“Where is she?” demanded Leslie, seizing the night-glass. “Oh, there she is,” he continued, as he brought the instrument to bear. “I see her. She appears to be one of the barque’s quarter-boats, Nicholls, and, so far as I can make out, there are only two men in her.”
“It’s difficult to tell by starlight, sir,” replied Nicholls, “but I should say there’s about that number. There can’t be less, for she is pulling two oars, and one man wouldn’t be likely to attempt the job of pulling a heavy boat like a gig ashore, much less pull her back again against the wind. And I don’t think there’s likely to be more than two of ’em, otherwise they wouldn’t be pulling only two oars.”
“Just so,” agreed Leslie. “Now where are those seizings? Oh, here they are! That’s all right; we must have them where we can put our hands upon them at a moment’s notice. And are your pistols all ready, in case you should need to use them? That’s well. Now all that remains for us to do is to quietly await the arrival of those gentlemen here, in the darkness of the tent. They will be pretty certain to come here first. And when they do, I will cover them with my revolvers while you lash their hands behind them. And take care that you lash them so securely that there will be no possibility of their getting adrift again.”
“Ay, ay, sir; never fear. You may trust me for that,” answered Nicholls, cheerfully.
And with that the two men seated themselves well back within the deepest shadows of the tent, and quietly awaited the approach of their nocturnal visitors.
The boat was by this time so close to the beach that it was apparent that the men in her were pulling with muffled oars; and presently she glided in upon the sand so gently that she grounded without a sound. Then the two figures in her silently rose to their feet, and, laying in their oars with such extreme care that the deposition of them upon the thwarts was accomplished with perfect noiselessness, stepped gently out of her on to the yielding sand. They conferred earnestly together for a minute or two and then, turning, came cautiously up the beach, each of them carrying a short length of rope in his hand.
“By Jove,” whispered Leslie to his companion, “they are determined to leave nothing to chance; they have actually brought along with them the lashings wherewith to bind me!”
Nicholls chuckled quietly. “So they have, sir,” he whispered. “It’ll be a joke to see the way that they’ll be taken aback presently.”
Treading carefully and using every precaution to avoid the slightest noise, the two men slowly made their way up the beach and on to the thick grass of the little savannah upon which the tent stood. They now seemed to think that the necessity for such extreme caution was past, and advanced much more rapidly, until they arrived within about twenty yards of the tent, when they again paused for a moment to confer together.
“Now!” whispered Leslie; and, at the word, he and his companion rose to their feet and stepped forward into the open. The new arrivals did not see them at once, for their heads were close together as they whispered to each other, and there were perhaps never two more surprised men than they were when Leslie’s voice smote upon their ears with the words—