"It'll begin to get light in less than an hour and I reckon they'll wait till then before starting anything," Captain Ole told them.
He had switched off the searchlight but the boat was so near that it was visible to them as it was painted white and the darkness was relieved by the light of a new moon and the stars which thickly studded the sky. Of course it was too dark for them to tell what was going on on board the stranger but they trusted to their ears to tell them if a small boat were approaching. So they watched and listened until the first faint glow of light in the east told them that a new day was about to break, and there had been no sign of visitors. In fact it was not until they had eaten breakfast that a boat was lowered from the side of the ship and they knew that something was about to happen. They had watched closely every minute except when eating and, even then, a part of the crew was constantly on the lookout. They knew by this time that their visitor was well supplied with a crew and that a number of them were natives, although there were at least three white men on board.
Four men, two of them white, descended the rope ladder and got into the row boat and the two blacks pulled rapidly toward the Valkyrie.
"Neither one of them is Josh," Captain Ole declared when they were about half way to the Valkyrie.
"But that isn't saying that he isn't on board," Mr. Lakewood told him.
"Oh, I reckon he's not far away," Captain Ole agreed.
"Valkyrie, ahoy."
"On board the ship," Captain Ole answered the hail.
"May we come on board?"
The man who asked permission was a large well built man, his face nearly covered with a thick black beard.