“Get away from here!” he cried. “That vessel is the smuggler, and Fred Craven is a prisoner on board of her.”
Walter heard the words of warning and so did all of his crew; but they came too late. The yacht was already beyond control. When her captain picked himself up from the deck where the shock of the collision had thrown him, and looked around to see where he was, he found the Banner’s fore-rigging foul of the wreck of the schooner’s bowsprit, and her stern almost high and dry, and jammed in among the bushes and trees on the bank. Escape from such a situation was simply impossible. He glanced at the cave where he had seen Chase but he had disappeared; then he looked at his crew, whose faces were white with alarm; and finally he turned his attention to the smugglers who were gathered about the fire. He could not discover anything in their personal appearance, or the expression of their faces, calculated to allay the fears which Chase’s words had aroused in his mind. They were a hard-looking lot—just such men as one would expect to see engaged in such business.
“Now I’ll tell you what’s a fact,” whispered Perk, as the crew of the Banner gathered about the captain on the quarter-deck; “did you hear what Chase said? We know where Featherweight is now, don’t we?”
“Yes, and we shall probably see the inside of his prison in less than five minutes,” observed Eugene. “Or else the smugglers will put us ashore and destroy our yacht, so that we can’t leave the island until we are taken off.”
“I don’t see what in the world keeps the tug and the revenue-cutter,” said Walter, anxiously. “They ought to have beaten us here, and unless they arrive very soon we shall be in serious trouble. What brought that schooner to the island, any how?”
“That is easily accounted for,” returned Wilson, “Pierre is a member of the gang, as you are aware, and his friends probably knew that he was here, and stopped to take him off. Having brought their vessel into the cove, of course they must stay here until the wind goes down.”
“Well, if they are going to do anything with us I wish they would be in a hurry about it,” said Bab. “I don’t like to be kept in suspense.”
The young sailors once more directed their attention to the smugglers, and told one another that they did not act much like men who made it a point to secure everybody who knew anything of their secret. They did not seem to be surprised at the yacht’s sudden appearance, but it was easy enough to see that they were angry at the rough manner in which she had treated their vessel. Her commander had shouted out several orders to Walter as the Banner came dashing into the cove, but as the young captain could not pay attention to both him and Chase at the same moment, the orders had not been heard. When the little vessel swung around into the bushes, the master of the schooner sprang upon the deck of his own craft, followed by his crew.
“That beats all the lubberly handling of a yacht I ever saw in my life, and I’ve seen a good deal of it,” said the red-whiskered captain, angrily. “Do you want the whole Gulf to turn your vessel in?”