The movement seemed to be confined to the one place only, but as he gazed the motion suddenly ceased, and all was quiet as before.
He looked round to see if any of the other men had observed anything, but they were all much too intent on the work in hand to take notice of anything else; and his friend Harry was just as busy as the rest of the men. He therefore dismissed the matter from his mind, thinking that his eyes might perhaps have deceived him, and set to work again with the other men.
The hole was soon dug and the anchor deposited therein, planks and baulks of timber being laid upon it as before. The sand was filled in and a mound raised above the work, and it only remained to further secure the anchor by putting a spring on to the cable, and fastening to a palm-tree as before.
As this last part of the work was being done, and the spring being lashed round the palm-tree, one of the seamen, named Martin, grasped Roger by the arm.
“Do you see that, Master Trevose?” said he, pointing.
“What do you mean, Martin?” answered Roger.
“Why, over there, sir,” said the man, pointing in the same direction as that in which Roger had seen the peculiar movement of the foliage some little time before. “I be sure I saw something shining among the trees just now. What d’ye think it can be? I only just caught a sight of it for a moment; but I be sure I beaint mistaken.”
Roger looked in the direction indicated by the seaman, but could distinguish nothing.
“Are you sure, Martin?” asked he. “Because I fancied that I, too, saw a peculiar movement among the trees over in that direction a little time ago.”
“Yes, I be sartin sure, master,” replied Martin. “I only see’d it for a minute, ’tis true, but there warn’t no mistake about it; and it seemed to me to be very like the glitter of steel.”