Three very light canoes were now launched, scarcely visible above the water. As soon as night fell, Nagato chose eight men from the most adventurous of his crew, together with Raiden and another sailor named Nata. They got into the canoes, three men in each.
"If you hear shots, come to our rescue," said the Prince of Nagato to those who were left behind. And the three boats moved noiselessly off.
Those who manned them were armed with swords and daggers; moreover, they took with them the tools bought in the village, and several matchlock guns. These weapons—a foreign invention, often damaged or imperfect—generally refused to go off, or else exploded in the hands of their owners. They were accordingly equally dreaded by those who used them and those against whom they were directed. The Prince had contrived to get fifty new and well-made guns, which was a large supply for his little army; still, the sailors regarded the strange machines with a certain distrust.
The boats glided along in the shadow, steering straight for Dragon-fly Island. The noise of the oars, handled cautiously, mingled with the myriad dull sounds of the sea. A light breeze rose, and whistled in their ears.
As they approached the island they tried to move more and more silently. Already they could see fires among the trees. They were not far from shore, for they could distinctly hear the measured tread of a patrol upon the bank.
The Prince ordered his men to row round the island in search of the war-junks. They lay at anchor close to the shore, having Dragon-fly Island between them and the Soumiossi coast. They were soon visible to the men in the canoes, their vast hulls and lofty masts outlined in black upon the less intense darkness of the sky; lying almost on a level with the water as they were, the junks seemed enormous to them. Upon each one, a lantern burned at the foot of the mast, hidden from time to time by the sentinel as he paced up and down the deck.
"Those sentinels will see us," said Raiden, in a low voice.
"No," replied the Prince; "the lantern lights up the spot where they are, and prevents them from distinguishing anything in the darkness where we are. Let us now approach; and may our mad enterprise tend to our glory!"
The three boats moved off one after the other, and each one came alongside one of the ships without making more noise than a gull as it dips into the wave. The canoe which contained the Prince had approached the largest of the junks. It lay between the other two. The shadow was thicker than ever beneath the bulging sides of the vessel. The black water splashed, and dashed the little boat against the giant hull; but the noise was lost in the incessant shock of the water and the continual fall of one wave after another upon the shores of the island.
"Let us stay here," said the Prince, in a scarcely audible voice. "Even if they looked from the deck, they would never see us here."