Directly the double report rang out from the battery on Shark's Island the echoes of Rock Castle repeated it from cliff to cliff. M. Zermatt and his wife, Jenny, Ernest, and Frank, running down at once to the beach, could see the whitish smoke of the two guns drifting slowly in the direction of Falconhurst. Waving their handkerchiefs, they answered with a cheer.
Then all were preparing to resume their several occupations when Jenny, who was looking towards the island through her telescope, exclaimed:
"Fritz and Jack are coming back."
"Already?" said Ernest. "Why, they have barely had time to reload the guns. Why are they in such a hurry to get back to us?"
"They certainly do seem to be in a hurry," M. Zermatt replied.
There could be no doubt that the moving speck revealed by the telescope a little to the right of the island was the frail boat being lifted swiftly along by the paddles.
"It is certainly odd," said Mme. Zermatt. "Can they have any news for us—important news?"
"I think they have," Jenny answered.
Would the news be good or bad? That was the question each one asked himself without attempting to answer it.
All eyes were fastened on the canoe which was growing larger to the sight. In a quarter of an hour it was halfway between Shark's Island and the mouth of Jackal River. Fritz had not hoisted his little sail, for the breeze was dropping, and by paddling the two brothers travelled faster than the wind over the almost unruffled waters of Deliverance Bay.