Nat needed no urging, and began to propel the boat in a direction which was easterly, although he took no particular account of it. The sea hardly heaved and it had grown blisteringly hot. The schooner as they left her was wallowing in the heavy swell like a dead whale.
"Py Yupiter, dere go der firevorks," exclaimed Captain Nelsen, as more and more water showed between the schooner and the boat.
He was right; there were "fireworks" on board the "Nettie Nelsen." Swensen had burst from the cabin, first undoing the locks and bolts like an infuriated bull. It had not taken him long to communicate his tidings to Morello and Dayton. The discovery that the boat had gone almost instantly followed, giving those on board an easy clue as to how their prisoners had escaped.
"Shoudt avay! Shoudt avay!" grinned Captain Nelsen to himself. "Vee godt der only boat on board der 'Nettie Nelsen,' undt if you vant us, you got to schwim for us, by Yupiter!"
This was true. In the dead calm which prevailed it was obviously impossible to work the schooner even had her headsails not been in such sad disorder. But if they reckoned on getting off scot free, the two adventurers in the boat were sadly mistaken.
All at once the sea was illuminated with a glare as red as blood. The sudden flare came from the schooner's stern, where, by Morello's orders, a Coston light had been ignited. Nat had just time to see several figures with leveled rifles peering about for a sight of the boat when a bullet came singing by him. Another and another followed. But not one hit. Then the light died down and darkness fell once more.
Across the water they could hear voices on board the schooner distinctly.
"We'll never hit them by this kind of light," Dayton could be heard saying.
"Bah!" came Morello's response; "don't aim for them—aim for the boat and aim to sink it!"
Before either Nat or the captain had time to digest this alarming order another light flared up. Evidently the rascals had ransacked the locker in which the schooner's signaling apparatus was kept. This time it was a weird blue light that spread out upon the blackness of the night.