CHAPTER XXII.
A STRANGE MEETING.
They gained the shores of the "lake" at a point a good distance removed from the vicinity of Colonel Morello's camp. But they no sooner reached the shore than by the light of the flames they perceived that, as the wounded man had said, some indeed of the band must have eluded capture or injury by the savages.
The two-masted schooner which had been the theater of Nat's former thrilling adventures was already in motion. With canvas up, she was heading for the mouth of the gorge.
Seemingly, the savages who had attacked the camp must have been a land force, for, although the boys could see several of them on the bank of the lake in the neighborhood of the burning camp, they made no effort to pursue the schooner. But as they watched her glide off they could be heard to utter angry cries and shouts.
"Well, so far, it looks as if the schooner will get off scot free," remarked Nat; "but what are they going to do when they come to the gorge? They can't sail her through that."
"Hardly," agreed Joe. "I guess when they reach it they will either tow her by boats or else warp her through by casting out the anchor and then pull in up on the cable."
The latter was, in fact, the means used by the fugitives to get through the narrow gorge. On board her were Colonel Morello, Ed. Dayton, and a dozen others, including Larsen, the giant Swede who acted as the vessel's navigator. They had escaped from the village when it was attacked by the natives and made straight for the banks of the lake where they had embarked in the collapsible boat brought by the boys and another small craft which they had there.
When they reached the open sea, after pushing through the curtain of greenery, the collapsible boat was cast adrift.
In the meantime, the boys had circled a great part of the lake in search of some sort of a boat which they thought might have been left there by either Gooddale or some of Morello's men.