CHAPTER VII
A GATHERING OF THE CLAN
"If there are any of the gang around here, where on earth are they?"
The question came in a whisper from Billy, as he and the Seminole pursued their way cautiously along the edge of a watercourse, in the direction of the cabins. Bending forward, sometimes crawling on hands and knees, they advanced—-an inch at every step, it seemed to impatient Billy.
"Do you think they're hiding near here?" he asked, and Dave shook his turbaned head.
"Gone 'way," was his answer. "Boat come back to-night, mebbe so."
"Boat? What boat?"
"Esperanza."
"Oh! Then you think they'll try to leave this part of the coast soon?"
"Dunno. Wait. We see, we tell Petrel."
There was nothing else to do, so Billy curbed his eagerness to learn the present whereabouts of the smugglers and crawled forward in silence. Once he drew back with a gasp of horror as a large moccasin snake darted across his path; but seeing the loathsome creature glide away to a safe distance, he went on, following the guide. Nevertheless, a chill ran down his spine when he thought how narrowly he had escaped stumbling full tilt upon the reptile, which, unlike the rattlesnake, never gives warning of its presence.
When they had traversed the stretch of marsh between the peninsula and the cove, alternately walking on soft springy ground above a bed of coralline limestone and wading knee-deep along the watercourse, they emerged upon the left bank of the cove. The two smaller cabins were not more than twenty paces distant, and between them was a plank bridge rudely built in the form of a trestle. Dave and Billy approached this bridge.
Suddenly they stopped short and crouched in the high grass. Plainly to their ears came the shrill barking of a dog.
Dave expressed his feelings in one round oath, which, being uttered in his native dialect, sounded to Billy "Like gargling the throat."
It needed no expletives to inform Billy that the dog's appearance on the scene of action was certain to cause trouble.
"Ketch um dog, choke um!" said Dave, looking about him to see if the barking had brought anyone to the place.
"Where is the cur?" Billy asked.
"Don't see um," replied the Seminole. He straightened up until his head was above the top of the grass. "A-ah!" he exclaimed in a guttural tone. "Man in sailboat yonder."
Impulsively Billy scrambled to a kneeling position, and his gaze followed Dave's. The two spies then beheld the figure of a man seated in the stern of a dug-out canoe that carried a mast and sail and was coming around the bend of a stream.
"If he sees us——-" began Billy.
"S-s-sh!" Dave interrupted warningly. "Wait, see where he go."
"Is the dog barking at us or at him? What d'you think, Dave?"
"At us," was the answer. "Man come, let dog loose,—-we better go back! Incah!"
"No," said Billy firmly. "Dog or no dog, I'm not going back till
I've found out where they've hidden Hugh!"
If Billy had only known that Hugh was locked in that further cabin! If Hugh had only been able to communicate with his friends on picket duty! How much trouble would have been avoided,—-yet what an adventure they would have missed!
Dave now explained to Billy that his purpose had been to purloin the sailing canoe, so that the smugglers on shore would be dependent on a boat from the Esperanza to take them and their goods away. This would enable the crew of the Petrel to intercept the smugglers as soon as they landed. But now, with the appearance of this man in the canoe, Dave's plan seemed about to be thwarted.
* * * * * *
Meanwhile, what of the others who remained on the peninsula?
More than an hour passed before any one saw a suspicious figure on the landscape. Then Alec, whose post was farthest removed from the landing place, suddenly caught sight of two men walking along the shore. They were carrying the same battered tin box which he and Billy had found half buried in the sand, many hours ago. Evidently the box was heavy, for they appeared to stagger with its weight.
Alec raised his voice in the weird, low call of the otter. As his patrol was named after that animal, he knew that Chester, also of the Otter patrol, would recognize the signal. In this case it meant "Danger. Look around you."
From a distance, hidden behind a clump of palmettos, Chet responded with the same call twice, in quick succession.
But the men carrying the box heard the calls. They knew it was still too early in the afternoon for otters to be hunting so noisily, and they were surprised, startled, suspicious. To Alec's dismay, they dropped the box, stood still, and stared all around them. Alec lay flat on the ground, trusting that his khaki suit and brown flannel shirt would help him to escape observation. At the same time he dread lest one of the other pickets would be seen too soon.
The two men, after gazing out to sea as if expecting to sight a vessel on the horizon, picked up the box and came on again. Every step brought them nearer Alec, who of course had been told to allow all strangers to pass unchallenged—-until to-morrow.
