“Jove, lads!” he exclaimed, “this wireless is a wonderful thing. It’s tipped off that greaser’s hand to us in great shape. He——”
“Wait till you get the whole message and then you can read it out to us,” suggested Jack.
Both the sailor and Tom worked like beavers at their task, and ere long Captain Andrews leaned back in his chair and announced that he was ready to read the messages as he had translated them.
As he had hinted, they caused a sensation. Herrera had wirelessed his plantation, and after a short interval had received a reply. He,—or, rather, his operator,—then proceeded to relate all that had occurred; and told,—the boys had to smile at this,—how the accursed gringos had tricked them by some sort of hypnotism!
However, so the message ran on, the capable Senor Herrera had managed to rally his men on their recovery from the spell of witchcraft, and had speedily organized a force to repair the damaged machinery and wireless apparatus. This done, all speed had been made at once for the coast whither, as they guessed, the gringos had preceded them.
“Well, Herrera’s, man ashore soon informed them on board the Tarantula that such was the case,” continued Captain Andrews, “and gave him a full, true and particular account of how they stopped us with that chain and that fusillade. He told Herrera that he had confined the gringos in one of the buildings used for the hemp crushers, and that they were as safe as if they were in a safe deposit vault. Friend Herrera then congratulated him on his astuteness, and said that he would run the bar first thing in the morning, only stopping, by the way, to blow the Vagrant out of the water and send us all to Kingdom Come.”
“Reckon he’s got another guess coming on that,” grinned Ned Bangs, looking at Jack.
“I hope so,” said that lad; “but now that we are in possession of these facts it’s up to us to move quickly. Captain, do you think we can find that branch creek in the night?”
“We’ve got to,” was the grim response, “if we don’t want to part with the good old Vagrant, and I’d hate to lose any ship I’ve trod the deck of.”
“Then, let’s up anchor and get out of here,” said Jack.