It was deserted!
He went down to the boat landing, running as he never ran before. When he got there he found the boat was gone. His bird had flown!
“Balked! fooled!” he hissed, in rage. “Gone, gone, gone!”
“Ha! ha! ha!” rung out a voice from the mainland. “Gone, gone, gone! ha! ha! ha!”
He shuddered; then sat down on the ground, scared, frightened. For once, Captain Downing was afraid of the darkness.
It was very dark, and the ghostly echoes of that cursed voice seemed as if they would never die away. Sick with rage and disappointment, with an icy sweat on his forehead, he staggered back to the cabin. He had recognized the voice!
CHAPTER IX.
THE CORPSE OF AN HONEST MAN.
The next morning dawned bright and fair, and the sun was ushered to the world by the merry carol of thousands of feathered songsters. Brightly it dawned upon the settlement on the hill; benignly on the merry, sparkling river; pleasantly over the valley; but never did it fall upon a busier little world than on Dead-Man’s Forest.
Busier?—scarcely. On the edge of the swamp lake were a dozen or more men, peering over at the silent island; angry looks they gave; in the island were the same (almost) number of men, equally reckless and bold, but far more wary and wicked. The dug-out in which Katie had escaped still lay where she had left it; and much Cato (who had rejoined the pursuers) marveled. He knew that something was wrong, else it would have been moored to the island, out of sight; and his eyes, familiar with the island, noted something was wrong there, too.