It took him but a moment to release her with his knife, when she exclaimed:
"I thank you for coming to my aid; but where are the villains?"
"I reckon they've gone off to their boat; but come, we will see. With such a noble and brave ally I would not hesitate to invite a scrimmage with half a dozen of them."
The detective's guess proved correct. The two men whom he had first dropped had evidently recovered their senses, and had joined their pals on the beach, as a boat bearing four persons could be seen moving off toward the yacht.
As our readers can well imagine, it was not because of the detective's warning that the men pulled away to their boat. Garcia remembered that he had stricken down the old smuggler, and it was the consequences of that act which made him anxious to get away.
"There they go, Renie!"
"Yes; thanks to you, I am not going with them;" answered the girl.
"Why was the assault made upon you, my child?"
"You are my friend; I will tell you all now. That man Garcia is a villain! He has made all manner of propositions to me to induce me to leave the coast and go to the city with him, but I knew the man to be a villain, a murderer, and criminal of the worst sort, and I refused all his offers."
"On what pretense did he make offers to you, my child?"