CHAPTER XXVII

ON THE ALERT

The night of terror had been a severe strain on the boys, and, coupled with the loss of sleep, made them feel completely fagged the next morning. Nature had seemed to be in league with their human enemies. Either would have been formidable enough alone, but combined they presented a grim problem that it would tax all their resources to meet and overcome.

But there was no relaxation in their determination to defend themselves to the last gasp. No one of them yielded to panic fears. They might go down, but if they did they would go down fighting.

“There’s one benefit anyway that this eruption has brought us,” remarked Benton, as they were dispatching a hasty breakfast.

“That’s what I call looking on the bright side of things with a vengeance,” remarked Dick. “I can’t think of a single thing besides trouble that it means to us.”

“What I mean is this,” explained Benton. “Up to now we haven’t been at all certain as to when the bandits would attack us. It might be in a week, it might be in a month. But now we know for certain. They’ll try to rush us tonight as sure as shooting.”

“You must be the seventh son of a seventh son to fix the time so precisely,” observed Tom.

“I see where Jack is right,” exclaimed Phil. “It’s been all that Ramirez could do to hold his men in check so far. He’s done it by sheer force. But after last night there’ll be no use trying to keep them in. They’ll be terror-stricken and want to get off the island just as soon as possible. But of course they won’t go until they have a hack at the treasure. It’s a dead certainty that they’ll come for it to-night.”

Tom and Dick yielded to the force of the reasoning.

“That being so,” said Benton, “it’s up to us to get busy, for we’re going to have about the hardest day’s work we ever did. They’re figuring on a surprise. Well, they’ll get it all right, but it won’t be the kind they’re looking for.

“We’ve already got our weapons in good condition,” Benton went on, “and we don’t need to pay much more attention to them. But the odds against us are heavy and we’ve got to employ strategy. In the first place we’ll strengthen our barricades. Then we’ll put into play something that I learned in the war. It’s a mighty lucky thing that we brought along plenty of blasting powder and dynamite when we started on this trip.”

“Going to use the sticks of dynamite as sort of hand grenades?” asked Dick.

“Better than that,” Benton answered. “I’m going to concentrate them in a mine that I hope will blow the rascals to kingdom come.

“Now here’s what I have in mind. We’ll dig a pit about three feet deep at a place twenty-five or thirty feet in front of the cave. This we’ll stack with blasting powder and dynamite. Then we’ll dig a small conduit, along which we’ll run a wire connecting with the explosives and running back to the cave. When the proper moment comes and the largest crowd is just above the pit, we’ll send a spark along the wire. And I think that will be about all. It’ll probably put a lot of them out of business, and the rest will be so terrified and confused that they’ll probably make tracks to the other end of the island and get away from it as soon as possible. What do you think of it?”

“It’s a dandy plan,” cried Phil with enthusiasm.

“It sure ought to turn the trick,” exclaimed Dick.

“It’ll be an artificial earthquake that will be worse for those scoundrels than the real thing,” jubilated Tom.

“I’m glad we’re all agreed,” said Benton with a gratified smile. “Now then let’s pitch in and get the thing started. There’s a good deal to be done, and we’ve got to be especially careful about connecting the explosives with the wire so that there won’t be any fizzle when the time comes. We’ll work in relays and stand guard turn and turn about. We’ve got to keep a strict watch, for while I don’t think they’ll attack us before nightfall, you never can tell.”

They started in to work at once, and toiled under the tropical sun until the perspiration rolled from them in streams. By the early afternoon, the work was completed to their satisfaction. The mine was laid, as was also the wire leading through a narrow trench to the cave, where it was connected with the battery of the radio set. Great care was taken to restore the ground to its former apparent condition, for although it was unlikely that in the night it would be under special scrutiny they could afford to take no chances. Leaves were scattered over the pit and the path of the wire, and by the time they were through they could not themselves have detected anything unusual in the appearance of the ground.

“A good job,” pronounced Benton, as he scanned it with a critical eye. “Now let them come as soon as they like, and I imagine they’ll go away quicker than they came. That is, those of them who can get away.”

The boys in their turn at sentry duty had seen nothing suspicious. Not an unusual sound or sight had come within their range, though they had watched and listened with the intensity of those who knew that their lives might pay the forfeit of the least carelessness.

Nature too seemed to have relapsed into quiet. The mountain still smoked and there were occasional rumblings, while at times the earth trembled. But the giant of the volcano, if not sleeping soundly was at least dozing, and the boys took heart of hope from this circumstance. Human enemies they might fight, but before the unleashed forces of nature they were helpless.

Bimbo had prepared a good meal, and the boys after their hard work fell to with zest.

“Lay into it, boys,” said Benton approvingly. “Hungry men can’t fight well. It was Napoleon you know who said that an army was like a snake—it moved along on its stomach.”

They needed no urging, and Bimbo, despite his apprehension, grinned with satisfaction at the tribute paid to his cooking.

The long afternoon dragged on, the hours seeming all the longer because they had nothing to do but wait. And waiting was vastly more trying than working, for they had nothing to distract their minds from the ordeal that was coming.

They welcomed the shadows when they began to creep along the western sky. Twilight deepened into darkness. There was no moon, and the only light there was came from the stars.

Still the attack was delayed. An hour passed on and then another. Had they been mistaken then in believing that the struggle would come that night?

“Not at all,” affirmed Benton, when Dick had expressed a doubt. “They’re simply waiting until they think we’re fast asleep and they can bag us without having to do much fighting. They’re mighty careful of their precious skins.”

It lacked about half an hour of midnight when Phil, who had been on sentry duty, came slipping into the cave as silently as a panther.

“I think they’re coming,” he announced in a voice little above a whisper. “I heard the crackling of twigs, and in a flare of light that came from the volcano I saw moving bodies some distance off in the woods. They’ll probably be here in ten minutes.”

After the long period of waiting the news brought positive relief. Here at least was a promise of action.

“Don’t fire until I give the word,” ordered Benton, as he disposed his little force to the best advantage. “Keep under cover as well as you can and make every shot tell. A good deal depends upon the hot reception we give them at the start. You, Phil, keep your finger near the key of the battery and be ready to press it on the instant.”

When all was ready a stillness as of death prevailed in the cave. With every sense on the alert, their ears strained and their eyes trying to pierce the darkness, the boys lay outstretched, their weapons in their hands, their blood racing madly through their veins, their hearts trumping in excitement.

Ten minutes passed—then twenty—thirty. Then to their ears came faint rustlings, and they thought, though they were not sure, that they could see shadowy forms stealing about from tree to tree like so many phantoms.

A period of absolute silence ensued. Then suddenly there rose a wild yell, a volley of bullets whistled over their heads and pattered against the stones of the barricade, and from all directions the outlaws came rushing toward the cave!