‘Ho! ho! Do you want a pilot? I think you do, indeed,’ exclaimed the shrill, cracked voice we knew so well.
‘The dwarf, by God!’ ejaculated Paul Williamson. ‘I told you so. It is a demon, and we are bewitched.’
I was in a great rage. ‘You skulking vagabond,’ I shouted out, ‘wait till daylight to-morrow, and we’ll see whether an ounce of lead won’t catch that canoe of yours, quick as it is.’
To this there was no answer made, although we sat listening for near ten minutes. What was to be done? We hardly knew; but anything was better than lying idly where we were. The night breeze now struck cold and chill; the men had been overheated at their oars, and their teeth began to chatter. There was a very cordial response of ‘Amen,’ therefore, as I said, ‘I wish we had put a bottle of brandy into the boat.’ For half an hour or so we pulled at random, the men whispering and muttering to each other, when I saw a faint flash in the distance, and presently heard the report of a gun. ‘There goes the schooner, at length,’ I cried. The boat’s head was promptly put into the proper direction, and we recommenced our weary pull with something like energy. We must have been near the outward edge of the shoals, for the surf thundered loud, and great broken swells often came rolling past us in a multitude of uneven undulations. All at once the confounded voice of the dwarf hailed us.
‘You are going the wrong way, my brave fellows. If you expect to reach the schooner on that course, you must pull the boat round the world, and carry her over Asia.’
‘Never mind the spiteful creature,’ I said, in a low tone; ‘he is but attempting to mislead us. It is his turn to-night; it will be ours to-morrow, when the sun rises.’
Ten minutes more elapsed, then another musket was discharged, almost due ahead. ‘See,’ I exclaimed, in great triumph; ‘we are keeping the exact course; we shall be on board in a jiffey.’
Paul Williamson shook his head. ‘The schooner,’ quoth he, ‘is anchored near the centre of the shoals, and you hear how heavy and how near the surf is beating.’
I was somewhat troubled at this, I confess, but I saw nothing for it but to pull on. So we did, until having coasted for some time along a succession of rocks, on the opposite side of which the sea was running heavily, we suddenly shot out from beyond their shelter, and immediately the boat was hove up upon the crest of so high and long a swell, that we all exclaimed at once, that we were out in the open sea. Just then, the pernicious dwarf hailed again, his voice now seeming to come from astern.
‘You are better pilots than I reckoned,’ shouted the spiteful atomy, ‘only that when you would keep at sea you come ashore; and when you would hug the land you start off right into the ocean.’