Chapter XIII: The Green Arrow Trail

While Johnny was going through his wild adventure, Doris and Dave were not without their own exciting moments. Of course while the storm lasted, the professor's party remained inside the _Sea Nymph's_ cabin. As soon as it abated they immediately went ashore.

Troubled as they were at thought of Johnny's possible fate, there was for the moment nothing they could do. The seas were still running high. Dave and the professor went for a tramp in the jungle, while Doris followed the trail to the Kennedy home.

Mildred appeared greatly worried when told of the journey Johnny and Samatan had undertaken.

"But why did Johnny go?" she asked in surprise.

"Oh," replied Doris, "he had a notion that Samatan was angry about something. He said we might need the help of Samatan and his men."

"How?" Mildred asked.

"That's it--how?" Doris laughed uneasily. "He thinks there are many European spies around here!"

"Well--there are!" Mildred nodded her head vigorously.

"You, too?" exclaimed Doris. "But anyhow, Johnny thinks the spies believe _we_ are looking for _them_--and that they'd do something terrible to us."

"I shouldn't wonder," said Mildred.

"How comforting you are!" Doris smiled ruefully. "Just when I want to feel quiet in my mind! You aren't helping a bit!"

"Well," said Mildred, "how can I? There were those men singing in some foreign tongue. They just vanished! And there's that mysterious, blinking green arrow."

"Two of them," Doris corrected. "One on land and one on sea--like Paul Revere!" she chuckled mischievously.

"But of course," she added more seriously, "there was the man who came on board our boat, sneaking around, and went into a huddle with the octopus! That would have been funny had it not been so terrible. He had a knife that Johnny says no native would carry. But I don't see--"

"There are a lot of things we don't see!" Mildred broke in. "For instance--who was that whisperer who was always breaking in when Dave and Johnny in the steel ball were being dragged against the rocks?"

"He might have been a thousand miles away. Radio's like that," Doris said, doubtfully.

"Yes-and he might not!" Mildred exclaimed. "He appeared to know too much for that."

"One more thing," Doris laughed. "Johnny thinks there is a submarine--a foreign one--in these waters!--He thinks we saw it, and that _it_ was the thing that dragged the steel ball, that day!"

"I shouldn't wonder a bit," said Mildred.

"Oh, bother your 'shouldn't wonder'!" exclaimed Doris, good naturedly. "Come on, let's take a walk. It will be good for our nerves!

"But I'll tell you one thing," she added as they started off. "If I believed _half_ the things you do--I'd be getting out of here!"

"It's not so easy," Mildred replied, soberly. "Grandfather is a dear. It would be a shame to leave him alone. Of course he says he's going to send me back to college in the fall, and I suppose I shall go. College means so much these days."

"Yes," Doris agreed, "I'm sure it does."

"But he can't do that unless we get our motorboat up from the bottom," said Mildred. "And even after that--there are the spies."

"Spies! Always spies!" Doris laughed. "Let's forget them!"

"O.K. Let's do," the other girl agreed.

The trail they had chosen led to the beach where the mysterious male chorus had disappeared. Arrived at the beach where the waves were now racing, they stood for a time in silence. When a piece of driftwood--the broken side of a native dugout--came floating in, Mildred turned away with a shudder, her thoughts on Johnny.

Having wandered into the jungle a short distance she stopped suddenly to stare at the trunk of a tree. There, standing out against the smooth gray bark, was a small, green arrow!

"Doris!" she called. "Come here!"

"Green arrow!" Doris exclaimed, reaching Mildred's side. "What do you suppose it means?" she whispered.

"It's a trail marker!" said Mildred. "There should be others. Come on!"

There were others! Some were quite far up on the trees, while others were low. They continued the search for ten minutes, steadily finding others.

Doris was frightened and did not wish to go on. At every turn of the trail she expected to come upon a freshly made clearing, a cluster of tents and a whole army of strange warriors.

But Mildred thought of but one thing.... Perhaps they were on the road to a real discovery.

As they went deeper and deeper into the jungle, the green arrows became scarcer, and harder to find. The trail grew steeper and narrower. Thorny bushes tore at them, and once a great snake crossed their path. Unused to all this, Doris was distinctly uneasy. But Mildred's face fairly shone.

