"It will be necessary, however, Dr. De Normanville, that you should remember one thing: you must not, for your own sake, be seen about too much with me. You are just to be a casual acquaintance whom I have picked up while travelling between Singapore and Batavia. Do you understand? After your great kindness, I cannot allow you to be implicated in any trouble that may arise from what I may be compelled to do."
"Pray do not fear for my safety," I answered. "I am content to chance that. In for a penny, in for a pound. Believe me, I am throwing my lot in with you with my eyes open. I hope you understand that very thoroughly?"
"I am perfectly sensible, you may be sure, of the debt we are under to you," she answered. "Now we must get to business, for there is much to be done before daylight."
Accordingly we set to work perfecting all the ins and outs of our plan, and when it was completed, and my bags were packed and despatched to the harbour, the stars were paling in the eastern heavens preparatory to dawn.
Walworth had preceded us to the yacht some time before, and nothing remained now but for me to follow with Alie and the bulldog.
A boat was waiting for us at the same jetty on which I had landed on my arrival nearly three months before, and in it we were rowed out to the Lone Star, whose outline we could just discern. It was an uncanny hour to embark, and my feelings were quite in keeping with the situation. I was saying good-bye to a place for which I had developed a sincere affection, and I was going out into the world again to do a deed which might end in cutting me off from my profession, my former associates, and even my one remaining relation. These thoughts sat heavily upon me as I mounted the ladder, but when, on reaching the deck, Alie turned and took my hand and gave me a welcome back to the yacht, they were dispelled for good and all.
Side by side we went aft. Steam was up, the anchor was off the ground, and five minutes later, in the fast increasing light, we were moving slowly across the harbour towards what looked to me like impenetrable cliffs. When we got closer to them, however, I saw that one projected further than the other, and that between the two was a long opening, the cliffs on either side being nearly a hundred and fifty feet high. This opening was just wide enough to let a vessel pass through with the exercise of extreme caution.
At the further end of this precipitous canal the width was barely sufficient to let our vessel out, though at that particular point the cliffs on either side were scarcely more than eighty feet high. Here, lying flat against the walls of stone, were two enormous, and very curious, gates, the use of which I could not at all determine.
We passed through and out into the sea. By the time we reached open water daylight had increased to such an extent that, when we were a mile out, objects ashore could be quite plainly distinguished.
"Look astern," said Alie, who stood by my side upon the bridge, "and tell me if you can discover the entrance to the harbour."