The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island by Cyril Burleigh

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THE HILLTOP BOYS
ON LOST ISLAND

BY
CYRIL BURLEIGH

AUTHOR OF "THE HILLTOP BOYS" AND OTHER STORIES

THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING CO.

CLEVELAND
MADE IN U.S.A.

1917

PRESS OF

THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO.
CLEVELAND

[Illustration: _He plunged the blade into the creature's vitals_.]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE FLOATING ACADEMY 13
II JACK'S DARING RESCUE 22
III THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS 29
IV CAUGHT ON LOST ISLAND 37
V EXPLORING THE ISLAND 45
VI A WALK UNDER WATER 54
VII A REMARKABLE FIND 63
VIII DISCUSSING THE FIND 70
IX THE LAST VISIT TO THE WRECK 81
X A THRILLING ENCOUNTER 89
XI THE VOICES IN THE WOODS 98
XII ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS 107
XIII A STRANGE LIGHT AT SEA 118
XIV THE MAN WITH THE WHITE MUSTACHE 125
XV JESSE W. IS SENT FOR HELP 132
XVI BEN'S STRANGE STORY 140
XVII DISCOVERIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS 148
XVIII IN THE LAIR OF THE FOX 160
XIX THE WAY OUT FOUND 170

THE HILLTOP BOYS ON LOST ISLAND

CHAPTER I

THE FLOATING ACADEMY

"Well, if this is a life on the ocean wave or anything like it, I am
satisfied to remain on shore."

"I knew that the Hudson river could cut up pretty lively at times, but the
frolics of the Hudson are not a patch on this."

"They said we would not be seasick, but if I am not I don't know what you
call it. I don't want it any worse, at any rate."

"They said it wouldn't hurt any if you were sick, but I wonder if they
ever tried it themselves?"

"No, they are like the old bachelors who write about how to bring up
children. They never had any, so they don't know anything about them."

"Well, if we get much more of this I shall get out and walk."

"And I'll go with you, my boy."

There were three boys on the deck of a large steam yacht, now about two
days out from New York, bound to the West Indies on a voyage combining
pleasure and education.

The boys belonged to the Hilltop Academy, situated in the Highlands of the
Hudson, and their names were Billy Manners, Harry Dickson, and Arthur
Warren, all being close chums, and ready to share any adventure except
that of being seasick.

They were none of them sick, but they were all afraid they would be, hence
their remarks upon the subject.

There were close upon a hundred of the Hilltop Boys, and they were now on
a tour of the islands of the Spanish Main, having been invited by the
father of one of them, a man largely interested in the shipping business,
who had put at their service a commodious steam yacht large enough to hold
them all.

Besides the boys there were Dr. Theophilus Wise, the principal, and a
number of his instructors, the negro coachman at the Academy, who was now
serving in the capacity of cook and general handy man to the doctor and
the boys, and the captain and crew, a considerable party all told.

The sky was bright, there was none too much motion, and there was really
no reason why a lot of healthy boys should be seasick, and perhaps they
only feared they would be, and were just a little uncomfortable.

They were to spend the Easter vacation and a few weeks longer among the
islands, continuing their studies as usual, and getting a knowledge of
geography and of many other things, which they could not get by merely
studying books, Dr. Wise having practical ideas on these points, and
having now a chance to carry them out through the generosity of Mr. Smith,
the shipping merchant, who had furnished the yacht.

His son, Jesse W., one of the youngest boys at the Academy, had been found
and brought home when lost on the mountains by one of the Hilltop boys by
the name of Jack Sheldon, a general favorite at the Academy, and it was in
recognition of this act that he had decided to give the boys this glorious
vacation.

As the three boys were complaining about the rough seas, and the chance of
becoming seasick, they were joined by two others, one of whom said in a
breezy voice and with a lively air:

"Well, boys, how are you enjoying yourselves? Glorious weather, isn't it?
Fine breeze, just the thing to send us along, although we do not need it,
going under steam."

"I'm glad you like it, Jack!" said Harry with a wry face, "but I can't say
that I do. You may be used to the water, but I am not."

"I have never been at sea before," laughed Jack, "so I cannot be any more
used to it than you are. Perhaps you have been eating too much, that might
make you sick. You don't look it, at any rate."

"I don't know how I look," muttered Billy Manners, stopping suddenly in
his walking, "but I know how I feel," and he made a dash for the cabin,
and was gone for some time, the others continuing their walk on deck.

