"It is too long a story to tell you, but I have come to rescue you and the little girl. Follow me at once, please, and do exactly as I say. Now, to the door!"
Waiting only to see that they had risen, and that the young woman had whispered reassuring words to the child, and had cautioned her against making a sound, Tyler went to the door and gently opened it.
"We shall have day with us in a few moments," he said, turning swiftly and with an involuntary exclamation of dismay. "Now, listen to me. We have captured the English ship from the pirates, and have also taken the prahus. My men are Dyaks, and they will be your friends. You must follow me at once, keeping well behind the huts. When we get to the opening through the stockade we will run. Do you understand? Then follow."
Glancing swiftly around, and failing to catch sight of Hanns Schlott, Tyler led the way into the clearing, and then, stealing along through the mist, he directed the prisoners amongst the huts so as to keep them out of sight. Very soon they came to a point where the dwellings ended, and where nothing but open ground stretched between the fugitives and the stockade. And here they came to an abrupt halt, while a feeling of dismay came over them; for there in the opening stood the burly figure of Hanns Schlott, his face turned to the river, while he stared into the mist as if something had occurred to awaken his suspicions.
"Strange!" he was murmuring; "is it the wine which I drank last night, or can it be the thought of that beggarly Englishman, by name Tyler Richardson, who threatened to follow me and see me hanged as a murderer? Tush! My eyes are playing me a trick, and I am out of sorts."
He stamped upon the ground in his vexation, and turned from the river for a moment. But again his eyes went back in that direction as if he were fascinated, while on this occasion he started forward, and, sheltering his eyes with his hand, stared into the cloud of watery vapour with an eagerness which showed that he was still ill at ease.
"Surely that is strange!" he said in hesitating tones. "Of course the mist is thickest over the water, but the prahus are outlined in it, though dimly, I admit. But how comes it that the ship which we captured is turned with stern this way, and her bows pointing to the sea? It is beyond my comprehension, for the tide does not make this way for three hours at least. And—am I really bewildered this morning and muddled by the wine?—half the fleet seems to have disappeared!"
He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, and, tearing his hat from his head, thrust his fingers through his hair. Then once more he fixed his attention on the river, and stood there as if undecided still, and as though hesitating how to act. Meanwhile Tyler and his charges had watched him with feelings approaching dismay.
"We cannot possibly afford to wait more than three or four minutes," said the former, "and if he does not move then, we must rush past him. But I do not like to see him staring so hard at the river, for it seems to me that he suspects something, and I know that whatever he thinks at the moment he will soon realize what is happening once the sun clears the mist away. Get ready, miss, and if you see me start forward at a walk, be prepared to rush after me and go straight through the opening. I will see to that fellow."