“For a little while only.”
Martella came out in the moonlight, moved softly up the plank which connected the boat with the shore, and seating himself beside his old acquaintance, lit a cigarette. They talked for some minutes, as if no cloud had come between them, and then the visitor, heeding the warning of the engineer, bade him good bye and hurried back to his friends, who were becoming impatient over his absence.
Major Starland and the others noted that the deserter was in high spirits, but no one could understand why this should be the case.
“It is as I thought,” said Martella; “the gunboat landed General Yozarro and the officers who have gone to the Castle.”
“We knew that before.”
“And he did not dream of the presence of our boat so near. Things would have been different had he known it.”
“I may add, Martella, that that information is not new to us.”
“But some things are new. The only ones on the boat are the engineer and two firemen. There will be no trouble about it.”
“Trouble about what?”
“Capturing the boat; the crew will make no resistance, for it is not intended that they shall do any fighting. If they do, we can defeat them easily.”