His paddle dipped regularly now, and the little craft shot down the inlet. Indeed, it was abundantly clear by the pace she attained that a stream fell into the bay at this point, and that the current helped the efforts of the paddler. And before any could have believed it they had reached the coast-line, and were in the surf, here a gentle swell only, for had it been like that which broke upon the beach higher up, the boat would have foundered. She was of far too light a build to have lived there for a moment. As it was she rocked, till Owen and Jack were forced to hold to the gunwale, while they bent their bodies as low down as possible. Meanwhile Mulha seemed to take little heed of the commotion; but his piercing eyes watched every wave, and the strokes of his paddle came now at irregular moments, sometimes strong, and sometimes just a gentle touch which turned the boat's head aside to avoid some breaker. Spray blew over the three and drenched them, but they hardly heeded it. All had their thoughts fixed upon the pirates' ship, and upon the coming struggle.
"I wonder what it will be like," Owen said to himself. "I have fired a gun and pistols at a target many a time, but till to-day I have never killed anything. It was all right, of course, to kill those pigs and the deer; that was sport; while the killing of the rhinos was a matter of self-preservation. But these natives are different. They are human beings, and I hesitate even to strike them with the cudgels which we have prepared."
"There she is! I saw her against the stars," suddenly exclaimed Jack, interrupting Owen's train of thought.[Pg 103] "We shall be alongside in a quarter of an hour. Then there'll be a tussle. Owen, these beggars would kill us without a scruple and without mercy, wouldn't they?"
Our hero stared in the direction in which Jack pointed, for his comrade caught his arm and turned it out to sea to the left, so that the darkness could lead to no mistakes. And there, without any doubt, was the pirate vessel, looming large and formidable against the starlight, and rocking gently on the swell.
"Wouldn't they? They'd cut our throats without hesitation!"
Then his friend had been thinking of the same thing. It was all very well to fight wild beasts, but when it came to an endeavour to kill their own fellows, dark-skinned pirates though they were, it was a very different matter.
"I would not trust my life in their hands for an instant," was his answer. "Look here, Jack. It's a question of self-preservation all over again. Those rhinos wanted to kill us, and we were forced to shoot them. It's the same here. While there are bad men in the world there will be murders and hangings. Lives will be taken, and robberies and violence committed, till those who desire to lead a quiet life rebel. Finding that words and warnings are insufficient they will take to killing the bad men simply for the reason that if they did not do so the latter would become too strong in time, and would do pretty well as they liked with other people's lives and property. That's the way with these pirates. They wanted to capture the ship, and they would like[Pg 104] to take us, just to revenge their defeat. I object. I want to get to India. I will hit as hard as possible, and if a man attempts to stand up to me, well, the better of the two shall survive."
He gripped the stout cudgel which Mulha had cut for him, and balanced it nicely in his hand. Then his eyes went across to the native boat again, and he watched to see whether there were any figures on her deck. But she was still too far away, and, in fact, only her spars were visible, showing up against the bright stars. Mulha paddled on without a pause and without a sound. Those in the skiff could just hear the dip, dip of his blade, but that was all. There was not sufficient noise there to attract the attention of the pirates, and it was hardly likely that the latter would be listening.
"Most likely they have turned in by now," said Owen to himself, as he listened for any other sound than that of the paddle. "With a little luck we should be able to get alongside without discovery."