The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island by Cyril Burleigh

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Jack saw it and shuddered.

"It's a devil fish, an octopus, Dick," he muttered, turning the light now
full upon the grisly object squatting on a rock at the farther end of the
water cave and glaring balefully at the boys through his blood-red eyes,
like some demon of the deep, the very mention of which might send terror
to the bravest hearts.

"We'd better get out quick, Jack!" gasped Percival. "If that fellow----"

What he might have said was cut short by a sudden splash in the water
which caused the boat to rock violently and dashed the spray in their
faces.

Then there was a whip-like sound and Jack felt himself struck by something
which quickly wound itself about one arm and a part of his body and
swiftly pulled him out of the boat.

He dropped his flashlight, but as he left the boat his free arm swung out
and his hand touched something which he seized in an instant.

It was the short hatchet on the thwart and he had seized it by the helve,
well up toward the top.

With the swiftness of thought itself he realized what had happened.

The octopus had wound one of its tentacles about his arm and body and,
clinging to them with a tenacity which he could not overcome, had pulled
him out of the boat.

Percival gave a scream of fright as Jack went overboard, although he was
usually a very self-contained young fellow and not apt to give way to
hysterical outbreaks.

It was dark in the cave, but he quickly groped for the torch which Jack
had dropped, and cried out:

"Where are you, Jack? What has happened?"

Jack went under water and felt himself being drawn toward the end of the
water cave where he had seen the octopus squatting on the rock.

His thoughts flew like lightning and, being a resourceful boy, he
instantly decided what to do.

He had kept his breath from a natural instinct and now with his free arm
he dealt a swinging blow with the little axe in a direction which would
not cause him to injure himself but might strike the clinging tentacle.

His one hope was that another of the flying arms might not reach him and
secure his other arm, which fortunately was his right.

He suddenly felt a resistance and realized that he had struck something
and hoped that it might be the tentacle of the octopus.

In another moment he felt the pressure on his arm and body relax and then
realized that something had fallen from them.

He struck out vigorously with both arms, the pressure upon his lungs from
having held his breath so long beginning to be unbearable.

Then he felt his right arm seized, the suckers on the tentacle pressing
strong upon his muscles and seeming to draw the blood even under his
clothing, and he knew that the baleful creature had again gotten a hold
upon him.

He was able to clutch the hatchet in his left hand as the power gave out
in his right, and at that moment he arose to the surface and drew a
succession of deep breaths before another of those terrible arms seized
him by the leg and drew him again under water.

In another instant, as he struck wildly at the eldritch creature that held
him and felt the tension on his arm relax, everything became suddenly
black.

The octopus had resorted to one of its natural tricks and had ejected a
dense black fluid into the water which made it impossible for him to see
anything.

The creature was drawing him toward some hole in the cave, probably under
water, and he realized most poignantly that something must be done shortly
or he would be sacrificed to the pitiless water devil.

He felt himself rising and in a moment, when he most needed it, was able
to get his breath.

The devil fish, even with the loss of two of its arms, was still powerful
enough to make all his efforts futile, and he felt himself being drawn
into some recess beyond where he had first seen the octopus squatting on
the rock and glaring at them with its horrible eyes.

Percival, having found Jack's electric torch and searching the cave below
and above water for a sign of his friend, suddenly saw the devil fish rise
to the ledge where he had first seen it.

Jack was now caught in two of its remaining arms and was being drawn
toward some deep recess whence there would be no rescuing him.

Transferring the light to his left hand, Percival whipped out the revolver
from his hip pocket with his right and took rapid aim.

"I'm afraid it will be like trying to pierce an elephant's hide," he
muttered, "but I'm going to try it for all that."

Luckily he caught sight of the creature's eyes at the moment and took aim
straight for one of them.

Jack was being drawn toward the horrible beak and the sight nearly
unnerved Dick.

Fortunately he had aimed and pressed the trigger before he saw this
ghastly sight.

He fired three or four shots in quick succession and then heard the sound
of a plunge in the water.

Jamming his torch into the clutch of one of the tholepins, he seized the
rifle and shot a quick glance ahead of him.

Jack was not to be seen, but he did see the octopus writhing and waving
its frightful arms on the ledge.

"Where are you, Jack?" he shouted.

