His first waking thought was of the beaten silver box. Hurrying into his clothes, he fairly raced to the storing shed. There his eyes fell upon that which left him standing motionless, speechless, struck dumb, paralyzed with fear.
“Gone!” he whispered feebly at last. “The whole pile of chicle at that end is gone, and the silver box with it!”
“The chicle is gone!” he exclaimed to his grandfather a moment later when that old gentleman came into the shed.
“Yes,” his grandfather smiled. “Monago and his band of Caribs came in with me at dawn from the north corner of the tract for some supplies. I sent them with four pit-pan loads of chicle down the river. They will bring up supplies. The chicle will be shipped at once. I received word yesterday that the chicle supply was short and that ours should be rushed through to meet the demand.”
“Gone!” the boy whispered as he crept away for a few moments of quiet thought.
CHAPTER XIV
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
The end of the storm that had trapped Johnny and Madge Kennedy in the heart of a great banana plantation came suddenly. Clouds went racing. The wind fell. The moon shone again in all its golden glory. It looked down upon a scene of unmatched destruction.
Creeping from their place of refuge which had all but become a pool, they allowed their eyes to sweep the devastated fields.
“It’s the end; no doubt of it,” said Johnny.
“Looks like the end of the world.” There was quiet humor in the girl’s tone.