"I must just do my best, and after all this is a duty for which I have been selected," he said to himself, as he curled his limbs on the floor of the prahu. "If all goes well, then it will be a fine thing, and no doubt the commander of the Dido will be pleased. If we are captured or get into trouble it will be by mischance, and I shall probably not be alive to mind. In any case I cannot alter the future by worrying now, so I'll get a good long sleep so as to be fresh for to-morrow."
With this resolution made, he closed his eyes, and, lulled by the sough of the wind as it bellied the great sail overhead, and by the hiss and swish of water alongside, he quickly lost consciousness, and did not awake till day was dawning.
"Time to open de eyes," said Li Sung as he gently shook his young master. "Velly soon we able to see far, and by den dese two China boys better be hidden away out of de sight."
"And the sooner we are in safe quarters the better," exclaimed Tyler, springing to his feet and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Over with the helm, and let us run in to the land. With a wooded coast before us we shall have no difficulty in finding a likely spot, and then we two—a couple of friendly China boys, as you say—will hide up for the day, and make ready to satisfy our appetites. Ah, the darkness is lifting rapidly, and there is the coast!"
As he spoke he lifted his hand and pointed to a high-lying stretch of land, a strip of the north-western coast of Borneo, which had just come into view.
"Good!" he exclaimed, noticing that it was thickly wooded down to the water's edge. "There will be ample cover there, and as it is just commencing to rain we are not likely to be seen by anyone. Give the tiller over to me, Li Sung, and go forward. If you post yourself in the bows you will be able to keep a look-out for shoals and rocks, and can shout a warning to me. Just pull in that sheet as you go, and we shall sail all the quicker."
Grasping the helm, Tyler set the prahu in the direction of the coast, the Chinaman pulling in the sail till it stretched taut across the mast and allowed them to sail their craft close-hauled. Then, obedient to the order of his young master, he went forward into the bows, where, reclining at full length, he fastened his pigtail in a knot at the back of his head to keep it from trailing in the water, and then bent his gaze on the surface before him.
"If massa puts de helm a little up we strikee straight for a small place between de trees," he said when they had sailed for some ten minutes through the driving rain. "Li see a creek dere, and he say dat if we sail de prahu right in, den we hidden, and no one see us, for dey all in deir huts just now."
Following the direction indicated by his companion, Tyler pointed the prahu for the opening, which was dimly visible, and soon had the satisfaction of arriving within a few lengths of a rift between the trees, through which a clear stream of water was issuing.
"A tiny river," he said to himself, "and just the place for us, for it will give us shelter, and at the same time will allow us to get our drinking-supply without leaving the vessel. Lower away that sail, Li, for the way on her will carry us in; and stand ready to make fast to a tree. I shall run her in till well out of sight of any who may happen to be cruising along the coast, though we must not go too far, and above all we must find out that there are no natives near at hand. Remember that secrecy is a thing which we have to think of, and our lives may very well depend upon how we observe it."