“A few moments later,” continued Ned, “we were standing on the deck of the sinister-looking craft, confronted by her equally sinister-looking owner, for such we soon found he was, in fact, if not in name. From him we speedily learned that not only was he the governor of that part of the province of Yucatan, but that he also controlled large plantations near the mouth of the river. The principal produce of these was sisal hemp, a well-known and valuable product of the country.

“Naturally, we supposed that as soon as we had told our story, the first act of Ramon Herrera, for such he informed us was his name, would be to aid us in reaching our yacht. But the event proved exactly to the contrary.

“‘You will take up quarters for the present on my yacht, gentlemen,’ he said, in a tone almost of command.

“Professor Chadwick started to protest, but met with a stern interruption.

“‘My country is in the throes of a revolution,’ Herrera said, ‘and at the present time it is unknown to me whether your United States of North America is involved in the trouble or not. It is my belief, and that of many of my countrymen, that the massing of troops on the Texan border, by orders of your President Taft, is a menace to the Diaz government, and an encouragement to the revolutionaries. This being so, you must regard yourselves as my guests,—I will not use an uglier word,—till such time as I receive further advices. Furthermore, I do not mean to make any secret of my dislike for meddling Yankees.’

“‘Sir,’ exclaimed Professor Chadwick, ‘you are deliberately insulting.’

“‘Senor Yankee,’ was the calm reply, ‘you have deliberately intruded yourself into a country where you and your inquisitive countrymen are not wanted.’

“‘I am not aware by what right you dare to assume such an attitude toward us,’ resumed Professor Chadwick, now thoroughly aroused, and, indeed, we were all at the boiling-point, as you can imagine. Herrera’s every word seemed to be a deliberate taunt.

“‘I assume my attitude, as you call it, by right of might,’ was the cold reply, ‘my ancestor. General Jose de Guzman Herrera, was slain by your Yankee soldiers in the Mexican war. Judge, then, if I have any reason to favor Yankees.’

“‘You are likely to pay dearly for this forcible detention of peaceful citizens of a republic at peace with your country,’ warned Allworthy.

“Herrera shrugged his shoulders.

“‘I’ll take my chance of that,’ he said, ‘besides, as I remarked before, I am not so certain that my country and your country are not by this time at war.’

“Well, there was nothing more to be said, and determined to make the best of our situation we went docilely enough to the quarters that Herrera had provided for us, which consisted of three cabins in the extreme stern of the ship. Captain Andrews, MacDuffy and I were thrust into one cabin, your father and Mr. Jesson into the next compartment, and Abner Jennings and the two sailors into a third stateroom.

“Here was a pretty kettle of fish, and a fine ending to our hopes of reaching the coast, which, we were confident, was not far distant. From scraps of conversation we overheard, for there were gratings above each stateroom door, we learned that the Tarantula was tied up to the shore bordering on one of Herrera’s plantations. We heard later that the slaves,—most of them Mosquito Coast negroes illegally impressed as slaves,—had made some trouble, and that Herrera was here with his armed craft to suppress the uprising by stern means. What these means were we found out later, and without going into detail, we heard enough to know that the monster,—as we subsequently found him to be,—spared no form of cruelty to browbeat his luckless servitors into submission. All this was translated for us by Captain Andrews, who spoke Spanish fluently.

“We might have been confined in our narrow quarters for an hour, or it might have been longer, when we heard the door of the adjoining stateroom unlocked, and presently voices came to us through the grating. It was easy to recognize Herrera’s tones as he cross-examined Professor Chadwick. One of the Mexican sailors had noticed that when the professor came on board he had slipped a silver chest—the treasure box—under his coat. The fellow had informed Herrera, and now that arch-scoundrel was demanding that Professor Chadwick and Mr. Jesson submit to being searched.

“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.

“After a lot of persuasion we agreed to do this. Then we waited, with as much patience as we could muster, for the night to fall. Food and drink was brought us at dusk, and we ate all we could, knowing that we might have strenuous work before us. After dark MacDuffy fell to work on the bolts. It took scarcely an hour to loosen them. This much accomplished, we waited till all grew quiet about the Tarantula, which was not before midnight.

“Whispering a good-by to Professor Chadwick and Mr. Jesson, we dropped through the opening, after MacDuffy had removed the plate which left a hole some four feet square. The rope by which the dugouts trailed astern was just above our heads. Captain Andrews seized it and pulled the first of the frail craft toward the Tarantula till it was under the opening we had made. Then they told me to drop down as silently as possible. When I was on board MacDuffy followed, stuffing his wrench into his hip pocket, and last came Captain Andrews. Before we cut loose we, according to Professor Chadwick’s instructions, cut the string by which the jewel casket was suspended, and stowed it safely on board the dugout.

“This done, I cut the painter with a slash of my knife, and the dugout drifted silently off down the current into the darkness. Our escape had been made in safety. We reached the coast, and after paddling northward for half a day, sighted the Sea King. All was as we had left it, and mighty glad every one was to see us. I can tell you. But the plight of Professor Chadwick, Mr. Jesson and the rest, cast a gloom over us all.”

“Tell me,” begged Tom, interrupting again, “are they still on the Tarantula?”

“I don’t know,” replied Ned.

“Well, hurry your story,” exclaimed Jack. “We must go to their rescue wherever they are!”

“Captain Andrews lost no time in ordering me to the wireless,” continued Ned hastily, “and as we steamed northward I kept pumping away at my key. At length, as you know, I got into communication with you. But as I did so there was a sharp and sudden shock through the Sea King, and she came to an abrupt stop. That shaft had parted again. There was nothing for us to do but to anchor. At almost the same time one of the crew shouted that a craft resembling the Tarantula was on the southern horizon and overhauling us fast. It didn’t need a second look to show us that the strange vessel was indeed the Tarantula. As she drew close to us there was a flash and a puff of smoke from her bow, and ‘crash!’ our aerials parted,—shot through at the foremast.

“There we were, crippled and helpless, and I didn’t even know for sure if my message to you was clear or no.”

“One question,” put in Jack, “has the Tarantula a wireless?”

“Yes; I meant to tell you about that. She is fitted with a collapsible military mast, and, from what we overheard, Herrera has a complete plant at his plantation ashore likewise.”

“That disposes of X.Y.Z.,” said Jack, glancing at Tom. “It’s plain enough now that some one ashore intercepted our message, just as we caught theirs, and flashed it to Herrera.”

“Guess you’re right,” agreed Tom gloomily, “and we are responsible for giving away the exact location of the Sea King.”

“How’s that?” asked Ned, in a wondering tone.

“I’ll explain all about it later,” said Jack, “the thing is now to formulate some sort of plan to get out of this tangle. Is Captain Andrews or Chief MacDuffy about?”

“MacDuffy is below, trying to fix the break in the shaft,” was the response. “Captain Andrews is asleep in his cabin. He was worn out, and I didn’t wake him when our rocket signals were answered by you.”

“Well, I think we’d better rouse him now,” Jack was beginning, when the cabin door was flung open and a sailor, whose face was chalky beneath his tan, burst in. The group at the table looked up, startled and alert. Ned’s narration had taken almost an hour, and although they had not forgotten the dangerous proximity of the Tarantula, they had had no way of guessing in what way their enemy would next become active.

“That yaller-faced Greaser’s craft is bearing down on us. Mister Bangs!” exclaimed the man. “She looks as if——”

There was a sharp crash overhead, and the booming detonation of a gun resounded an instant later. The boys sprang to their feet and scrambled up the companion way, headed for the deck.