In a few minutes a smiling negro in a white jacket and cap came out of the
cabin carrying a tray containing cups of beef tea, which he offered to the
boys, saying with a grin:

"Dis ain't like de beef soup yo' get at de 'cademy, sah, but mebby yo'
would like a bite or two dis mon'in' to sha'pen yo' appetite fo' dinnah?"

"No, thanks, Bucephalus," said one of the boys, Dick Percival by name, who
was walking arm in arm with Jack. "I don't need anything to sharpen my
appetite, which is always good on sea or land."

"The idea of offering a fellow anything to eat when he feels as I do,"
growled Harry. "Take it away, Buck, or I'll throw you overboard."

The high sounding name of the negro was often contracted to Buck by the
Hilltop boys, as in the present instance, but he was used to both, and
answered as readily to one as to the other, now saying with a broad grin:

"Dat am a mistake, Mistah Harry. De worser yo' feel, de mo' yo' should put
in yo' stomach, dat is to say when yo' get good nourishmental food like
dis yer. Of co'se dey is detrimental substances which----"

"That sort of talk will make me sick if nothing else will," said Harry,
hurrying away, while Jack and Dick sat down, and gazed out upon the
horizon, while sipping their bouillon and nibbling at their biscuits.

"We will be in summer seas, as the advertisements call them, before long,"
said Jack. "The air is pleasant enough as it is. Down here in the summer
it is pretty hot I take it, but in April it will be all right."

"Think of us cruising around the Spanish main where the old buccaneers
used to roam," laughed Dick. "Perhaps we will dig up a pot of gold buried
on one of the islands by some of them."

"If Captain Kidd had buried all the gold that folks said he did," replied
Jack, "he would have been kept busy till now. If people would work instead
of trying to find gold that was never buried, they would accomplish
something. The only treasure you dig out of the earth is the good crop you
get by working at your corn and potatoes."

"That's true philosophy, Jack. I have never had to dig anything for
myself, having rich folks who always looked after me. Perhaps it would
have been better for me if I had had to do more for myself."

"Well, you are not a spoiled child, Dick," said Jack, "as some sons of
rich parents are. You are not idle nor vicious, and you know the value of
money. You will do for yourself when you leave school. You are going
through a training now, that will do you good later."

"Yes, I suppose so, but your having to do for yourself has made you a
stronger, more self-reliant fellow than I will ever be."

"Oh, I don't know," returned Jack, half laughing, half seriously. "I am
not patting myself on the back, Dick."

"No, you never would."

The two boys were great friends, and were the leading spirits in the
Academy, having a great many friends, and being looked up to by the
greater part of the boys, and especially by the younger ones, who took
them as models.

Dick was somewhat older than Jack, and was farther along in his classes,
having had more advantages, but Jack was studious and ambitious, and bade
fair to catch up with his older companion and schoolmate before many
months had passed, having already in the few months he had been at the
Academy greatly shortened the lead which Percival had in the beginning.

Two days later the yacht was in much pleasanter waters, and the air was
quite warm and balmy, the boys going around in lighter clothing than
before, wearing mostly white flannel or duck, canvas shoes and caps, and
no waistcoats, some wearing only white trousers and shirts, and belts
around their waists, so as to get the most comfort they could.

They were among the islands now, and expected to make a landing in a day
or so, when they were farther down the Spanish main than they were at that
time, the islands in the lower latitudes being more interesting in the
doctor's opinion than the larger and better known ones.

It was a pleasant afternoon; none of the boys felt any touches of
seasickness now, and many of them were walking up and down the deck, some
taking their comfort under awnings spread aft near the cabin companion,
and some being on the bridge watching the steersman or looking out to sea
in search of sails or noting the flight of the gulls and other seabirds or
studying the movements of the dolphins playing around the bow, there being
many of these lively creatures about.

Dick and Jack were on the bridge whence they could obtain a full view of
the deck and look all about them, ahead and astern, and on all sides, Jack
greatly enjoying gazing out upon the wide expanse and searching the
horizon for sails or a hazy view of some distant island.

Below, on the quarter deck, which was guarded by a low rail only, was
young Jesse W. Smith, who took great pride in his full name and always
insisted upon being called by it, for whom primarily this expedition had
been gotten up, strutting up and down in sailor's trousers and shirt,
seeming to feel as if he were the commander of the entire southern fleet.

