“I think not, sir. If she is a mail steamer, she stops at all the ports on the coast. I don’t think she will carry them far. Very likely they will be sent back, on some other steamer, before night,” added Dunlap, who had studied the coast of Norway more carefully than the lieutenant in command.
“First cutter, ahoy!” shouted De Forrest, on the island.
“On shore!” replied Norwood. “We can’t catch the steamer—that is certain; steer for the island, coxswain.”
The first cutter ran up to the rocky island, and as soon as the bow touched the rocks, De Forrest leaped into the fore-sheets. He was nervous and excited, feeling, perhaps, that he had failed in his duty, and was, therefore, responsible for the accident to the second cutter. From feeling that he had circumvented his crew in carrying out some unexplained trick, he realized that he had led them into a trap, from which they had narrowly escaped with their lives.
“What are you doing on this island, De Forrest?” asked Norwood, as the discomfited officer took his place in the stern-sheets, and the boat shoved off again.
The second lieutenant declared that he had come over to the island to prevent his crew from running away, or from carrying out some trick whose existence he suspected, but whose nature he could not comprehend.
“Sanford wanted I should go ashore at the town, and offered to look out for the crew while I did so,” he continued. “Of course I wouldn’t leave my crew; but I told them that half of them might go on shore and take a walk. None of them wanted to go, and then I was satisfied they were up to something. I went on the island for the sole purpose of watching them. I wanted to know what their plan was.”
“Well, what did you discover?”
“Nothing at all. I saw that steamer coming, and I ordered Sanford to shove off, so that her swash should not damage the boat.”
“I don’t believe they intended to play any trick,” added Norwood. “You are too suspicious, De Forrest.”