Beyond, at some little distance, there were other rocks, but he judged that if he went to the edge of the rock to which he had climbed he might see something, and he, therefore, crept along cautiously for fear of being seen, until he reached the edge.
Here he looked over and saw that there was water below him, quite a good sized cove, in fact, which ran up from the shore to a considerable distance, apparently, but had a turn a few rods farther up in shore.
Looking the other way Jack could see the bay in which they lay, and said to himself:
"That is the way they could come, but now let us see if they did, and if there is room beyond for a vessel of any size to pass."
The higher mass of rock on his left prevented his going much farther, however, and he was thinking that he might be obliged to climb to the top of this, being unable to get around it, when he heard a suspicious sound below him, and lay flat on his face, peering cautiously over the edge.
There were some bushes and coarse grass here and these hid him somewhat from observation, while they did not prevent his seeing anything going on below.
The sound he had heard was the splash of oars and the hum of voices, and in a few moments he saw a boat containing two men appear around a corner of the higher rock, which descended sheer to the water's edge, and make its way slowly toward the open bay.
"I tell you there is one, Davis," Jack heard one of the men say, recognizing the voice as that of the man with the white mustache, as he always thought of him, and not as his stepfather.
In fact, he had long since repudiated any relationship whatever with the man, and regarded him as a stranger who had come into his life without any wish of his own, and whom he would willingly put out of it, and be satisfied never to see or hear of again.
"But weren't you in here the other night when I signaled?" asked the other man, who was rowing. "You answered and told me to come in."