CHAPTER XIV
THEY THAT TAKE THE SWORD—
A glorious sunrise broke across the ocean, lifting the island peaks to the north into a sheen of purple-rose and gold. Dennis wakened to it—he had gone to sleep stretched out upon a blanket on the quarter-deck—with a thrill of sheer delight in the golden splendour overhead; then he realized that the steward was calling him, and he leaped up.
The Pelican with her canvas all housed, had been but little influenced by the breeze from the north-west. She had made leeway, drifting a couple of miles from her late anchorage; having no glasses at hand, Dennis could not tell whether the Jap ship still lay by the island or not.
"There's a boat tacking down to us, sir!" rang out the steward's voice from forward.
Dennis glimpsed her at once, and saw that she must be a fishing-boat—a sturdy, bluff little craft which seemed to carry but two people, As he looked, he saw her brown canvas flutter down; she was coming from the north-east, and when her canvas was stowed she headed directly for the Pelican.
"Got a motor, eh?" reflected Dennis.
He swung down the companion way and located the binoculars of the skipper. With these he returned to the deck. Caring less about the fishing-boat than about conditions at the island, he picked up the latter point first; the steward had joined him and stood waiting for disclosures.
There was no ship in sight, much to the surprise of Dennis. Nor could he make out any sign of life upon the rocky crags of the island itself. About a mile distant from the brigantine he located a boat floating bottom-side up. It was a whaleboat, and as it swung around with the seas Dennis made out the figure two painted at its bows.
"That's the boat Mr. Leman took last night, blime if it ain't!" ejaculated the steward, upon learning its number from Dennis. "Nothin' else in sight sir?"
"No—hold on!" Dennis caught something adrift toward the north end of the island. "By thunder, there's another boat—she seems to be standing out this way. There's someone aboard her; they're getting up a sail. Seems to be only two or three of them——"