CHAPTER XIX In the Pirates' Nest
PEERING through the darkness the new arrivals on the Jules Verne could scarcely make out the outlines of the other craft. She seemed at first glance like a good-sized sloop with a leg-of-mutton mainsail that bellied wide against the night skyline. And then again she appeared to be a huge cabin cruiser. Lights appeared from a row of ports well forward.
"What do you suppose it is?" asked Jay as he edged up close to his captain.
"Likely an auxiliary craft of some kind—sail and motor," replied the chief executive of the Jules Verne.
For a few minutes the trio watched the other vessel lying to only a few cable lengths away. Captain Austin had a glass that he trained on the stranger. But it was too dark to get many details of her.
"Who do you suppose he is?" asked Dick.
Captain Austin shook his head. There was no way of telling. "Looks as though some one had beat us to it," he mused.
"Do you reckon they have gotten down into the Dominion and gotten up any of the bullion?" queried Larry Seymour, who had joined them.