The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island by Cyril Burleigh

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"We have not been all over the island," said Percival, "and it is likely
that in the very parts where we have not been we shall find the people who
own the calf."

"They are probably negroes or halfbreeds," added Jack, "and seldom visit
the shore. Suppose we keep on. We may find a village, or, at any rate, one
or two houses occupied by them. Come on, Billy, you are safer with us in
case we come across another wild bull."

"Get out!" said Billy, half laughing, half in disgust. "How much will you
take to keep quiet on that subject?"

"I could not think of making a bargain, Billy," chuckled Jack, "and then I
am afraid it would cost you too much. Remember, there are myself and Dick,
Jesse W. Smith, Bucephalus Johnson and Ben Bowline to be bought off, and
the prices might go up."

"All right," muttered Billy with a wry face, "but don't rub it in too
much, that's all."

"All right, I won't, but remember when you feel like playing jokes on the
boys that I may say something about it."

"All right, but I say, what about it, that calf is not wild?"

"Not a bit of it, she is just as tame as any barn-yard calf along the
Hudson valley. Calves are the same the world over."

"And Billy was one not to know it," said Percival with a grin. "Remember,
William, you have not bought me off yet. I have made no promises, and
neither has Jesse W. Smith."

"Oh, I don't care anything about it," said the smaller boy. "I won't say
anything about it no matter how much Billy jokes, I am interested in the
other matter. If there are tame calves here there must be more or less
civilized people living on the island."

"Well, we have made two or three very good discoveries on our island,"
observed Percival. "We have found treasure, and we have found calves, and
probably inhabitants."

"And the next thing is to find a way through the reefs," said Jack.

"If we found the others why should we not find that?" asked Percival. "We
did not expect to find anything, and we have found a lot."

"But we won't find our way home," said Billy, "if we don't start pretty
soon, for it will be dark in a little while."

"The funny fellow grows serious once in a while," chuckled Dick, "but I
think he is right for all that."

"I think we had better be going myself," said Jack. "Ben Bowline?"

"Sir to you, sir," said the seaman.

"Steer south, and go on a free wind at four miles."

"Aye-aye, sir!" said Ben, and they all set out for home, as they called
the yacht.

"Talkin' about calves," said Ben Bowline as they were walking on in a body
through the woods, "there was another adventure of mine which----"

"You're a liar!" suddenly interrupted a strident voice speaking in Spanish
and then some bad language in the same tongue followed.

"Mah goodness, dat am fightin' talk!" exclaimed Bucephalus. "Ah wouldn'
stan' dat, Sailorman."

"Jus' wait till I get my mudhooks onto him," growled Ben, "an' I'll let
Trim know whether I'll stan' it or not."

"There are people on the island besides ourselves," muttered young Smith,
getting close to Jack and Dick. "Maybe they own the calf."

"If you tell them anything about me," sputtered Billy, "I won't speak to
you again in a week."

Then there was more talk in Spanish and Bucephalus put his hands over his
ears and whistled.

"Mah wo'd! Ah done hear disreputable language in mah days, but nothin' to
compaiah with that!" he declared emphatically. "It ain't respectable. Ef
Ah meet de fellah wha' talk lak dat Ah's gwan to tell him wha' Ah done
thought ob him."

There was still more of the talk, and Ben Bowline doubled his fists and
said angrily:

"It's as bad to be told you're a liar in Spanish as it is in English or
French or Dutch or any other lingo, an' I'm not goin' to take it from
nobody. Just wait till I get hold----"

Dick and Jack were both laughing heartily now, much to young Smith's
amazement, Billy's surprise and the disgust of Ben Bowline, Bucephalus
looking on and wondering what had come over his "young gentlemen" as he
was accustomed to call them.

"What are you two fellows laughing at?" asked Billy.

"I don't see anything funny in it!" sputtered Ben.

"I think it's awful!" murmured Jesse W.

"Why, those are not men talking," laughed Dick.

"They aren't!" exclaimed Billy.

"Mebby dat am all imagination, sah!" added Bucephalus.

"What is it if it isn't men!" asked Ben.

"Parrots!" laughed Jack. "Don't you remember, you fellows, what we told
you happened to us the other day when we were ashore together, Dick and
I?"

"H'm! and I forgot all about it," chuckled Billy.