"All right!" cried Jack himself, rising just alongside the boat and
holding on to the gunwale with one hand.

"I'll finish that demon before he can do any more mischief!" hissed Dick.

It was Jack falling into the water that had caused the plunge he had heard
and not the return of the octopus to its element.

Now, taking quick but careful aim, Percival fired half a dozen shots from
the repeating rifle he had seized and with deadly effect.

The revolver shots had wounded the octopus, but not fatally, and he might
at any moment plunge into the water and seize Jack.

The heavier caliber weapon did the work.

As Jack climbed into the boat there was a great plunge into the water
which caused the light craft to rock again and the spray to fly.

"That settles him!" gasped Percival, and then he dropped his weapon and
drew Jack into the boat, where he promptly sank limp and helpless under
the thwarts, all his strength having seemingly left him.

"All right, Jack?" asked Percival.

"Yes, but get away," answered Jack feebly.

Percival was not slow to obey the injunction.

Seizing the oars, he quickly backed water and then turned the head of the
boat toward the entrance of the cave, whence he shortly saw the light
streaming in as he pulled a quick, powerful stroke.

"I'm glad that's over!" he said with a sigh of deep relief as he neared
the opening. "No more exploring queer places like this again!"

When he was outside the cave he rested on his oars and said:

"You are all right again, Jack?"

"Yes," said Jack, getting up and seating himself on a thwart, "but I don't
want another such an experience. I feel as if all the blood had been drawn
out of me by that horrible thing in there."

Out in the bright sunlight, away from the gruesome cave and its dreadful
tenant, Jack seemed to recover his spirits quickly, however, and he
presently took one of the oars and then another, and said:

"It's all right, Dick. We are away from the horrible thing and I thank
heaven I am still alive to tell of it. Let us go somewhere else."

"Right you are, I will," echoed Percival heartily. "If I had had any idea
that there was such a thing in that place you could not have hired me to
go into it or to have let you ventured there. I am glad enough that I was
around to be of assistance."

"So am I, Dick, but suppose we say no more about it. I hate to even think
of the horrible object and I only hope that I will not dream of it these
nights."

Then the boys rowed swiftly away from the place where they had had such a
thrilling encounter and never once looked back at it.

CHAPTER XI

THE VOICES IN THE WOODS

After the boys had gone some little distance from the water cave they
pulled at a more easy stroke and began to talk again, their thrilling
experience with the devil fish having made them silent for a time.

They did not allude to it again, but talked of other matters, Percival
saying as they neared a green, shady wood where the trees grew thick and
cast a deep shade on the white sands and showed a more than twilight
darkness in their farther recesses, everything being quiet and peaceful
within those heavy shadows:

"That's a place where everything seems to be asleep even at midday, Jack.
It looks like the cave of the seven sleepers that we used to read about in
mythology."

"It seems quiet enough for a fact," said Jack with a smile, "but it is hot
outside and the birds are probably all taking a rest. Probably just before
dawn or at sunset you would hear them making noise enough."

"It is a thick wood all right, just the place to get lost in. If the
African jungle is any worse than this I don't care to enter it."

"The trouble is you can't see far ahead and then there are briars and
brambles and a lot of spiky plants, prickly pears and Spanish bayonets and
cactus to run against and get scratched and cut with. Our own woods are
good enough for me, or bad enough, I might say."

"I wonder if we could find anything if we did go in there?" said Percival
musingly as they rowed along shore, fascinated by the bright glare of the
sands, the dense green of the woods and the dear blue of the skies. "We
might have a try at it, Jack."

"Yes, I suppose we might if we did not go too----" And then Jack suddenly
paused and a look of alarm came across his face.

A harsh voice from the wood suddenly interrupted him and he glanced here
and there to see whence it came.

The words he heard were in Spanish, as far as he could judge, but he could
see no one.

Other voices quickly joined the first and the boys rowed out somewhat from
shore and looked closely at the woods, expecting to see some one.

"There are people on the island after all, Jack."

"Yes, Spaniards, I think. Sailors, I guess. At any rate they are not using
the choicest language from what little I know of the language; Jack. I do
not see any one. Do you?"

There were loud and angry voices in the woods, but the boys could see no
one and went on slowly, farther out from shore so as to be out of danger
in case any one appeared.

"A lot of drunken sailors would not be good company," declared Jack. "I
would rather be alone."

