“He said, ‘Here is half a map, and I am giving it to you——’”
“Never mind all that!” rasped Mr. Coleson. “Get to the point!”
“Look!” he said, and traced the faint line with his finger. They followed his movement in fascinated eagerness. “You see, it finally runs around the top of the islands, the North part, and then straight as an arrow, points South!”
“Well, the message Captain Kidd gave was, as well as I can repeat it—‘At the end of the line, in the lowest part of the Dipper!’”
“‘At the end of the line, in the lowest part of the Dipper!’” Ortiga repeated. He snatched the map and pulled it closer. He studied it.
“The line points South,” Nicky said, “so I suppose Captain Kidd meant to dig or search down at the part that is the lowest part on the chart. That would be—” He fished out a stubby bit of pencil and placed its tip on the Westernmost of the lowest islands, drew a slim line from it to the one opposite, at the East, prolonged the line until it was at a point below the end of the faint line already on the chart. Then he made dots to prolong that one until they met.
“That’s it!” exclaimed Senor Ortiga, leaping up in such excitement that he threw over his chair and almost upset the table. “We did not think of that place. We dug all the islands, but this is far better.”
“Come—Jim, get the boat ready! We will go at once!” cried Mr. Coleson.
“As for you fellows,” said Senor Ortiga, “we can’t take you; we can’t trust you with the _Libertad_. So we will tie you until we return!”
In spite of vigorous protests, the powerful men quickly overcame opposition, bound ropes around the boys’ arms and legs, knotted them, dropped the helpless bundles unceremoniously on the cabin floor, and hurried to climb into their own rowboat and the tender which had brought the chums. The quick orders, followed by a rythmic plash of oars and voices dying away gradually in the distance was the story their ears told.
“Why?” said Nicky, wrenching futilely at his well-trussed arms.
“After we’d signalled, and all,” Tom cut in. “Tell all, and tell nothing—oh, yes! Then you tell all!”
“What would you have done?” demanded Nicky.
“Would you?” asked Nicky and worked again on his bonds.
Cramped and aching in every muscle, the chums struggled uselessly throughout a long and irksome day. The ropes were tied too securely to be loosened; they would not stretch.