"Oh, that's different!" said J.W., greatly relieved.

"Parrots?" asked Ben. "Poll parrots? Well, I'll be keelhauled!"

"Mah we 'd! Ah knowed parrots could talk an' use de mos' obstreperous
vocabulary at dat," declared the negro cook, "but Ah done suspected dat
dey was men, fo' shuah Ah did."

The parrots, for such indeed they were, as all the party now realized,
continued to talk and scream and chatter, and in a short time the boys and
their companions caught sight of a number of them as they came out into a
more open bit of woods.

"We were a bit alarmed ourselves, as you may remember," said Jack, "when
we first heard them, and it was some little time before we realized that
they were not men."

"They have caught the talk of men who have been to the island," added
Percival, "and probably that of men who are here now. That calf is a tame
creature and is probably owned by some one now on the island. The parrots
may have heard them."

"If that is the sort of talk they heard, the birds were not in very good
company," remarked Billy, "and it is just as well that we did not meet
them this time. In fact, I hope we won't."

"Well, I'm glad it was only Poll parrots!" grunted Ben, "for I was ready
for a fight."

"I'm glad myself," echoed Jesse W., greatly relieved, "for I don't want to
get into a fight at all."

"That accounts for the milk in the cocoanut," laughed Billy. "I wondered
what you two fellows were laughing at. If it had been Dick alone I would
not have thought so much of it, but Jack has more sense."

"Thank you," said Dick dryly. "I know a tame calf from a wild bull,
however, if I haven't much sense."

"Come ahead, boys," said Jack. "We must get back to the yacht. If there
are other men on the island besides ourselves we do not want to meet them
just now. They are not a desirable lot, most likely."

The entire party then pushed on, and in a short time reached the shore,
got their boat and returned to the yacht.

CHAPTER XIII

A STRANGE LIGHT AT SEA

The captain and Dr. Wise were very much interested in the report that the
boys brought back from their walk through the woods, and to the top of the
hill in the interior of the island.

"If there are people here they know how to get out through the reefs,"
observed the principal, "for they must have come here once, and no doubt
are in communication with the people outside."

"They may have lived here all their lives," returned the captain. "I never
saw any one on these islands, natives, I mean, that knew very much. We
can't tell how long they have lived here, they and their ancestors, of
course, and these fellows probably don't know when they came, and don't
suppose there is any other place in the world."

"H'm! that does not speak for a very high state of intelligence," remarked
the doctor with a grunt.

"You won't find it in these natives nor even in the half breeds, sir," the
captain returned. "The rating is pretty low. It'll be interesting to see
these people, but I don't think that you will find them very intelligent.
You'd better not expect too much."

The next day there was nothing to be seen of the wreck, and when Jack and
Percival went to the wooded point to look for the place where they had
descended when they first found it, there was nothing but a great hole
into which the sea poured, and made a great disturbance at every tide.

"That's the last of that," said Jack. "No one would believe us if we told
them we had gone down there and found a vessel fast in the rocks."

"But we know we did, for we have the evidences of it, and you are at least
a couple of thousand dollars richer by it. That will help you a lot in
getting your education, my boy, and give your mother something as well."

"Yes, and she is the first one to be considered," said Jack.

There had been no answers as yet to the captain's wireless messages, and
that day he sent out another one, this time to the owners of the vessel in
New York, addressing Mr. Smith in particular, thereby hoping to receive
attention.

Meantime, the boys went on with recitations, wrote descriptions of the
different parts of the island they had seen, took excursions on the bay
and through the woods, and got up little entertainments to pass away the
evenings so that altogether they were kept quite busy, and, as a
consequence, were very well content with their situation, although it was
not just what they had expected when they left home.

The day after sending out the personal message to Mr. Smith the captain of
the yacht picked up a message which, although not addressed to him, was
the first he had been able to pick up, and was of some interest on that
account if on no other.

The message was to some government official in Florida, and related to a
certain smuggler who had been defrauding the government by sending
shipments of tobacco without paying the duty thereon.

"Are on track of Rollins and smuggler crew. Sighted them near Isle of
Pines. Will keep on watch there and in Caribbean."

Such was the message and the captain, although not especially interested
in Rollins, whoever he might be, was glad to get any information from the
outside world which seemed so far away, although almost at their very
doors.

