The Ocean Wireless Boys on the Pacific

“Judson! Is it possible?” he gasped. “What brought you here?”

“Are you a prisoner, too?” demanded Mr. Jukes.

“A prisoner?” laughed Judson. “Well, that’s a good one, I must say. Only fools walk into traps.”

“Well, what are you doing here then, boy?” demanded the millionaire, recollecting his former kindness to Donald. “You ask him, Ready. He’s a friend of yours.”

“He’s no friend of mine, Mr. Jukes,” denied Jack. “Can’t you see it all?”

“See what?”

“Why, the contemptible turn-coat is in with these rascals.”

“Impossible!”

“So, Judson,” went on Jack, “this is how you repay our kindness to you?”

“Your kindness,” sneered the boy. “I want none of it. I’m in with a good crowd now. Besides, I told you in Bomobori I didn’t want to go with your old expedition.”

“But you didn’t refuse the money I got you from Mr. Jukes,” said Jack.

“Oh, he’s made of money,” chuckled Donald, “and we mean to get some more of it.”

“You miserable young whelp,” panted the helpless millionaire, purple with rage, “if I had you in America – ”

“And anyhow,” continued Judson, thoroughly enjoying this, “you are only getting what’s coming to you, Ready. In the States you tried to have me put in pris – er that is you wanted to tell lies about me.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t have you locked up, now,” said Jack bitterly. “I suppose you put this gang of scoundrels on our trail.”

“You can suppose anything you want,” was the rejoinder, but a bit of the old boastfulness crept into his tone, “and you’re going to pay up, too, before you get out of this. Have you had them searched, Captain Broom?”

“What – ?” shouted the millionaire, almost beside himself at this sudden revelation of the black-bearded man’s identity, “are you ‘Bully’ Broom?”

“My name’s Broom all right,” was the surly reply, “but I want my proper handle, which is Captain.”

“What have you done with my brother, you infernal rascal?” stormed the millionaire.

“Now you ain’t going to get along any better by cutting up rough and losing your temper like that, pard’ner,” was the cool reminder. “You may be my guest for quite a time, so let’s you and me get along peaceable. Otherwise we’ll find a way to make you keep a civil tongue in your head.”

“Did you have them searched?” repeated Donald greedily. “If you did I want my share of it.”

“They were searched, Judson, but they only had a few dollars; not more than a hundred at most.”

“Bah!” growled Judson; “then they left some behind at old Baroni’s place. If we don’t capture the others, then – ”

“Never mind that, now,” commanded Broom; “you tell ’em what I told you.”

“All right,” assented Judson, and then, turning to Jack, he said:

“Do you know why you were brought here, Mr. Fresh?”

“To be robbed, I suppose. I see no other explanation to it,” was Jack’s reply, with a steady look at Judson that made the other drop his eyes. “I always knew you were a bad lot, Judson, but I never thought you were as bad as this.”

“Don’t talk to me like that. I’m as good as you,” stormed Judson, although he looked uneasy. Jack’s shot had told. “To be brief, we want to make money out of you.”

“In what way?”

“First of all, you must answer our questions.”

“That’s the way,” approved ‘Bully’ Broom, stroking his huge beard. “How much money did you bring with you from America?”

“Very little cash,” replied the millionaire, who had found it more prudent to control his temper, “most of the money is in the form of a letter of credit.”

“Where is that letter of credit?” demanded Judson, interfering.

“It is in Bomobori with the bankers,” was the reply, and Jack rejoiced to think that Mr. Jukes had managed to tell him that, as most of the money had been left behind at the hostelry with Captain Sparhawk, who had been appointed a sort of pay-master to the party.

“Well, now we’ll come down to brass tacks,” growled Broom, after an interval of thought. “How much is your liberty worth to you?”

“So that’s your game, is it, you rascally blackmailer?” sputtered the infuriated millionaire. “You won’t get a cent out of me.”

But ‘Bully’ Broom only smiled.

“Perhaps in a few days you’ll sing a different tune,” he said, and something, not in the words, but in the way they were uttered, sent a cold shiver down Jack’s spine.

CHAPTER XXVIII. – THE FREE-BOOTER’S DEMANDS

“Well, what do you demand?” was the millionaire’s next question.

Donald Judson drew ‘Bully’ Broom aside and whispered to him. The other nodded.

“The least we will take is one hundred thousand dollars,” he said.

The millionaire grew purple.

“What?” he almost shouted.

“That is for the liberty of both,” said ‘Bully’ Broom coolly. “Fifty thousand for the boy and fifty thousand for you. If you don’t want to take the boy, you can pay up fifty thousand and we will keep him.”

“What would you do with him?”

“Well, the river is full of hungry alligators – ” grinned the wretch.

“You scoundrel,” thundered Mr. Jukes, “do you suppose I’d leave him behind, anyway?” Jack cast him a grateful look. “But what have you done with my brother, you ruffian?”

“Ah! I was coming to that,” said the rascal with an insolent smile, “but you can also have him for the very insignificant sum that I have already mentioned as being the price for you and the boy.”

“You’re worth a whole lot more than that, Jukes,” put in Judson, with an equally insolent air. “You’re a regular old money-bags, you know.”