Again the sailor nodded.
"Nice old government officer he is!" Frank said, in a half whisper.
"He doesn't act like himself," Ben said, "not since he came out of the cabin after being ill for a day and a night. And the boxes coming out of the hold now do not look like the boxes that were put in it on the China coast. I don't know what to make of it all."
During all this talk Ned had been listening intently for the shriek of a rocket, casting his eyes up the mountain side in the hope of seeing the green light of a signal reflected there. But no reports of rockets in the sky had come to his ears, and there were no signal lights reflected on the mountain.
The moon was well up in the heavens when the unloading of the Martha was completed. Then the Lieutenant called the dignified native to his side again, and once more the toll of the boxes was taken and a slip passed over to the officer. This done, the men went back into the hold again and began unloading small boxes, evidently containing tinned provisions.
"There," whispered Ben, "those are the goods Lieutenant Carstens took on board at the Chinese port."
"Then where were the guns and the ammunition taken on?" asked Ned.
"That is what gets me," was the reply.
"Tinned goods were also put into the Clara?" Ned asked.
"Yes; and they are going to take them out."