Action on land is one thing. On sea it is quite another. They were half way up the bay when the wind fell. The sail fell with it, and the boat stood still in a placid sea.
For two precious hours the boy with a bruised and aching head lay beneath a pitiless tropical sun. Then the merciful after dinner breeze came up and at once they went booming along.
Nothing can be more delightful than a sail in a Carib boat on the Caribbean Sea. To lie on deck and sense the lifting glide of the prow, to feel the cool breeze on your face, to see the water go rippling by, that is joy indeed. Pant would have enjoyed it to the full had not his mind been vexed by many questions. Would he reach Belize in time or would the steamer be gone? Was the chicle sack of the green thread still on the sailing boat of the night before, or had the marauders carried it away? If it were still on board, if it went to America and he did not go with it, what then? Would he recover the treasure?
“Not a chance,” he told himself. “I must have been out of my head to hide the box in such a place. But now I must see it through.
“Why must I?” he asked himself, and at once came the answer, “The old Don.” Unconsciously he had come to think of the treasure of pearls as belonging as much to the aged Don as to himself. And to that man he owed much. He had, beyond doubt, once saved his grandfather’s life.
They were nearing Belize. The white houses with their red roofs showed in the distance. And, joy of joys! There to the left was the Torentia riding at anchor.
Still there was much to fear. She might at any moment weigh anchor and put out to sea.
“And after all,” he said to himself, “what am I to do? By this time the chicle is stowed away. Dare I make a clean breast of my story? I wouldn’t dare trust them. What then? I must go with the ship to New York. But I have no money. Who is to pay my passage?” Surely here was a situation.
“I will find a way. I must!”
And in the end he did. Sailing time was only a half hour off when he climbed the rope ladder to the deck of the Torentia.