He sent a wireless to the sender of the message, and asked if information
of their situation could be sent to the government, and help despatched to
them, hoping by this means to receive some recognition at last.

"If I get other folks' messages some one will probably get mine," said the
captain, "and by communicating with these people I may finally get
attention. Rollins? Don't remember to have heard of him. There's probably
a gang of them working between our border, Cuba and the South American
ports. Whistling cyclones! they might be working among some of these
little islands. A man who would defraud his government is no better than a
pirate and pirates used to hang around these waters a lot. It isn't such
an unlikely thing that these new pirates should do it now."

The next day quite unexpectedly the captain got a call and at once sent
for the doctor and said:

"I've had word at last. From our owners. From Mr. Smith himself. He has
just heard from us, and is going to send out a vessel to get us away from
here. It seems that one of our smaller vessels, a steamer, has been
captured by some smugglers working around Cuba, Porto Rico and the
neighborhood, who are using it in their trade. Some of the men got away,
and took the news to Havana. The name of the vessel is a good deal like
our own, and Smith thought that we had been taken at first, and began a
lot of investigating. Then he got our messages, which had been held up by
some one else, thinking they were fakes, or some boys' play. These young
wireless operators make a lot of trouble now and then."

"Well, as long as we know that help is being sent to us we can feel
relieved," said the doctor. "That is something, at any rate, but----"

"But you don't think that it will do any good, Doctor?"

"Well, if you cannot get out how is any one else going to get in?" the
doctor asked, as if merely seeking for information, and not being
especially interested in the matter.

"There's something in that, sir," replied Captain Storms musingly, "but
we'll see how it turns out when they get here. At any rate we are not
forgotten altogether, and that is something."

The boys were told about the message, and were greatly interested, Jesse
W. saying to Jack:

"Now I'll have a chance to speak to father about you, Jack, and to tell
him what you have done for me. He has always been interested in you, and
now he will be all the more so."

"Never mind doing too much for me, J.W., or you will spoil me altogether,"
laughed Jack, who, nevertheless, felt grateful to the younger boy for his
interest. "We Hilltop boys should help each other, and so I don't deserve
any extra credit for simply doing what is expected of me. It is only the
big brother idea which is gaining ground every day, and is a good thing
both for the little brothers and the big ones."

That night as Jack Sheldon lay asleep in his berth in the cabin set off
for the Hilltop boys, he was suddenly awakened by a bright light flashing
in his face, there being a porthole opposite.

"That's odd!" he murmured, as he sat up and looked around. "Where does
that light come from? Or did I only imagine it?"

At that moment the light flashed in his face again, and he got out of his
berth and went over to the porthole, looking out to see where the light
could have come from, there being only water on that side.

The yacht had changed her position, and was now in sight of the outer bay,
and having changed the direction of her head on account of the tide, the
boy could now look out upon the bay, which he had not been able to do at
the time he went to bed.

He saw the flash again, and in a moment realized that some one out there,
probably beyond the reefs, was using a regular code of signals, a thing he
had himself done with his pocket electric light.

Having had this experience he was familiar with the code, and at once
began to read the message sent by those outside, whoever they might be.

"That cannot be the steamer Mr. Smith has sent," he mused. "No, of course
not. 'Where are you? Am dodging government vessel.' Why, that must be one
of the smugglers that the captain told us about. But where is the man he
is signaling? I wish I could tell that."

The signals ceased, but presently the lights flashed again, and Jack read
the message:

"Why don't you answer? Am waiting."

"My word! I believe the fellow takes our lights for the smuggler's, and
thinks that he is in here. It would be just the place for him. By Jove! I
have a mind to answer him myself, and get him in here. Then we could get
out. Even if a smuggler takes us out that is better than waiting."

His pocket flash was in a convenient place, and he quickly got it out and
flashed out through the port:

"In the bay. Come inside."

After sending this message he waited a few minutes, and then saw the reply
being flashed to him:

"Cannot. Don't know the passage. Come out"

"H'm! that's too bad," muttered Jack. "I was in hope I could get him in
here. I'd like to know--I guess I'd better see the captain."

Partly dressing himself he hurried on deck, and looked for the light, but
could see nothing.

