“Right there, about midway between the two, those thieves have their den. They can approach it in their boats from either side, coming up the creek or entering the cove, and in either case landing within less than a quarter of a mile of their thicket-hidden rendezvous. As both the creek and the smaller estuary make a sharp bend near their mouths, a boat slipping into either of them is at once lost to view. I wonder if I have made the geography clear?”
“Perfectly so, and I thank you. Our plan will be to send boats up both the little waterways at once. Can we find their mouths, think you?”
“I can, and Tom knows both of them. He and I will be your pilots.”
“Thank you. But you know you may get shot in the mêlée and you are under no sort of obligation to take that risk.”
“Oh, we want to see the fun,” said Tom. “We’ll be with you, you may depend.”
“Is it your plan,” Larry asked after dinner that day, “to attack by daylight?”
“I think we must make the descent as promptly as possible. So I intend to make it to-day, as soon as we get to that neighborhood.”
Larry made no reply and the officer observed the fact.
“What is it you have on your mind, Larry?” he asked. “Have you any suggestion to offer?”
“No, I would not presume to do that. I was only thinking that in a daylight descent you might miss the game.”