No time was to be lost, and quietly and quickly their preparations were completed. These were by no means extensive: they fully expected to return to the schooner by break of day. A revolver, half-a-dozen rounds of ammunition, and a few rupees-disposed in their pockets, they stole noiselessly on deck. The night was one of breathless calm, and the watch lay stretched upon their backs, snoring away the sultry hours of duty. Save our three adventurers, not a living thing was astir; not a sound broke the stillness of the night; and high overhead the moon floated in ghostly splendour.
The boat, as it chanced, lay on that side of the schooner farthest from the shore; and in order to shape their course for the beach it was necessary to round the vessel's bows. Puggles held the tiller-ropes, but in doing this he miscalculated his distance, and ran the boat full tilt against the schooners cable.
“Keep her off, Pug!” cried his master in suppressed, half-angry tones. “Can't you see where you're steering?”
In the momentary confusion a figure appeared for a moment above the schooner's bulwarks. Then a glittering object hurtled through the moonlit air and struck the gun'le of the boat immediately abaft the thwait on which Jack sat. Jack uttered a stifled cry and dropped his oar.
“What's the matter?” said Don impatiently, as the boat swung clear of the cable. “Pull, old fellow; we've no time to lose.”
“Better lose a little time than one's life,” muttered Jack through his set teeth. “Look here!”
Turning in his seat Don saw, still quivering in the gun'le of the boat where its point had stuck, a sailor's heavy sheath-knife. In its passage it had slashed open the shoulder of Jack's coat, grazing the flesh so closely as to draw blood—the first shed in the quest of the golden pearl.
Jack passed it off with an air of indifference.
“A mere scratch,” said he; “but a close shave all the same. The work of that treacherous lascar I knocked down a while back. Saw his ugly head-piece above the rail just now, don't you know. There's no time to pay him out now, but if ever he interferes with me again he'll get his knife back, anyhow!” and wrenching the formidable weapon free of the plank, he thrust it into his belt and again bent to his oar.
“If that fellow's an accomplice of the shark-charmer, it looks as though they meant business,” commented Don, seconding his companion's stroke.