"There's young Jesse, enjoying himself and seeming ready to say with the
fellow in the poem that he is monarch of all he sees," laughed Dick.

"That was supposed to be Alexander Selkirk, the original Robinson Crusoe,
Dick," said Jack. "The line is 'I am monarch of all I survey.' You must
have recited it more than once in your younger days. That is not
altogether a safe place for young Jesse W., though. That rail is not very
high, and if we should happen to give a roll----"

"You don't think there is any danger, Jack! Hadn't you better warn him!"

"No, but I will go down and----" and Jack started to go to the main deck
and speak quietly to the boy. But before he had hardly said the words
there was a sudden startled cry and Jack, looking down quickly, saw that
the very thing he had feared had taken place.

How it came about no one knew, but all of a sudden there was a loud cry of
"man overboard!" and Jack saw the boy just going down in the water.

He was on the lower deck in a moment, and in another had thrown aside his
coat and kicked off his shoes, running to the rail as he did so.

The cook had just been killing chickens on the forward deck, and was going
aft with two or three fowls in one hand, a knife in the other.

As Jack reached the rail he saw something out on the water, just where the
boy had gone down that made him turn icy cold in a moment.

Snatching the knife from the cook's hand, he sprang to the rail and leaped
overboard, taking neither rope nor life preserver with him.

"By George! that's just what Jack feared, and there he is going to the
rescue before any one has shouted, almost!" exclaimed Percival, as he
hurried below.

"H'm! pretty clever of Sheldon," sneered a stout, unprepossessing boy, who
seemed to be always scowling. "Knocks the kid overboard, and then goes to
his rescue to make himself solid with the father. Very clever stroke,
that, and just like him!"

"If you say anything like that of Jack Sheldon, Pete Herring," stormed
Dick, who had heard the ill-natured remark, "I'll knock you overboard!"

Herring, who was by no means a favorite in the Academy, quite the reverse,
in fact, had not supposed that Percival had heard his uncalled for and
utterly false assertion, and now hurried away with a snarl, evidently
fearing that Dick would carry out his threat.

The captain, as soon as possible, gave orders to stop the engines, and to
hold the yacht near to the place where the boys had gone down, being ready
to turn and go to their assistance when they should appear again.

All was excitement on board, for, until now, nothing had happened out of
the ordinary, and no one thought of being seasick or of complaining of the
monotony of the voyage.

Jack came to the surface, looked around him, saw young Jesse W. just
coming up and shouting for help while he swam, and then, not far behind,
what had caused him to take the knife with him, the sharp dorsal fin of a
good-sized shark moving rapidly through the water.

CHAPTER II

JACK'S DARING RESCUE

Straight toward the swimming boy swam Jack, rapidly estimating the
distance between them and the distance to be covered by the shark, the
presence of which was not yet known by the younger boy.

He could swim, but he was more or less encumbered by his clothes, wide
bottomed trousers and full shirt, and could not make as good progress as
Jack in any event.

Then, as he was only a little fellow, and probably not accustomed to
swimming very far out of his depth, Jack looked for his strength giving
out at any moment.

"Keep up, J.W., you are doing fine!" he shouted, swimming straight on with
a long, even stroke, which carried him rapidly toward the struggling boy.

Then some one on the yacht, with more anxiety than good judgment, shouted
out so that all could hear him:

"Look out for the shark, look out!"

The instant that the younger boy heard this, he turned his head and cast a
frightened look behind him, seeing the sharp fin just beginning to turn
over in the water.

"Don't look, Jesse W., don't look, swim straight ahead!" cried Jack, who
had come up with the boy.

Then he dove deep down so as to come up under the shark before he could
turn and rush at the boy so near him.

Down went Jack, and presently began to rise, seeing the white belly of the
man eater just above him.

With a fierce upward thrust of his right arm, which held the knife he had
taken from the cook, he plunged the blade into the creature's vitals,
drawing it downward and toward him, and turning his hand as he drew, thus
making a jagged cut, and fairly laying open the shark's belly.

Young Smith, encouraged by Jack's shout, had darted ahead with his little
remaining strength, not again looking back, and knowing too well what was
about to happen when Jack dove.

As the shark, mortally wounded, floated away, to be eaten by others of his
kind, Jesse W. suddenly became faint and felt himself giving out.

Jack arose in a moment, however, and called out cheerily:

"Hold on a moment, young fellow, and I'll be there. You mustn't give out
yet, because they haven't put about to take us aboard."

