"They are pulling fast, and steering direct for this island!" exclaimed Heriot.
"We have been lured in here and deceived, I doubt not, by that old Malay villain, Puffadder. Old sailors have strange instincts at times, and Noah seemed to suspect as much."
"This is why he would neither come on board nor pilot us into the creek. But we may do him an injustice; he may not be in league with these pirates at all."
"Oh, Ethel!" exclaimed Morley, speaking as if to himself, "your forebodings, your dreams are perhaps about to be terribly realised."
"Let us away to the ship, we have not a moment to lose! See how the paddles flash in the sunshine. They are all pulling as if the devil was after them!"
Their mode of rowing was peculiar, for the paddlers all faced the bow of each proa, and scooped the water astern.
Breathless with excitement, heat, and alarm, and with their imaginations picturing visions of cruelty and slaughter, Ashton and Heriot came plunging down the jungle-covered steep with such speed and impetuosity, that their friends in the ship paused again and again to observe them in wonder, though believing that they had some very unusual reason for this sudden display of activity.
Both were young, light, and active; thus, in less than a quarter of an hour, they had reached the ship by means of the gig, which they had left moored among the mangroves, sprang on deck, and reported what they had observed towards the mainland of Madagascar.
Could they have seen a little way to the south-west they might have observed something more; but the sight of the three proas proved quite enough for them.
Their tidings produced instant consternation.