances when we overheard this. It seemed pretty tough that, after all we had gone through, we were to be robbed of what was bound to prove a substantial reward, for Professor Chadwick had insisted that we agree to take an equal share with him having participated in his dangers.
“But to our astonishment the search evidently resulted in nothing being found. For before long we heard Herrera bursting out into Spanish oaths. He wanted to know what had become of the box.
“‘If you had asked me before,’ Professor Chadwick replied, ‘I would have told you. I threw it overboard rather than let it fall into your hands.’
“We listened for an outburst or worse right then. But none came. The rascal, in whose power we were, evidently didn’t know the value of the silver box, for he merely remarked that Professor Chadwick’s act would not improve our situation, and left the cabin. But we, in the adjoining stateroom, again exchanged blank glances. It was no joke to think of that fortune in magnificent stones being consigned to the muddy depths of that Yucatan stream.
“A short time after Herrera left the cabin, however. Professor Chadwick climbed up on a bunk in his stateroom, and placing his lips to the grating informed us that he had not, in reality, hurled the box overboard, but that it was suspended outside the porthole of his cabin by a fine bit of cord which he had happened to have in his pockets. The porthole was beneath the overhang of the stern of the gunboat, and unless any sailor went prying about under the vessel’s counter there was not much likelihood of its being discovered. The Professor informed us also that he was determined not to purchase our liberty at the price of the precious stones.
“‘This is the twentieth century,’ he said, ‘and I refuse to believe that this rascal, for such Herrera has shown himself to be, will dare to hold captive free American citizens for any length of time.’
“We agreed with him in this, but MacDuffy, who, as an engineer, possessed with an investigating turn of mind, still busied himself, as he had since the moment of our imprisonment, with trying to find some means of escape. There was a nine-inch porthole in our stateroom, and also in the other two. But, of course, this offered no opportunity for escape. By peeping out through it, however, we could see that our dugouts had been attached to the stern of the Tarantula by a line. If we could only reach them we might be able to attain freedom.
“All at once MacDuffy uttered an exclamation. He had discovered that under the porthole was a square plate, bolted into the stern frames, and seemingly devised, when removed, to permit of a gun being thrust through the opening. The nuts which held the bolts in place were inside the cabin, and MacDuffy produced from his pockets a serviceable-looking monkey wrench, which was the engineer’s constant companion.
“‘I’ll undertake to have those nuts unscrewed in half an hour,’ said he in a low, excited tone, ‘and then what’s to prevent us dropping through the stern to-night, hooking the dugouts and floating down to the coast?’
“What indeed? we thought. The plan looked feasible enough. But, naturally, we did not, for a minute, countenance the idea of making good our own escape and leaving the rest to their fate. But Professor Chadwick, when we communicated our plan, decided at once that we must make the attempt that night, and, if we succeeded in reaching the coast and the Sea King, must summon help.