As silently as possible, Ralph and Jack followed Small up the few steps leading to the stern deck. There in the semi-darkness they saw one of the sailors leaning heavily on the wheel. He had been drinking freely that evening, and for that reason was not near as alert as he might otherwise have been.
As they passed the cabin they saw the swinging lamp was turned low, but no one was in sight, and they reasoned that the captain and the mate, as well as Ferguson, had retired.
In the meantime, the other boys had made their way to the cook’s galley. It was so dark inside that they could not see a thing, and so were compelled to light one of some matches which Randy had obtained from Small. Then they found a candle and lit this, shading it with their hands so that it might not let out any more light than was needed.
“Here’s a pan of baked beans,” whispered Fred. “What about taking those?”
“Fine—if we can carry them,” answered Spouter.
“Here are some old flour bags. Why can’t we put some of the stuff in those?” suggested Fred, bringing the bags forward.
“A good idea, Fred!” said Andy. “Let’s put all the stuff in bags; then we can tie it over our shoulders and thus keep it out of the water as much as possible when we slide down that cable to the Fancy.”
In a very few minutes the boys had collected a miscellaneous lot of food, including the beans, several loaves of bread, some biscuits, some canned vegetables, bacon, butter, cheese, coffee, condensed milk, sugar and some dried fruit. Everything was placed in the empty bags and in a bit of sail cloth they found tacked up over some shelves.
“Now I guess we’ve got about all we can carry,” whispered Gif. “We don’t want to overload ourselves nor stop ourselves from making a quick get-away.”
The boys were on the point of leaving the galley with their spoils when suddenly they heard a noise outside and a moment later a burly form darkened the doorway.