An anchor watch was kept, or supposed to be at least, but Jack saw the man
on deck fast asleep on a bench against the house on deck instead of
keeping a lookout as he was supposed to do.

He could not see any vessel's light out at sea, and saw no more flashes,
although he looked for them for several minutes.

"Well, I can't go to waking the captain in the middle of the night," he
said, "and it is likely this fellow has gone. It is simply another
disappointment. I think I'll go to bed."

CHAPTER XIV

THE MAN WITH THE WHITE MUSTACHE

In the morning Jack told the captain, Dr. Wise, and a few of his most
intimate friends among the boys under the promise of keeping it quiet, the
strange event of the previous night, asking the doctor if he had done
right in not calling the captain.

"If you had aroused me I would probably have been mad," chuckled the
captain, "and could not have done anything anyhow. It is clear that there
is a way in here, although we don't know it, and that this fellow you saw
signaling mistook our lights for those of one of his evil associates. I'd
like to watch him, but there is no use in crying over spilled milk, and
you did all right in not calling me."

"It is all very singular," said the doctor, knitting his brows. "Of course
we would like to get out of here, but as to seeking the assistance of a
smuggler----"

"I'd as soon go out under his escort as that of any one else," laughed
Storms, "although we might get in trouble afterward if a government vessel
happened to see us in company with smugglers. Well, I guess it won't be
long now before the relief steamer comes, but----"

"But they may not know the way in, and we are as badly off as before,"
finished the doctor. "I don't see that we have advanced any, except,
perhaps, to let people know where we are."

"And you think there is little satisfaction in that?" with a grin. "We
might be worse off, however, so I guess we had better wait and trust to
good luck. Clever game, that of Jack's, wasn't it, stealing the fellow's
despatches?"

"Why, yes, clever in a way," admitted the doctor, glaring at the captain
through his big black-rimmed glasses, "but does it not savor somewhat
of--h'm--of deception? Pretending to be one person when he was another,
and quite a different one, by the way?"

"But he did not pretend to be anybody. He simply flashed a message, and if
that fellow outside took him for another person it was not Mr. Sheldon's
fault. All is fair in love and war, you know."

"H'm! so I have heard, but as I have been in neither I cannot say whether
it is so or not. However, I am not accusing you, Sheldon, you understand?
I suppose, under the circumstances, that what you did was perfectly
justifiable. At any rate, we shall not have to wait for this person to
come and take us out. But where was the person to whom he was sending
signals? You did not see him, Captain?"

"No, indeed, and I wonder that my man on deck did not see them. Asleep,
I'll warrant. That means loss of shore liberty to him for some time. The
other fellow was not here, of course. How could he get in?"

"I believe there is a way, sir," spoke up Jack, "and that this place is
used as a retreat for smugglers. If not just here, then some part of the
island. How about the calf we saw? I thought at the time that there were
people here, but did not think of smugglers."

"Why, I guess you've been reading about Captain Kidd and Blackbeard and
those old pirates, and have got your head full of secret lairs and all
that sort of stuff."

"Oh, no," smiled Jack in reply, "but evil men hide in woods and mountains
and all sorts of odd places as much now as they did in the old days. There
is just as much of this in modern times as there was in the old, but it is
accompanied with greater danger."

"Yes, I reckon it is. At any rate, I'd like to get hold of these rascals.
There'll be a pretty big reward for them, I fancy."

The boys left the cabin and during the afternoon Jack, Dick and young
Smith set out for a stroll over the island, taking one of the paths
already made, so as not to subject the younger boy to too much trouble.

"I hardly think these smugglers are on the island," said Jack, as they
walked on, "or, at least, I don't think that they got in through the
reefs. They could have landed on the other side, although there are many
difficulties connected with it, not to say dangers. You remember the
rocks, Dick? And there is a good deal of surf there also. One would need
to be careful in making it. A vessel could lie to, of course, while boats
landed the men, and that has probably been done."

"Yes, I suppose so," said Percival carelessly, thinking of other things at
the moment, and not paying much attention.

The boys walked on without paying much attention to where they were going,
young Smith being greatly pleased at being with the older boys, but at
length Jack stopped, looked around him, and said with the least bit of
alarm in his tone:

"H'm! I believe we are where Billy was treed by the calf the other day or
pretty near it, at any rate. We thought there might be people in the
neighborhood, but we did not see them."

