TREASURES OF THE ISLANDS

CHAPTER I✦

THE PECULIAR SIGNALS

"Do you remember, Harry, after discovering the treasure and the skeletons of the pirates in the cave near the Cataract, that we heard the doleful sound of some bird while going down the hill?"

"Yes; that cry was something like it. Do you recall the name of the bird, George?"

"It was the Alma Perdita."

"I remember, now; it means the 'Cry of the Lost Soul.'"

"Yes; but I don't think that came from a bird. It is more like an animal of some kind. Don't you hear a sound that seems to be answering it?"

"It does seem so; I think John would know what animal it is; but it is too late to speak to him about it to-night, George."

As Harry ceased speaking, the boys heard a noise, and George arose holding up his hand as a warning. "I think I see something, so we ought to call John."

The boys quietly moved forward, and noted two figures moving about a short distance beyond. The boys crawled over to the place where John was sleeping, and found that the place he occupied, as well as that of Uraso's vacant.

"That must be John and Uraso over there," remarked Harry in a whisper.

They were confirmed in this on approaching the moving figures, and saw that both were armed, and also that they were watching another moving figure beyond.

"Is that a bird or an animal?" asked George.

"An animal," replied John, in an undertone.

"That was my opinion from the first," remarked George, who turned to Harry with a sort of 'I told you so,' expression.

"But it is a two-legged animal," responded John.

"How long have you been up?" asked Harry.

"More than an hour," said Uraso. "Muro is now coming back, and we shall know something more definite."

"Then that is Muro?" asked George, in surprise.

"Yes; he has been stalking the ones making that noise, and was the one who called our attention to it."

Muro disappeared, and the peculiar cries were repeated, then, most startlingly, a sound, similar in character, appeared to come from a point very close to where they were now crouching.

John turned to Uraso in astonishment. The latter did not seem at all perturbed, but after the second cry Uraso imitated the sound, and John smiled.

"Muro has the exact tone now," said John.

"Yes," replied Uraso, "and the cry I gave was an answer, which Uraso understands."

In a few minutes Muro appeared, but he was not smiling. His face was grave, as he said: "We have come upon the terrible Konotos. I feared that when I heard the first cry several hours ago."

"Have you been near them?" asked John.

"Near enough to know that there are quite a number, and what is more, they are now engaged in their regular feast, and if they have any captives, this is the time that they will be sacrificed," said Muro.

"Why do you think this is the time for that?" asked Harry.

"Because it was now nearing the dark of the moon, as you call it, and that time is chosen because the Great Spirit, out of anger, is hiding the light."

The boys now understood that this was a rite practiced by some of the tribes on Wonder Island, during that season of the Moon's phase.

"Did you talk with them in that strange language?" asked Harry.

"No; but I tried to find out the key to the language they used."

"Is that their regular language?"

"Oh, no! That is simply the special language which they use on certain occasions," answered Muro.

"The savages here, as everywhere, have a sort of code language, or a species of wireless telegraphy, used by them only when in the presence of enemies," commented John.

"Harry and I thought it might be the Alma Perdita, that we heard at the cave near Cataract."

"No; but it shows the ingenuity of the savages, when I explain that their most favored method is to assume the cry of some bird or animal, and in so doing make it difficult for the enemy to distinguish the assumed from the real."

"But on Wonder Island we had several methods of talking to each other," remarked Uraso. "For instance, we would perfectly imitate the cries of a number of birds, and also of certain animals, and of the wood insects. Thus, a nightingale would mean watchfulness; the chirrup of a cricket would be the signal that the enemy was not dangerous, or that there were not many of them; the cry of the Lost Soul bird would indicate that there was great danger, and so on with the birds and animals that make noises."

"But I have discovered another thing," remarked Muro.

"And what is that?" said John.

"The natives here are cannibals."

"That merely confirms my knowledge of the matter," said John.

The boys looked at John in amazement. How did John know there were cannibals on the island?

"When did you learn that?" asked Harry.

"Yesterday," was his reply.

"What did you find that makes you believe that?"

"I discovered a bone which was once part of a human body."

"But how would that be any indication that the people here are cannibals?"

"When you see a bone that has on it the unmistakable markings of human teeth, it is pretty safe to infer that the animal which scratched the bone was a cannibal."

From the report of Muro it was evident that there was a large number of people on the island, and, if Muro's observations were correct, they now had some captives, or, at least, were preparing to celebrate a feast in which human beings were to be the victims.

"That satisfies me of one thing," said Harry.

"And what is that?" asked John.

"Why, that there must be other tribes on the island," he answered.

"Why do you infer that?"

"Well, where would they get the victims?"

"From their own people," answered John.

"What! eat their own people?" asked George.

"That is not at all strange. Many people are known to sacrifice their own, and among the most degraded, they are known to kill and eat their own."

"That is the first time I have heard of such a thing."

"Don't you remember that the Bible tells about Abraham about to offer up his own son as a sacrifice?"

"Yes; but not to eat him."

"Of course not; but it is not an uncommon thing for tribes in Africa to sell their own children for this purpose. One of the greatest sacrificial rites of the ancient Mexicans, was to offer up the most handsome youth each year, as a propitiation to the gods."

"So they do not always depend on their enemies to furnish the feast?"

"By no means. Many of the tribes have a superstition that if they eat a brave enemy it will impart to them his spirit of valor, and the fact that they are to have sacrifices here does not mean that there are various tribes on the island; but that is something we shall have to investigate. It is my opinion that we shall find other tribes, but that, I am inclined to think, depends upon the size of the island."

* * * * *

The preceding volume, "Adventures Among Strange Islands," states the conditions under which the two boys, Harry and George, found themselves on a strange island, in the southern Pacific. Accompanying them were John L. Varney, and about sixty natives from Wonder Island, together with the two Chiefs Uraso and Muro.

Nearly three years previously the boys, George Mayfield and Harry Crandall, who were members of the crew of a school-ship, the Investigator sailed from New York, and while on board, met a professor, who, when the ship was blown up at sea, became their companion in the life boat in which they sought refuge. Together they finally were stranded upon an unknown island, less than a hundred miles from the island which was the scene of the adventures with which we are now concerned.

On this island they discovered five or six savage tribes, from some of which they rescued seven of their former boy companions. Here also they met Mr. Varney, who had escaped from the savages. The Professor succeeded in reconciling all the warring tribes, and the natives were now engaged in agriculture, and in various other pursuits, and the boys had the great pleasure and satisfaction of being able to build their own vessel and return home. The trip to the Wonderful island, with which this volume deals, was for a double purpose, as will presently be shown.

John, as Mr. Varney was familiarly known to them, was not only a well educated man, but a great adventurer, and had traveled all over the world in pursuit of scientific knowledge. He was particularly interested in the history of the men who first went to the western world, and scattered civilization to the benighted countries.

Like many men of his character, he did not consider the question of money. He tried to acquire knowledge and information for the love of the quest, and in order to be of service to his fellow man, so it was purely by accident that he became a member of a crew that sailed for the southern seas at the same time that the boys left New York on their trip.

While his companions undertook the mission solely for the sake of the money which might be acquired, John engaged thinking it might offer the means of laying bare many of the early legends and vague historical accounts with which that region of the South Seas abounds, and he knew that if any records were in existence, they could be preserved only in such secure places as caverns, which the Spanish buccaneers invariably selected as the safest places to conceal their treasures.