He tried to lead the way back as they had come, each man cutlass in hand, and well on the alert in case of attack; but nothing interposed to stop them as they scrambled and clambered over the rocks till they got to the open shore once more, just as, in front of them and out in the pitchy blackness, there was a flash, a report, and then the wall of darkness closed up once more.
“Oh! ah, we’re a-coming,” said Billy Waters, who, now that the excitement was over, began to feel very sore, while his companions got along very slowly, having a couple of sorely-beaten men to help. “Anybody make out the ship’s lights?”
“I can see one on ’em,” growled Tully.
“And where’s our boat?” cried the gunner. “Jim Tanner, ahoy!”
“Ahoy!” came in a faint voice from a distance.
“There he is,” said Billy Waters. “Come, my lads, look alive, or we shall have the skipper firing away more o’ my powder. I wish him and Jack Brown would let my guns alone. Now then, Jim Tanner, where away?”
“Ahoy!” came again in a faint voice, and stumbling on through the darkness, they came at last upon the boatkeeper, tied neck and heels, and lying in the sand.
“Who done this?” cried the gunner.
“I dunno,” said the man; “only cast me loose, mates.”
This was soon done, the man explaining that a couple of figures suddenly jumped upon him out of the darkness, and bound him before he could stand on his defence.