At once he became rigid in every limb, while his eyes seemed to start from their sockets. Then he stretched across to where Tyler was crouching, and taking him by the arm, directed his attention to the second of the two booms, which guarded the other river at the point where it flowed into the main channel of the Sarebus.
"Someone moving there," said our hero decidedly. "A boat, I think, though it is so dark in that direction that one cannot distinguish anything. There! I heard a splash as if a sampan had been dropped into the water, or an anchor had been let go. Hush!"
"And them's voices," came from the boatswain in the lowest of whispers. "You can hear 'em coming over the water as plain as if they was alongside of this very spot. What'll it be? Pirates come to have a fight with these here fellers? or friends?"
"Dey friends, I tink," said a voice at their side, causing Tyler and his companion to give a start of surprise. "Li Sung and de Dyak hear dem plenty time ago as dey float down de oder river, and from de very first we tink dat dey de men who am sent to de mountains to meet us. P'r'aps not, but me feel velly certain."
"Then they must have had some reason for returning," exclaimed Tyler anxiously, "for, no doubt, their orders were strictly to the effect that they were to lie in wait till we came along, and then send news to the stronghold, while they followed our tracks. This is serious, for it proves that they know more than we gave them credit for. Can they have already discovered that we have made directly in this line with the intention of falling upon their ships? Or do they imagine, because they have not seen us near the mountain range, that we have turned back and abandoned the journey?"
"Me cannot say, but me velly sure dem am de ones de Dutchman send off to de mountain," repeated the Chinaman with an emphatic wag of his head. "But keep little silence and velly soon we hear, for dey go into de stockade and speak to deir friends."
Conscious that they could do nothing for the present, for as yet the revellers still lounged before their fires, and a sudden dash upon the ships would have been doomed to failure, Tyler and his friends crouched in the jungle, fretting at the delay, chafing at the thought that even now something might have occurred to upset all their carefully-prepared plans, and with minds filled with anxious forebodings. And behind them, in every attitude, crouched the remainder of their followers, a prey for the most part to vague fears, which, in spite of their new spirit and of the fact that they had a trusted leader, would assail them however much they fought to be brave.
Would these men, these new-comers, join with their brothers and spend the night in revelry, or would they go to their huts at once and rest after an arduous march? The questions troubled Tyler considerably, and think as he would he could find no solution, for as yet it was not even certain that the men who manned the vessel which had just brought-to against the farther boom, and whose voices had been heard across the water, were those who had been sent to the mountains to waylay the Englishman and his Dyak followers. Perhaps they would turn out to be friends on a visit to the pirates.
Then did these rovers of the river and sea possess any who could be called by that name? Could any of their neighbours trust them sufficiently, or be trusted by the Dutchman and his men?
"It is out of the question," said Tyler to himself. "If these fellows were on a visit they would send someone ahead to announce their coming, for otherwise it is more likely that a bullet or the contents of one of those brass cannon which are mounted on the stockade would greet them. It is clear that they belong to Hanns Schlott and his gang, and that being the case I shall be astonished if they do not prove to be the ones sent to capture us or to gain tidings of our approach. But if so, why have they returned?"