As the man obeyed the count stepped to the taffrail, and stared back to where the lights of his yacht gleamed through the darkness. After a moment he lifted the rear light of the steamer from its box, and swung it in wide wagon wheel convolutions—swung it until from out of the waters behind him a white sword of light sprang up and cleft the zenith. Right and left it wheeled, cutting fantastic zigzags across the milky way, but never by any chance falling upon the Southern Cross.
His yacht had hung on the heels of the Southern Cross all the way from Barbadoes, until those upon the steamer had ceased to pay attention to her. On that particular night she had closed in until scarcely an eighth of a mile of smooth rolling water separated the two vessels. When the search light sprang up, the officers on the Southern Cross watched it for a moment and then turned to more important things, neither noting nor caring that the yacht was rapidly eating up the distance that had separated her from them.
Meanwhile Ouro Preto was busy. From a rack above his head he took two life preservers; one he bound around himself, and the other he handed to his confederate to fasten around Miss Byrd’s unconscious form.
“Come along,” he ordered, turning to the starboard quarter, whence a trailing rope ladder—a so-called Jacob’s ladder—depended, its lower end just touching the crests of the waves as they rolled past.
He climbed over the rail and took a step or two down the swaying ladder. “Give me the girl,” he ordered.
But the man held back. “Say, Mister,” he protested. “I ain’t standing for no murder.”
Ouro Preto glared at him. “Neither am I, you fool,” he snarled. “It’s all arranged. I can swim like a fish, and my yacht will pick us up in less than five minutes. See how near she is.”
The man looked up. The yacht was indeed very near.
“Give me the girl,” ordered the count, again, and this time the sailor obeyed.
Ouro Preto balanced Lillian over his shoulder and descended the Jack ladder step by step. When he reached the water’s edge he stopped.