"It can't be any one from the yacht, can it?"

"No, I don't think so. We have no Spaniards and Captain Storms brings his
men up better than that. Besides, if it were some of our men we would see
a boat, and there is nothing."

They still heard the voices at intervals as they rowed on and had no
desire to enter the woods as long as the men were there.

"That's a nuisance," said Percival with a half-growl as they rowed on. "I
would have liked to go ashore there, but of course if there are a lot of
swearing Spaniards hanging about it wouldn't do."

"I'd like to know what brought them here," remarked Jack. "We got in by
the sheerest good luck and it does not seem possible that another vessel
could have done the same. Those things don't happen twice."

"Well, they are here, at all events, and it stops our going ashore. I'd
like to know if they saw us in the boat?"

"I don't suppose so. They did not show themselves and they would not have
made so much noise if they had----"

Just then the voices were heard again and the boys stopped rowing.

"There they are again!" muttered Percival. "We may have trouble, Jack."

The voices were very loud and the language used was not of the choicest,
although, being in Spanish, it was not as offensive as it would have been
in English, the boys not understanding much of what was said.

"Are they quarreling, do you suppose?" asked Percival.

"No, I don't think so," and Jack suddenly laughed.

"What are you laughing at?" asked Percival, somewhat impatiently.

"Listen a minute, Dick," said Jack.

The voices had ceased, but presently they were heard again, closer than
before, and then a big, gorgeously feathered parrot flew out of a clump of
trees not ten feet from shore.

"There are your quarrelsome Spaniards, Dick," laughed Jack, as another
parrot joined the first.

"Well, I declare!" laughed Dick. "Are you sure, Jack?"

"Yes. The first time I heard them I was deceived, but just now I fancied
there was something queer about those voices and I decided that there were
parrots in the woods."

"Yes, but Jack, Spanish is not the natural language of parrots and they
must have heard it from men. That proves that there are men on the
island."

"Or that there have been, at any rate, but we don't know that there are
any here at present."

"Well, as long as we know that there is nothing more dangerous than a lot
of parrots, suppose we go ashore and look about a bit."

They found a good landing place where there was a shelving beach extending
for some distance in either direction, and a clump of trees close to the
water, where they tied the warp of the boat to keep it from floating away.

They saw more of the parrots, but not all of them imitated the human talk,
chattering and making harsh sounds after their own fashion and making the
glades bright with their gorgeous plumage.

Both boys laughed at the recollection of their first fright when they
heard the birds and thought that there were men on the island, and then,
taking their bearings, set out to explore the island for a short distance.

As Jack had a good idea of direction, they were not likely to get lost,
although in the jungle they were often in a twilight shade and could not
see the sun, which might have told them which way they were going.

"It gave me something of a start when I thought there were other people on
the island besides ourselves," remarked Percival as they went on through a
semi-darkness, the vegetation being thick above and around them so that
they could see nothing of the sky. "It's pretty dark here."

"Yes," agreed Jack, turning on his pocket flash. "Hello!"

"What's the matter?" asked Percival, Jack's tone being one of alarm.

A shot rang out, and then Jack jumped back, exclaiming:

"I guess I've settled him, Dick!"

"What have you settled, Jack?"

"That fellow there," and Jack turned the light upon something at his feet
and then pushed it aside.

"A snake!" exclaimed Percival. "You blew his head off. Is he very
dangerous, Jack?"

"Well, not now," said the other with a dry laugh.

"No, I should say not. Would he have been?"

"He belongs to the family of dangerous snakes, one of the most dangerous,
in fact. He is either a fer de lance or a first cousin to it, and either
is a sort of creature to keep away from. The bite is nearly always fatal,
as the virus acts so rapidly upon the system. It was lucky I turned on the
light when I did. These creatures inhabit the dark places and are always
ready for an unwary traveler."

"H'm! I think we had better keep in the light, Jack. We go into a dark
water cave and run across a devil fish. Then we go into the dark woods and
meet with this poison gentleman. Let's go back to the light!"

"I think we had better," returned Jack. "We are strangers here and the
residents seem to resent our coming. I am sure I'll be glad enough to
leave the place for good."

It did not seem to be such an easy matter, however, for difficulties beset
them on every side as soon as they started to leave the jungle, as though
there were some malign influence in those gloomy shades which was
endeavoring to hold them captive.

