He stopped, with a shrill whistle of dismay. By a quick upward stroke of his arm the lascar had sent the revolver spinning, and at the same instant wrenched himself free from his captor's grasp. Ere Jack could stir hand or foot, he had plunged headlong into the creek.
“Let him go,” said Jack tranquilly, as the water closed over the fellow's heels; “we've got an important clue out of him, anyhow.”
The captain slowly lowered the musket he had raised for a shot at the fugitive should he comet to the surface within range, and said approvingly:
“Right, lad! Spike my guns, I've heard tell as how that 'ere Elephant Rock's riddled from main-deck to keelson, so to say, with gangways, and air-wents, an' sich. Howsomedever, that's matter for arter reflection, as the whale said to himself when he swallied Jonah. The warmints astarn there”—indicating that part of the creek where the occupants of the canoes had taken their involuntary bath—“the warmints astarn ha' sheered off a p'int or two; so now, lads, let's tackle the perwisions afore the wail o' night descends, an' then to work!”
The “wail o' night” was not long in descending, for the sun had disappeared with the lascar. Ere they had done justice to the ample meal which Puggles set before them, and exchanged the draggled pilgrim garb for their everyday clothes, the shadows had crept silently from their hiding-places beneath thicket and cliff, and blotted out the last lingering touch of day from the bosom of the creek. Save the musical chirping of some amorous tree-frog to his mate, or the lazy swish of wings as some belated flying-fox swung slowly past, unbroken silence reigned between the darkling cliffs.
In the captain's opinion, no immediate repetition of the recent attack was to be feared. But the events of the day had made it only too plain that their present position was far from being-one of security. To remain on board the cutter would be to invite daily skirmishes with the natives, which would not only deter the quest of the golden pearl, but prove a source of constant annoyance and danger.
So far as the captain knew, the island afforded no safer retreat than the hill of the Haunted Pagodas.
The natives of the island, he said, believed this hill to be the abode of a witch in the form of a ferocious tiger, merely to look upon which meant death. For this reason they would on no account venture near it.
So upon the Haunted Pagodas they resolved to fall back without delay. But here an unforeseen difficulty arose.
With the path to the summit of the hill none of the party was acquainted except the captain, and he was unwilling that the precious cutter should be entrusted to the care of any one except himself while the several journeys necessary for the removal of the stores were being made.