"Hark!" said one of the men, listening. "That's Rover barking!"
"He barks at nothing!" declared the other. "Eet is a fool dawg, zat
Rover! I know heem, yes."
"You haven't as much sense as that 'fool dawg,' Max!" retorted the first speaker, who was none other than the swarthy ruffian, Harry Mole. "Somethin's going on over there at the settlement or the dog wouldn't bark. Come on, hurry; Branks may need us."
So saying, he and his companion passed by, and Alec, who had heard every word, breathed a sigh of relief. He wished the two men were not going in the same direction Dave and Billy had taken; but he felt sure that the latter could give a good account of themselves if discovered in hiding.
"But that would upset the whole scheme," he reflected. "Perhaps I'd better sneak around, ahead of those two rascals, and warn Dave and Billy to lie low? Or shall I—-no, I've been stationed here, and it's up to me to stick to this post."
As he watched the two men stumbling on over the uneven ground, he wondered with a little thrill of apprehension whether they would run across any of the other pickets, or even meet Billy and Dave returning from their quest.
However, no such undesired event came to pass, and the two smugglers finally disappeared behind a row of trees covered with vines.
After that, the watchful young pickets waited in silence, with only a low-spoken word now and then as they paced back and forth under cover to emphasize the stillness. An hour passed,—-another hour,—-the sun began its slow descent into the broad bosom of the ocean. Long before this, the Arrow had slipped away a little farther up along the coast, so that she would be out of sight behind one of the numerous islands in case the Esperanza drew near Durgan's cove.
Once the dog's barking sounded louder, and nearer, but after a minute or two it ceased, and silence reigned over all.
"What's become of Dave and Billy?" wondered Chester.
The same question was troubling the minds of Roy Norton and Mark Anderson, in their respective station-points; but there seemed to be no answer to it at present.
Twilight crept upon them apace, then deepened into the shadows of night. As they had arranged, they left their posts and assembled at the place chosen for their landing. After hours of more-or-less solitary watching, it seemed good to be together in council, to eat their simple supper, and to compare notes.
In the midst of their evening meal, the faint purring of a motorboat's engine reached their ears, and after a few minutes a boat with two figures in it was seen approaching them, gliding almost noiselessly along one of the waterways. The occupants of the boat were Billy Worth and Dave. Reaching the place, they stopped the engine, ran the boat's nose into the soft bank, and sprang ashore.
"Where—-how——did you get it?" asked Norton in surprise.
"The boat? Oh, we just borrowed it from Joe Durgan and his friends!" Billy declared. "We saw the boat tied to a little trestle over there at the deserted settlement, and when we saw Durgan and two other men go into one of the cabins, we sneaked up quickly and took the boat from them without asking permission and got away with it!"
"Didn't they see you, or hear the engine?"
"No," answered Billy.
"That's strange! Are you sure?"
"There were no windows in the cabin, that we could see," explained
Billy, "and when they got inside, they made a lot of noise."
"Gee! won't they be wild when they find their boat gone!" said Mark.
"They may think it slipped its moorings and drifted away on the tide.
At least, that's what Dave says."
The Seminole grinned. "Anyhow, they look for boat soon," he said.
"Something doin' tonight, you bet!"
Alec had risen and was standing erect, his face turned toward the ocean.
"What are you staring at?" queried chester. "See any stars?"
"There's just one," replied young Sands, pointing southwest. "Mighty low down—-there! Now it's out."
"No, it isn't. I see it!"
"So do I!" exclaimed Billy and Norton.
"There it is again!"
"What a queer star!"
"Perhaps it's a lighthouse. Captain Vinton said that there is one somewhere near this locality."
The sky was cloudy; there was no moon. Overhead, a few large stars glittered brilliantly, but the seeming star at which they were gazing was unlike any of those celestial lights. It steadily grew larger, yellower. Finally two lower gleams appeared, and then all three vanished, as if they had been snuffed out.
"What is it?" asked Norton, turning to Dave.
But the Seminole guide apparently did not hear the question. He was staring in the direction of the three cabins, whence arose in the murky darkness a shower of sparks, then one—-two——three shooting green stars.
"Look!" he exclaimed hoarsely.
"By Jove! a Roman candle!" ejaculated Norton. "It's a signal!"
"No star out to sea," Dave said. "No star, but um boat."
"Boat? You mean——-"
"Esperanza! She come here to-night."