“It may be that only a few of the baboon’s followers have taken refuge here,” Mr. Clark suggested; and the captain replied, quickly:
“There can be little doubt but that they are all within the chamber, otherwise we should most certainly have been attacked while coming up the road. Mr. Garland has described the structure of this place so well that we can fully understand the condition of affairs, and I see no possible chance of recovering the treasure until the apes have retreated.”
“Which is the same as saying that we must abandon all hope of getting it, since it would be hardly less than madness to remain here in view of the fact that the pirates may return at any moment,” Mr. Clark added.
“Exactly so, gentlemen but at the same time I leave it to you to say whether we shall go, or remain in the faint hope of being able to dislodge the baboon army.”
However eager the party might be to gain possession of the vast treasure which they knew to be in the cavern, all were forced to confess that under present circumstances it was impossible to obtain it, and with one accord the march to the sea was taken up.
Already had the night-wind begun to blow. The ships were rising and falling on the swelling sea, tugging at their cables as if impatient to be away, while far on the horizon toward the south could be seen, by the naked eye, a tiny smudge of black which betokened the coming of some craft, for no land lay within the range of vision in that direction.
“Ahoy on the Reynard!” Captain Seaworth shouted, and in the absence of any officer the surgeon answered the hail.
“Have the lookouts reported a sail in the vicinity?”
“Ay, ay, sir. A fleet of proas coming from the southward. Most likely the pirates whom we met before.”