Then he got to his feet and put his watch in his pocket.
"Guess that settles it," he said. "Now I'll look around for a boat. I didn't know it was going to be as easy as all that. If I had I would have had the others wait for me."
He moved toward the companionway, and as he did so, a bullet whistled by his ear. Harris stepped back in surprise; and in that moment the solution came to him.
"By Jove! They've fooled me," he muttered. "They poked their caps up and I shot them full of holes. However, they don't know yet that I'm out of bullets."
A few moments later a cap again appeared in the opening. Harris had no bullets to fire at it.
"They'll discover my predicament in a moment or so, though," he told himself.
He pulled his watch from his pocket and glanced at it.
"An hour," he said. "They have had time enough. However, I'll just see the thing through."
As he spoke it grew light. Harris looked off across the sea. There, so far away that it appeared but a speck upon the water, he saw what he took to be the motor boat bearing his friends to safety. He waved his cap.
"Good luck!" he said quietly.