"I suppose it might be as well to go back," said Percival. "It would not
be pleasant to run across a lot of half-civilized natives to say nothing
of smugglers."

"No, it would not," and at that instant there was a rustling in the bushes
not far away, and two men stepped out, the singular appearance of one of
them causing Jack to turn suddenly pale.

This man was of good height and build and evidently quite strong, and was,
besides, a person of superior intellect if not of the best tendencies, as
his face indicated, but what attracted most attention was the fact that
while his mustache was snowy white his hair and eyebrows were quite dark,
this making him noticeable in a moment.

"You here, George----"

"Rollins," said the other, evidently thinking that Jack was about to
pronounce another name, which was the fact. "Yes, I am here. It is safer
than back in New York state or any of the states, in fact. May I ask what
you are doing in this part of the world! I am as much surprised to see you
here as you are to see me," and the man made a sudden quick signal with
his left hand.

Jack heard a rustle behind him, and turned quickly, but not soon enough to
escape the quick rush of three big, strong, bearded men who sprang upon
him and his companions and held them fast.

"What does this mean, George--Rollins?" asked Jack, hesitating at
pronouncing the name, "Who are these men!"

"Friends of mine," laughed the man with the white mustache. "Business
partners I might say."

"The majority of your business partners get in jail or are shot by the
police, Mr. Rollins," said Jack. "Are these the same sort? What business
are you in now?" and then a look of intelligence shot across the boy's
face, as he remembered that Rollins was the name of the smuggler he had
but recently heard mentioned.

The other saw this look, and said with an evil glance:

"I think you have heard the name before. What are you doing here? You are
in the government service, you and your boy friends? What is this uniform
you wear?"

"That of the students of the Hilltop Academy. You knew that I was one of
them, for on the occasion of our last meeting----"

"I say, Jack," said Percival suddenly, "this is the man who was concerned
in the robbery of the Riverton Bank, your----" and the boy suddenly
paused, a deep flush on his face.

"His father, you were going to say," laughed the other, an evil look
crossing his countenance. "Yes, you are quite right, I am----"

"You are not!" cried Jack hotly. "You married my mother a year or so after
my own father's death, and made her life miserable, but that does not make
you my father, and you well know that I have never admitted your claim. No
court would admit it. Courts? You take good care to keep away from all of
them, Mr. Rollins, as you choose to call yourself."

"Take them away," said the man with the white mustache. "Let no harm come
to them. I don't understand why they are on the island, but it would be
awkward if any of their friends should know of our presence here. Don't
let them get away, but don't hurt them."

The men were much stronger than the boys, and Jack saw the futility of a
struggle during which the younger boy might be hurt, and he, therefore,
submitted to being led away, hoping to escape at some later time.

The boys were led some little distance to a little opening where they saw
a number of small crudely built houses, several dark-skinned men, who were
neither Indians nor negroes, but perhaps a combination of both, and a
number of domesticated animals, calves, pigs, a sheep and several fowls.

There were people on the island, therefore, as they had supposed, and
these men visited the place on occasion as in the present instance.

There was a strongly built house somewhat larger than the rest on one side
of the little village, and here the three boys were taken and locked in a
small square room with one window, this being small and protected with an
iron bar, evidently to make it safer, Jack noticing several cases in one
corner opposite the window.

"Make yourselves comfortable, young gentlemen," laughed Rollins, as he
called himself. "You will be set free, but not at present," and with that
he went away, and the door was stoutly locked.

CHAPTER XV

JESSE W. IS SENT FOR HELP

All was quiet in a few minutes after the man with the white mustache had
left the boys in the room with the barred windows, and presently Percival
said, half apologetically, but with the greatest kindness:

"You know I did not mean to call that man any relation of yours, Jack, but
the sudden recollection of the last time you met him when I did not see
him at all made me blurt out suddenly. I did stop, though."

Jack had come unexpectedly upon his stepfather during his first term at
the Academy, several months previous, the man at that time being concerned
in the robbery of a bank near the Academy, but escaping capture and
suddenly disappearing, Jack had hoped, forever.

He felt nervous and discouraged now that the man had again come into his
life, and he sat in a corner of the room on a chest and thought deeply,
Percival presently saying to him in cheery tones:

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