The younger boy held out till Jack reached him, but seemed about to go
under again when Jack said quickly:

"Here, get on my back and you won't have to swim. I'll tow you all right,
and you can get rested."

"Did you kill him, Jack?" gasped the younger boy, as he obeyed the older
one's instructions.

"Yes, yes, but never mind about that. Don't look behind you, just look
straight ahead. I don't know that there's anything there anyhow, but it is
always a good plan to look the way you're going to avoid accidents."

"You're a funny fellow, Jack," said the other. "You don't want me to see
the sharks and be frightened."

"That's all right, old man, but there are no sharks at present, and if any
come they will be too busy taking bites out of the other to bother me for
a time. H'm! they are putting about. That's all right."

"You can carry me and swim yourself all right, Jack?" asked Jesse W.
"Maybe I can swim a bit myself now."

"Never you mind about that," said Jack. "You just stay on my back till I
tell you to get off," and the boy swam with a good, steady stroke toward
the approaching yacht, keeping a lookout for sharks, as he knew they would
be sure to appear soon, seeming to scent blood for miles.

Without letting the younger boy know that he was on the lookout he kept a
strict watch on all sides for more of the rapacious creatures, and at
length discovered two making for him in different directions, one of them
suddenly appearing between him and the yacht, which was rapidly
approaching.

"That fellow will be frightened off or perhaps go under the vessel," he
thought, "but the other one is coming on pretty fast. I hope he won't get
to the yacht before me."

The people on the yacht saw the shark between them and Jack, and Dick
Percival seized a gun from the captain, aimed at the creature and fired,
doing no great damage, but causing the voracious monster to rush off to
one side, and out of his direct course.

Sharks have other fish to guide them, and without these they are helpless,
which was the case with this one, who, in his sudden change of course, got
away from his pilots, and had to be hunted up by them before he could get
his bearings on the boys in the water.

This created a diversion in Jack's favor, and he swam on sturdily,
splashing and kicking, and making a great disturbance to frighten away the
second shark, which was coming alarmingly close to him.

The yacht was coming on, however, and now they bore down toward him,
slackening speed a bit, one of the sailors throwing the boy a line.

Jack caught it with one hand, as it settled over his head, and said to the
boy on his back:

"Hang on, young fellow, and they'll haul us both up together. You are no
sort of weight, but just hang on."

Jesse W. did as he was told, and both boys were hauled on board the yacht,
Dick, Harry, Arthur, Billy Manners and half a dozen others pulling in
heartily on the line.

They were drawn on board just in time, for the baffled shark made one
terrific jump out of water as they reached the deck, the gangway having
been opened, and banged his nose against the plankshire, falling back into
the sea with a great splash.

Bucephalus was at the gangway, an axe in his hand, and as the shark gave
his jump he aimed a swinging blow at the monster, but failed to hit him.

"Go back dere, yo' sassy feller," he sputtered. "Ah jus' like to get one
good crack at yo' an' Ah rip yo' side open. Don' yo' perambulate dis yer
way again if yo' know what am salubrious fo' yo', yo'heah?"

Bucephalus was fond of using big words, but did not always use them in the
most appropriate manner, so that the boys were always kept guessing as to
what he was next going to say when excited.

The boys nearest the rail seized Jack and young Smith as they came on
deck, and bore them in triumph to the cabin.

"Bully for Jack Sheldon!" shouted Harry, and fifty boys gave him the
heartiest kind of a cheer.

"That's some nerve he showed," declared Arthur Warren, "but then, he
always did have nerve, Jack did. If he didn't he wouldn't have done the
things he has."

"H'm! anybody could do that," said Herring with a snarl. "The yacht was
close to him all the time. You fellows are all the time cracking up Jack
Sheldon, but I don't see that he is any great shakes."

"No, you wouldn't," said Billy Manners, with an emphasis on the pronoun,
"but decent fellows can see it. Would you have gone over after young
Smith?"

"There wasn't any need to do it," growled Herring. "If I'd seen him first
I'd have done it."

"You saw it as soon as any one except Jack himself, and you were nearer
the deck," said Percival, who came up in time to hear what Herring had
said. "I heard you say that Jack pushed the boy overboard so as to get the
name of rescuing him. You know that this is a lie, because Jack was on the
bridge at that time, and could not have done it. Jack and I both saw young
Jesse W. go overboard. Jack feared he might, and had started to go to the
deck when the thing happened."

