“Honesty, Mas’r Harry,” he cried sharply. “That chap’s straight-forrard enough.”
“So I think,” I cried, “and we’ll risk it. To-morrow we may be stopped.”
My aunt and Lilla were almost startled at the suddenness of the proposed departure, and my uncle looked anxious; but they said nothing, only made their final preparations, and soon after dark the fresh skipper came up with half a dozen men.
“I thought I’d bring enough,” he said. “Now, my lads, be smart. Chest apiece, they ain’t big.”
It was all so sudden that my breath was almost taken away; but I had said that I would risk it, and there was nothing else to do but go on. In the darkness, too, it was hard to tell whether our property was all being fairly dealt with, but I watched as keenly as I could, and Tom went down to the boat with the first men, my uncle taking charge of Lilla and my aunt, while I stopped back at the house and sent all the luggage off.
It was pitchy dark now, and matters were carried out with a rapidity that was startling. In fact, in a quarter of an hour everything was on board the heavy boat, the men in their places, my aunt, Lilla, and my uncle in the stern sheets, and Tom and I were about to step in when Lilla exclaimed:
“Oh, Harry! I’ve left the great cloak in my room!”
I was about to exclaim “Never mind,” and, in my excitement to get clear, order the men to push off, but it was Lilla’s wish, and without a word I started back to fetch the cloak.
It was the most painful passage I ever had in my life. It was only minutes but it seemed hours, and with my heart beating furiously, I tried to crush down the fancies that kept coming into my head.
“Suppose,” I thought, “that man is in the American skipper’s pay, and that, now they have possession of my treasure, they should carry it off, and I should never see it more.” I knew that I might go back and find the boat gone, pursuit would be vain in the darkness; and so tortured was I as I reached the house we had left, that I turned instead of going in, and stepped back to run down again to the boat.