“They’ve buried the sacks of gold and the provisions under the sand!” I exclaimed.
“Sure ’nough,” agreed Nux.
“It will take us some time to dig for them, for we don’t know exactly where to look,” I continued, reflectively, “so our best plan will be to go down to the beach and discover what has become of Daggett and his crew, and whether they’re liable to come back here before night.”
The black readily agreed to this, so we at once left the cave and continued along the ledge until we reached the sand.
The path became quite broad in this part, and our descent was therefore concluded very rapidly.
Once on the shore we walked briskly along until we had turned the bend in the beach, which curved to follow the lines of a little bay. Here we paused, for a long stretch of the beach was now opened to our gaze.
From this point the shore widened out, for the precipitous mainland shrank backward and decreased gradually in height until, a half mile or so further on, it reached the level plain and merged into a deep forest which grew almost down to the edge of the sea.
No human being was in sight, so we naturally concluded that the robbers had entered the forest.
Being curious to discover what they were doing, without hesitation we decided to follow them, and their path was easily traced by the footprints in the sand. These led straight to the forest, and although somewhat fearful that the enemy would discover our presence, we proceeded to walk boldly around the shore of the little bay until we came to the edge of the trees.
A sound of voices, mingled with the strokes of the axes, now guided us, and stealthily creeping among the thick underbrush we soon discovered the robbers busily at work.