Herring did not care to get into a quarrel with Percival, who was much
stronger and better built than himself, and he, therefore, went away
muttering something which the boys could not make out.

"He is always saying something nasty against Jack," declared Arthur. "He
hates Jack because Jack is smarter, and a general favorite. I wish he had
stayed on shore, but as Mr. Smith invited the whole Academy he could not
very well be left behind."

"He ought to be marooned on some solitary, uninhabited island, and left
there to hate himself," chuckled Billy Manners.

"They don't do those things nowadays, Billy," said Percival. "You have
been reading the lives of the pirates, and are full of that sort of
romantic stuff."

"Maybe I am," chuckled Billy good naturedly, "but here come Jack and young
Jesse W., looking as fine as fiddles, and not a bit worse for their baths.
Whoop it up for them, boys!"

Every boy in sight responded to the summons, and gave both boys the
heartiest cheers, both Jack and his young companion being favorites.

CHAPTER III

THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS

Neither Jack nor young Smith felt any the worse for his tumble into the
warm waters of the Caribbean, and after they had changed their clothes
they went on deck to assure their schoolmates that they were all right,
and suffering no inconvenience from their trip overboard.

"Jack is a great sport," declared Jesse W., "but somebody called out
'shark!' a little too quick, for I nearly went to pieces. It may Have been
kind in him, but it was injudicious, to say the least."

The boys smiled at the young fellow's wisdom, and Billy Manners replied:

"Well, it wasn't me, J.W., although I know I do a good many fool things.
You can't lay that at my door, however."

"Oh, you are a facetious fellow, and keep us amused, but you do think of
things," replied the younger boy. "The person who shouted 'shark,' is one
of the sort who yell 'fire' at the first sign of smoke, and raise a panic
in a crowded hall. They should be suppressed."

"Very true, J.W., you have the right of it," said Billy, smiling. "You get
the right idea under your bonnet now and then."

Young Smith had always been fond of Jack, but he was more so now and stuck
close to the older boy on all occasions, saying the next day to Jack as
they were walking on deck:

"Do you know, Jack, you have done a lot for me, and it is time I did
something for you. I am going to speak to my father about you. It is a bit
of a job for you to get your schooling and your living and everything,
isn't it?"

"Well, it is not so easy, Jesse W., and I do have a tussle now and then,"
returned Jack, smiling at the other boy's earnestness. "Still, one has to
work for what he gets in this world."

"Unless he steals it, and there is no satisfaction in that," said the
smaller boy wisely. "And later he has to work--in jail. What I wanted to
say was that now you have done this last thing for me, saving my life,
that's what it was, I think my father would like to do something for you,
help you through your schooling or something like that. Of course you
would not want him to give you money, for he does not put a commercial
value on my life, but he could help you to get ahead and so help yourself,
couldn't he now, Jack?"

"I suppose he could," Jack laughed, "and you are a thoughtful young
fellow, J.W., but never mind about that. One of the sailors, Bucephalus,
any one, in fact, could have done what I did. In fact, it is all in the
day's work at sea, and nothing is thought of it."

"No, but no one else did it, Jack. Any one might, but no one did. Only
you. Any one else could have done it, but they did not all the same.
That's nonsense about your pitching me overboard. I heard some of them
talking of it. Why, you were not there. I was on the quarter deck, where I
had no business to be, I suppose, with just a little bit of a low rail,
and when the vessel took a sudden roll I went overboard."

"Jack saw you up there," said Percival, who was walking with the others,
"and spoke about warning you that it was dangerous. In fact, he was on the
way to tell you when you got ahead of him and rolled overboard."

"Jack is all the time thinking of some one," said young Smith. "That's
what makes him different from the other Hilltop boys."

"Oh, then you don't think I think of others, eh? That's one on me."

"Oh, you haven't had to, Dick, you have always had some one to think for
you," said Jesse W. wisely, and both Dick and Jack laughed.

"That young fellow will be doing something for you, Jack," said Percival a
few minutes later when the two happened to be alone. "He is thinking of it
now, and later you will hear from it."

"I suppose he will," said Jack thoughtfully, "and I don't know how I can
stop him. I could not help doing what I did, but you would have done the
same if you had seen the danger before I did."

"But I did not," returned Dick, "and that is just young Smith's line of
argument. It is nothing that you could have done something if you don't do
it. Well, you deserve all that can be done for you, and that is all there
is about it, old chap."

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