There were morasses which they had to avoid, there were bramble thickets
which barred their way, and Percival questioned whether Jack was going in
the right direction and asked him to try another.

"We are going toward the shore, Dick," said Jack, "and if we keep on you
will see that I am right."

"I don't doubt that we were going that way in the beginning, Jack, but we
were thrown out of our path by the brambles and again by the swamp, not to
mention the snake, and I don't believe we are going that way now. Don't
the trees give you any idea?"

"Yes, and I am sure we are going toward the water. If we had a bit of
daylight I could convince you, but it is as dark as a pocket here. I never
saw trees grow so thick."

Jack had his way, for Percival had confidence in him and at length the boy
paused and said:

"Listen, Dick! There are the parrots again. They won't talk if it is dark
and all we have to do is to follow the sound and we will shortly come out
into the light."

"I guess you're right," laughed the other. "I know we always used to cover
our bird with a dark cloth when it got to chattering too much, and it
stopped in an instant. But I don't hear them."

"Listen!" said Jack, pressing forward by the light of his pocket torch.

"I hear them now," said Percival. "They are using as bad language as ever.
Those are educated parrots, although their education has not been of the
best."

In a short time they heard the parrots much plainer than before and then
it grew lighter and still lighter till at length they were able to see the
sky overhead through the branches and finally the sun itself, by which
time they were right among the parrots, who were making a tremendous
chattering.

"Well, we are obliged to you at any rate, even if you are a noisy lot,"
laughed Percival. "You frightened us first and then you showed us the way
to the light. Still, are we in the right direction, Jack?"

"Certainly," and pushing on, Jack led the way into more open ground and in
a short time they came in sight of the inner bay where the vessel lay at
anchor.

"We are not so far out of our way, Dick," said Jack. "The boat lies just
on the other side of that clump of trees and we can reach it in a few
minutes."

He proved to be correct and, getting in, the boys rowed back to the yacht,
where they amused and interested a party of their companions by telling of
their adventures.

"Well, it is certainly not safe to go far away from the vessel," declared
Billy Manners, "and I think if I do I will be sure to take Jack along as a
guide."

"Not very complimentary to me," said Percival dryly.

"Oh, you want your own way too much."

"H'm! if I had had it we would have been lost yet, so I guess you are out
there, William."

"Well, that only proves what I said in the first place," said Billy with a
chuckle.

CHAPTER XII

ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS

One day not so long afterwards the boys returned to shore, but at a
different place than they had been before, and set out on a walk through
the woods toward the hill, which they had never managed to get to before,
although they had tried it more than once.

They took the axe along, not knowing but they might want it, and set out
in high spirits.

Hearing voices ahead of them they pushed on, and soon came across the old
sailor, Ben Bowline, and the acting head cook, Bucephalus, discussing some
knotty point.

"Ah tell yo' dis am not de way," said the negro in a very positive tone,
"an' any one what has any perspicuity in his haid will tell yo' so."

"I don't know what that 'ere is, and I don't believe I ever had any, but
it ain't the right road 'cordin' to the course," returned the sailor. "We
sot out nothe-nothe-east, and this here course is due nothe, which ain't
at all proper."

"Which way yo' wan' to go, Sailorman?" asked Buck.

"This here way, of course," said Ben, pointing.

"Huh! an' there ain't no path there, nothin' but briahs an' big rocks an'
swamp. How yo' goin' to get through there? This here way is the right way,
because it am plain to be seen that it am a thoroughfare, and has been
promenaded by pedestrians before now."

"I don't care what has happened to it, and it may be a good road all the
same, but it ain't the course we sot out on, and so it's the wrong one to
take, and I ain't going to take it."

At this point Jack, Dick and Jesse W. came along, being much amused at the
arguments offered by the disputants.

"How are you heading, Ben?" asked Jack in the soberest fashion.

"Nothe-nothe-east, sir," said the old seaman, saluting.

"Change your course to north."

"Aye-aye, sir, north it is," said Ben.

"And follow in our wake in case you are needed."

"Aye-aye, sir, follow in your wake it is, yes, sir."

"You could not have persuaded that grizzled old tar that there was any
course but the one he started on, no matter what the difficulties of his
course were, but give him a new one, and he will take it without the least
question. That's the sailor of it."

