Meantime there had been much excitement and confusion in the camp when it was discovered that several of the men, including Nux and Bry, and even “the boy Sam,” had disappeared during the night with most of the gold dust that had been accumulated. I can relate fairly well what occurred, for I heard the story often enough afterward.
The Major was furious with rage, at first, and sent at once for Uncle Naboth, whom he accused of being at the bottom of the plot to rob him.
Mr. Perkins was so full of his own anxieties that he paid little attention to the red-bearded giant’s ravings.
“I’m afraid Sam’s in trouble,” he said, nervously.
“In trouble! You bet he is,” yelled the Major, “I’ll skin him alive when I catch him.”
“That’s the point,” answered Uncle Naboth. “How are we to find him again? I’ll risk your hurting the boy, if we can only find out where they’ve taken him.”
“Your niggers are gone, too,” the Major reminded him.
“That’s the only thing that gives me hope, sir,” retorted my Uncle. “Those black men are as faithful and honest as any men on earth, and I’m thinking they’re gone after Sam to try to rescue him.”
“Then you think he’s been kidnapped, do you?”
“Of course. The men that are missing are the worst of your lot—the ones that have caused you the most trouble in every way. There’s not a man from the “Flipper’s” crew among them. The way I figure it out is that Daggett, Larkin, Hayes and Judson have made a plot to steal all the gold, and escape with it. They robbed you first, and then they robbed Sam, and when the boy tried to make a fuss they just kidnapped him and took him along with them.”
“How about the niggers?” asked the Major, sarcastically.
“That puzzles me, I’ll admit,” acknowledged my Uncle. “Bry and Nux may have seen the thieves get away with Sam, and followed after them, to try to rescue him. That’s the only way I can figure it out just now. But we’re losing time, Major. What’s to be done?”
“Two things. Get back the gold, and shoot down the robbers like dogs. They can’t get away, you know. They’re somewhere on this island, and I mean to find them.”
“There’s the ship.”
“What of it?”
“If they get aboard and sail away we’ll be in a bad box.”
“How can they get aboard? We’ve got the small boats.”
“They can make a raft, or even swim out to the ship,” returned Uncle Naboth, shrewdly. “I tell you, Major, you’re wasting time. Why don’t you do something?”
The Major glanced at him as if undecided whether to be angry with him or not. But Mr. Perkins was undoubtedly right, and the miners were gathering outside the door with curses and threats against the men who had robbed them, for the news had quickly spread throughout the camp.
So their leader sent six men, heavily armed, in the ship’s longboat to board the “Flipper” and protect the vessel from being captured. These were all his own men, for he still suspected that the “Flipper’s” crew were in some way implicated in the theft.
Then he picked four miners and four of the sailors to form a party to search for the robbers, and decided to lead the band himself and to take Uncle Naboth with him. The rest of the men were ordered to resume their work of washing out gold.
“I’m going to trust you, Perkins,” said the Major, “for your loss is as great as ours, and you seem anxious over that boy of yours. But if I meet with any treachery I’ll shoot you on the spot; and if I find that Sam Steele is one of the thieves I’ll show him no mercy, I promise you.”
“Quite satisfactory, sir,” answered Uncle Naboth, calmly. “Only let us get started as soon as possible.”
It was a puzzle at first to know in which direction to look for the fugitives; but Ned Britton had been carefully inspecting the edge of the forest, and came upon one of the paths Daggett had made in the course of his various wanderings inland. It was not the one we had taken, but away they started through the thicket, on a false scent, and the entire day was consumed in a vain search.
As they sat over their camp fire at evening Ned proposed that they try the other side of the island the following day.
“It’s there where the ship lies anchored, sir,” he told the Major; “and it’s most likely the men are in that neighborhood. The paths we’ve been following today are old trails that lead nowhere in particular, and there’s no use going any further in this direction.”
This proposition was so sensible that the Major at once agreed to it, and daybreak saw them tramping through the tangled underbrush toward the opposite side of the Island. Britton, who had a good sense of direction and knew about where the ship lay, undertook to guide them, and was fortunate enough to strike the trail of the robbers about the middle of the afternoon. The tracks lay directly toward the beach, and they pressed on with renewed vigor; but the heat was terribly oppressive in the more open country they had now reached, and the men were all exhausted by the long tramp. When, a little later, the sky grew black and the storm burst upon them, they withdrew to a thick grove of trees and rigged up a temporary shelter with their blankets, beneath which they passed the night.
The storm raged all around them, and occasionally the crash of a fallen tree startled their nerves; but the high cliff broke the force of the wind and the lightning was less severe than it was directly on the coast.
Uncle Naboth thought of me more than once during this rage of the elements, and hoped I was safe from harm; indeed, his anxiety was so great that he scarcely closed his eyes throughout the night.
At daybreak they left their shelter and gazed wonderingly at the scene of devastation around them. The storm had wrought fearful havoc everywhere, and when they resumed their journey their progress was necessarily slow and difficult.
Still they labored on, and in the afternoon passed through the forest and came upon the coast directly o............