“We’re in a tight place, and are willing to accept the offer. When shall we start?”
“He’s up to some mischief now or I’m a Dutchman!” Ned exclaimed in a low tone, and added: “Tell them to leave at once, and to push off thirty or forty yards on the port side.”
“Do you think it’s safe?” Vance asked nervously.
“We’d better take the chances than hang ’round here two or three days. I believe I can outwit them by working lively.”
Roy repeated the proposition, and Manuel replied:
“Then we’ll start at once, for it will take us nearly all night to pull back to the island.”
“Now, Vance, keep your eyes open and be ready to run to the wheel-house on the starboard side,” Ned said quickly, and he waited at his post until the sound of footsteps on the deck told that the two men had gone aft.
Then he hurriedly joined Vance, and the latter whispered nervously:
“They have got at least one revolver, and probably two between them. We should have insisted on taking the weapons, otherwise they may fire on us while we are getting under way.”
“That’s exactly what I count on their trying to do, but I reckon they won’t make very much by it,” Ned said as he went into the port state-room aft. “Keep a sharp watch there until the boat pushes off, and then get into the wheel-house as lively as you know how.”