After this came a long period of waiting. All remained silent, until, of a sudden, everybody was startled by a distant cannon shot.
“What in the world can that mean?” cried Phil, who lay close to our hero.
“It’s a shot from a ship’s cannon, and it came from the direction of the shore!” returned Dave. “It may be some sort of a signal.”
“Do you suppose it’s a summons to Pardell and Rumney?”
“It may be. Wait, I’ll look into the cave again and see what they are doing.”
Losing no time, our hero crawled forward once more to the position he had before occupied. Then he pushed the vines aside and looked into the long cave.
He could not suppress a cry of consternation. The two Englishmen had vanished!
“They are gone!” he called to his companions.
“Gone!” repeated Phil and Roger.
“Don’t tell me that!” fairly shrieked Giles Borden. “I must catch them and get back my money!”