“We’ll soon find out, Skipper,” John Block replied.
The three men returned to their companions. Then they went down a little path bordered with a stout thorn hedge, which ran along the right of the Falconhurst river and passed on to the sea.
They were in sight until they reached the cutting through which the river flowed to its outlet into Flamingo Bay.
But as soon as they turned to the left, they became invisible, and would only be seen again if they put out to sea. It was probable there was a boat upon the beach—probable, too, that they generally used it for fishing near Falconhurst.
While Captain Gould and John Block remained on the watch, Jenny controlled her grief and asked Fritz:
“What ought we to do, dear?”
Fritz looked at his wife, not knowing what to answer.
“We are going to decide what we ought to do,” Captain Gould declared. “But to begin with, it is idle to remain on this balcony, where we are in danger of being discovered.”
When they were all together in the room, while Bob, who was tired by his long march, slept in a little closet next to it, Fritz answered his wife’s question:
“No, Jenny dear—all hope is not lost of finding our people. It is possible that they were not taken by surprise. Father and Mr. Wolston are sure to have seen the canoes in the distance. They may have had time to take refuge in one of the farms, or even in the heart of the woods at Pearl Bay, where these savages would not have ventured. We saw no trace of them when we left the hermitage at Eberfurt, after we crossed the canal. My opinion is that they have not moved away from the coast.”