Plotting in Pirate Seas   By: Francis Rolt-Wheeler (1876-1960)

PLOTTING IN PIRATE SEAS

FRANCIS ROLT WHEELER

[Illustration: "NOT THAT WAY TWO MORE STEPS, BOY, AND YOU ARE DEAD".]

By FRANCIS ROLT WHEELER

Round the World with The Boy Journalists PLOTTING IN PIRATE SEAS HUNTING HIDDEN TREASURE IN THE ANDES

Romance History of America IN THE DAYS BEFORE COLUMBUS THE QUEST OF THE WESTERN WORLD

NEW YORK: GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

PLOTTING IN PIRATE SEAS

BY FRANCIS ROLT WHEELER

Author of "Hunting Hidden Treasure in the Andes," "In the Days Before Columbus," "The Quest of the Western World," "The Aztec Hunters," "The Boy with the U. S. Census," etc.

Illustrated by C. A. FEDERER

NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I PAGE AMERICAN ALL THROUGH 11

CHAPTER II WHERE BLACK MEN RULE 27

CHAPTER III THE BLOOD STAINED CITADEL 47

CHAPTER IV THE GHOST OF CHRISTOPHE 66

CHAPTER V THE ISLE OF THE BUCCANEERS 81

CHAPTER VI A CUBAN REBEL 99

CHAPTER VII A NOSE FOR NEWS 117

CHAPTER VIII THE POISON TREES 135

CHAPTER IX THE HURRICANE 155

CHAPTER X THE LAKE OF PITCH 177

CHAPTER XI THE MORNING OF DOOM 196

CHAPTER XII A CORSAIR'S DEATH 217

CHAPTER XIII THE HUNGRY SHARK 231

CHAPTER XIV TRAPPED! 242

ILLUSTRATIONS

"NOT THAT WAY TWO MORE STEPS, BOY, AND YOU Frontispiece ARE DEAD" PAGE FOR A HUNDRED FEET THEY FELL AND STUART 72 CLOSED HIS EYES IN SICKENING DIZZINESS

HIS VISION DISTORTED BY THE VENOM VAPOR OF THE 144 POISON TREES, THE LAND CRABS SEEMED OF ENORMOUS SIZE AND THE NEGRO WHO CAME TO RESCUE HIM APPEARED AS AN OGRE

ABOVE THE HOARSE SHOUTS OF RUFFIANS AND JACK TARS, 224 ROSE TEACH'S MURDEROUS WAR CRY

PLOTTING IN PIRATE SEAS

CHAPTER I

AMERICAN ALL THROUGH

The tom tom throbbed menacingly through the heavy dark of the Haitian night.

Under its monotonous and maddening beat, Stuart Garfield moved restlessly.

Why had his father not come back? What mystery lay behind?

Often though the boy had visited the island, he had never been able to escape a sensation of fear at that summons of the devotees of Voodoo. Tonight, with the mysterious disappearance of his father weighing heavily on his spirits, the roll of the black goatskin drum seemed to mock him.

Hippolyte, the giant negro who had been their guide into this back country jungle, rocked and grimaced in balance with the rhythm.

"Why are they beating that drum, Hippolyte?" demanded Stuart, suddenly.

"Tonight the night of the Full Moon, Yes," was the answer. "Always Voodoo feast that night. Often, queer things happen on night of Full Moon, Yes!"

Stuart turned impatiently to the door, as much to get his eyes away from the hypnotic swaying of Hippolyte as to resume his watch for his father. The negro's reference to "queer things" had added to the boy's uneasiness.

Little though Stuart knew about his father's affairs, he was aware that his investigations dealt with matters of grave importance to the United States. Ever since Mr. Garfield had resigned his position in the U. S. Consular Service and left the post in Cuba, where he had stayed so many years, he had kept a keen eye on international movements in the West Indies.