They saw nothing, for as they stepped out, a man, who was stealing aft, dropped softly down and crouched under the bulwarks.
The hawsers creaked softly as they swung in the tide, and a faint light shone up from the forecastle hatch, while from aft there was a tolerably bright glow from the cabin skylight. Here and there the riding lights of other vessels rose and fell as they were swayed by the hurrying waters, while the lights of the shore twinkled like stars on a black background, but, saving the rippling noise of the tide against the great schooner’s side, all was perfectly still.
“False alarm, ’Pollo,” said Oakum, leading the way back.
“No, sah,” said ’Pollo, reseating himself, cross-legged, beneath the lantern. “I sure I hear somefin, sah, dough I no say what it was.”
“I’ve often wished for you as a mate in a dark watch, ’Pollo,” said Oakum, hewing off a quid of tobacco, and thrusting it into one cheek. “You would not go to sleep.”
“Not ob a night, sah,” said ’Pollo, complacently, “but I no so sure bout dat if de sun shine hot; I go sleep den fass enough.”
They had hardly resumed their conversation when the man who had dropped down under the bulwarks rose, and went softly by the deckhouse, walking rapidly aft to the side, where he climbed over, after running his hand along and finding a rope, slid down, and took his place in a large boat already half-full.
A few moments later and another man crept softly along the deck, went over the side, and slid into the boat.
Another and another followed, and then one man who had been waiting by the forecastle hatch, instead of going aft, opened a sharp knife and crept forward to where the stout coir hawser was made fast to the buoy. It was drawn very tight, for the tide was running in fast, and a few sharp cuts would have divided the strands, with the result that the schooner would have drifted up with the current, and, if it had not fouled, and perhaps sunk some smaller vessel in its course, have run ashore.
The man listened attentively but all was still, and raising his knife he began to saw through the strands, when, rising, he shut the knife with a snap and exclaimed: