He found that all was clear, and in another moment the three were together on the deck of Sam Kearney’s floating palace. After that there followed another period of waiting, although it was a short one.
Scarcely half an hour had passed when Nick suddenly seized Chick by the arm and pointed toward a black object which seemed to be floating on the water, and which was plainly drifting directly toward them.
“It is the amidships turret,” he whispered. “It is the only thing about her which shows above the water, and the man who is doing the steering is doubtless looking directly at the bow of this yacht; so be careful. He will discover the slightest motion we make, if we do not keep well out of sight. Follow me.”
He turned and crawled away on his belly, wriggling along like a snake, until he was well out of sight behind the capstan. Then, rising to his knees, he made his way rapidly to the vessel’s rail and softly let himself down into the water.
There was not a splash or a sound, and his companions were equally fortunate.
As soon as the detective was in the water, one stroke took him a fathom nearer to the bow of the yacht, and he saw that the pirate craft was swinging silently, as if she were on a pivot affixed amidships, so that she would eventually lie directly across the yacht’s bow, but still with her stem pointed seaward, so that she could start ahead on the instant, and shoot away out of danger.
“She must be provided with the Kuhnstader propeller to do that,” he whispered in Kane’s ear. “It is a double propeller, and the one farthest aft works on a knuckle-joint, so that it can be made to serve as a rudder as well as a propeller. And it must be very deep in the water, too, to work so silently. Come on.”
He sank out of sight in the water, and swam with powerful strokes toward the stern of the Shadow. He had noticed how far he would have to go before he went under the water, and accordingly, when he did rise to the surface, he was about ten feet, or a trifle more, abaft of the stern of the vessel.
“See!” he whispered to Kane, who had risen to the surface close beside him. “Captain Sparkle is already climbing aboard the Aurora, and I don’t wonder that he surprised you, Kane, when he paid his visit to you. There has not been a sound made by his vessel, loud enough to wake a sleeping dog. You hadn’t a ghost of a show. By Jove! but I am anxious to see the interior of that craft.”
“How are you going to do it?”