However, when they came to a place where the trail split into three narrower ones and, search as they might, they could not find a single arrow, Mildred, too, was ready to give up.

"Come on," said Doris. "It will soon be dark, and I must get back to the boat. They may want to put out, in search of Johnny and Samatan."

"You're right," said Mildred. "We must be starting back. But--I'm coming back here again!"

"Alone?" Doris stared.

"Perhaps."

The journey back to the Kennedy home was made in silence.

By the time the girls had eaten their evening meal it was completely dark. Wandering down to the beach they listened to the diminishing roar of the sea, and watched its strange blackness against the moon's golden light.

"There's a light!" Doris exclaimed.

"Yes, sir! And it blinks!" Mildred became excited.

After watching for a full minute, she suddenly threw her arms around her companion to exclaim: "Oh! Doris! That's Johnny! It is--it surely is! Sometimes he blinks his light from the ship that way--one, two, three--one, two, three! Oh, it's wonderful! Aren't you glad?"

"Of course I'm glad," said Doris. "But then--men always do manage to get back one way or another, don't they?"

"Oh! Oh, no!" Mildred caught her words. "They don't--nowhere near 'always'."

Just then Dave and the professor came down to the beach.

"We think it's Johnny and Samatan," Doris said quietly.

"Good!" said the professor. "That lifts a load from my shoulders!" He turned to speak to Mildred, but she had gone.

Ten minutes later, natives caught the dugout and hauled it far up on the sandy beach.

After receiving the congratulations of his shipmates, Johnny began flashing his light into the surrounding darkness, searching for Mildred. At last the beam came to rest on a charming picture--a girl with reddish-golden hair, wearing a dress of golden material, tied at the waist with a broad red sash. All this--against the greenish blackness of a jungle night.

"Why!" Johnny exclaimed, as he caught her hand. "The little beach-comber has turned into a golden fairy!"

"P--please, Johnny!" Mildred stuttered confusedly, "I--I just wanted to--celebrate your return from the d--dead!"

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Johnny. "I always come back. But it was mighty nice of you, anyhow, and I won't forget!"

* * * * * * * *

He was ready for a good, long sleep. His task of watching was given over for the night to Samatan's son, who was a member of the native crew. So Johnny did not return to the boat, but was shown to the guest room of the Kennedy cottage where, under a mosquito-bar canopy, with the tropical moon shining through the bamboo lattice, he slept the sleep of the just.

By the next afternoon both he and Mildred were ready for further adventure. Together, they tramped into the jungle.

"If we find more green arrows," said Mildred, fairly tingling with excitement, "where do you think the trail will lead us?"

"Hard to tell," said Johnny. "It might take us right to the spot from which the green arrow of light shines out in the night."

"And then?" she whispered.

"No can tell!" laughed Johnny. "We'll answer that when the time comes."

But would they? And what would the answer be?

After hours of searching they decided that, whatever the answer might be, the finding of it must be postponed for another day. Beyond the spot where the trail forked, they could not proceed.

"There's something queer about these signs of the green arrow," said Johnny, dropping onto a cushion of moss in the shade. "There is something we don't know about it all."

"Yes," replied the girl, "and we're going to find out what it is!"

"But not today," said Johnny. "The shadows already are growing long."

By the time they reached the beach from which the singing band had so mysteriously disappeared, the abrupt, tropical darkness had fallen. For a moment they stood looking at the dark, mysterious sea. Suddenly Mildred gripped Johnny's arm and whispered:

"Look! The green arrow!"

True enough. Seeming but a stone's throw from shore, the green arrow appeared to rise from the sea.

"It _must_ be on a submarine!" Mildred whispered.

"Wait! They're signalling." Johnny dragged pencil and paper from his pocket and began scribbling numbers. This continued for two minutes. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the green arrow vanished.

"Gone!" the girl exclaimed.

"Come on," said Johnny. "I want to see what they were saying."

Leading the way to a dark hollow where their light could not be seen, he asked her to hold the electric torch while he deciphered the message.

"'_We will strike_,'" he read aloud, "'_at the earliest possible moment!_'

"That's all." He stood up. "Spies strike in the dark--and without warning. I wonder what we have ahead of us!"