“Asleep, I guess,” said Mose. “Here’s the cliffs, Cap’n.”
Marion Royce looked uneasily at the peaceful face of the moonlit palisades. As the ark floated past, close in shore, the crew stood at the starboard rail, speculating as to the extent of the caverns. Suddenly a voice called from the water behind them, and they saw an arm upraised.
“It’s Lewis!” exclaimed Marion. “Throw a line out, Kenton!”
Lewis caught the line without trouble and the men soon had him aboard, dripping and excited.
“Bad stretch of water to bathe in, Lewis,” said the captain, gravely.
“I didn’t mean to fall in,” said Lewis. “A canoe stole past to port of us, and before I could cry out an Indian had slipped up behind me and shoved me into the water, but I took him with me. When we came up to the surface someone in the canoe reached out to us, but instead of pulling us in I saw a knife flash and the Indian who had pulled me overboard went down without a gurgle, cut through the throat. I dived under, for I didn’t want to make any closer acquaintance with the Indian in the canoe. Then I came up, and here I am. Where’s the canoe?”
“It must have put into one of the caves,” said the captain. “What I can’t understand is how it could have happened without Moses hearing.”
“I was looking at the palisades,” said Mose. “It all happened at the bow, ninety feet away. By the time the ark had floated its own length it was all over.”
“Go down and get dry clothes, Lewis,” ordered the captain. “Keep a sharp watch, the rest of you. There is something extraordinary about this—two Indians in a canoe try to murder the watch aboard an ark, and the second Indian, instead of doing his part and killing the steersman as the ark drifts by, knifes the first Indian. I never heard of such a thing. Are you sure you weren’t dreaming when you fell overboard?”
“Dreaming?” chattered Lewis, stopping on his way to the cabin. “Look at that!”