"And they would have stood there arguing till the cows came home," said
Dick. "You settled it in a moment."

"And if we need them they are there."

They kept on, now in the open and now in deep shade, having occasionally
to cut their way, pushing on toward the hill, which Jack had determined to
get to the top of, and now and then seeing it when they reached higher and
more open ground.

They reached the top at length, and had a fine view of the island and of
the sea, but could not see any other islands in the distance.

"We are on a lost island and no mistake," said Percival. "There is not
another one in sight. I wish I could make out a passage through the reefs,
but there does not seem to be any."

"We may find one unexpectedly," said Jack. "That often happens. You hunt
and hunt for a thing and don't find it, and then you give up hunting and
the first thing you know you find what you have been looking for without
looking for it."

"That sounds like a contradiction," laughed Percival, "but I know what you
mean."

Leaving the hill after getting a good view of the surrounding sea and the
island, the boys took a course which would lead them to the part of the
reefs, which they had not before visited.

They were pushing on leisurely when they suddenly stopped and listened,
having heard what seemed to be a cry for help.

"Somebody is in trouble," said Jack. "Where is it, straight ahead?"

"It sounds like it, and that sounds like the voice of Billy Manners."

"Maybe he is joking," said young Smith. "He always is."

Just now came a lusty cry for help in so serious and agonized a tone that
Jack said with a smile:

"Billy is not joking now, that is certain. He is in real trouble. Come on
and let us see what it is."

They pushed on rapidly, the call being presently repeated, and at the same
time they heard a bellowing sound, which they could not make out.

"Come on!" cried Percival. "Billy is in trouble, and that sounds like the
bellow of a wild beast."

"I should say it was a calf," remarked Jesse W., "if you were to ask me
about it, but what a calf is doing here----"

He hurried on to keep up with Jack and Dick, Buck and Ben following
quickly, having evidently heard the noises.

Coming in a short time into an open space the boys paused and then began
to laugh heartily, something they would certainly not have done if Billy
had been in danger.

There, in the crotch of a little tree about six feet from the ground, was
Billy Manners, while at the foot of the tree was a calf a few months' old
bellowing lustily and evidently calling for food.

"I told you it was a calf!" laughed young Smith.

"Help!" roared Billy, seeing the boys. "Here is a wild bull, and I am
treed. Shoot him, boys, drive him away, anything!"

Instead of doing anything the boys only stood there and laughed, and when
Bucephalus and Ben Bowline came up in great haste they did the same, all
joining in a full-voiced laughing chorus.

"Why don't you help a fellow?" wailed Billy. "There you all are, laughing
to beat the band, and I can't get down on account of this wild bull at the
foot of the tree."

"Wild bull nothing!" exclaimed Percival. "It is a three months' old calf,
and you're another, only you are a bit older than that. Can't you tell a
calf when you see one, or have you been brought up in the city where they
don't have them except in the way of veal cutlets?"

"That a calf?" asked Billy in disgust. "I thought it was a wild bull. He
makes noise enough."

"Probably calling for its mother," laughed young Smith. "I said it was a
calf right along."

"Shoo!" said Buck, advancing on the terrible wild bull, which had so
frightened Billy. "Get o't o' dat or Ah cut yo' up fo' de young ge'men's
dinnah. Shoo!"

The calf let out a tremendous bellow, and scampered off into the woods,
whereat the boys laughed harder than ever till the tears fairly ran down
their cheeks.

"That's a good one on Billy who is all the time getting off jokes on other
folks," said Percival. "That is too good to keep."

"Dick Percival," said Billy, laughing in spite of himself, "if you say a
word about it I'll cut you dead."

"I can't help it," chuckled Dick; "it's too good to keep, and I won't keep
it, no matter what are the consequences. Think of a boy who has spent the
biggest part of his life in the country not knowing the difference between
a little three months' old heifer calf and a wild bull. Billy, my boy, you
have neglected your opportunities."

Billy got down from the tree, and all hands laughed again, but Jack said
thoughtfully:

"That was not a wild calf, and the question naturally arises, what is a
domesticated calf doing on a supposedly uninhabited island? If there is a
calf there must be a cow and if a cow, then people who own and take care
of her. There must be people on the island after all, although we have
never seen them."

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