The critical moment was near at hand, and Frank and Ned looked into each other's faces with apprehension in their eyes. Still, there was no weakening, no outward sign of the mental commotion within.
Presently the gunboat rounded the point to the north and slid into the harbor between the Tusks, followed closely by the Manhattan. Ned saw that the boys were still on the Manhattan, but that two men in uniform were there with them. It looked to him as if the lads had been placed under arrest, for they did not appear as jubilant as they would doubtless have looked if their story had been taken at its full face value.
Lieutenant Carstens appeared to be astonished and decidedly out of temper when the commander of the gunboat stepped out on the north Tusk. He was nervous, too, and cursed roundly at one of the men who crossed his path as he advanced to meet the officer. The three boys, who did not now act like prisoners, flocked off the Manhattan and gathered around Ned and Frank. Their faces, however, still showed anxiety rather than joy at the success of their efforts to bring the gunboat to the island.
"I presume you have your instructions regarding the Manhattan and her crew?" Lieutenant Carstens said, after the formalities had been gone through with.
"I understand that the boys took the boat out without permission," was the reply. "I am ordered to return her to Manila and to place the boys under arrest."
This was encouraging, for Ned knew that they would be safer under the guard of the captain of the gunboat than that of Carstens. Everything could be explained if they were taken back to Manila, and not shot like dogs, without a trial.
"Since leaving Manila," Carstens went on, "they have attacked several native settlements and murdered several persons. I already have them under arrest for piracy."
"What is the proposition?" asked the other.
"In my judgment they should be tried here, and, if convicted, executed at the scene of their latest crime."
"I protest against that," said the other.