"I shall do everything I can to carry out your plan, as I am instructed to do by the captain; but I have the feeling, in spite of myself, that we are crawling into a hornet's nest," added Mr. Blowitt, with some anxiety in his tones. "You will call all hands quietly, and be ready to repel boarders. It is well to be prepared for whatever may come. The firing at the west end of the island indicated that something was going on, and perhaps these men on the shore know about it."
Christy obeyed the order promptly, and the next minute, every seaman on board was ready with his cutlass and revolver to meet an attack. But no sound came from the shore just then, and the officers were in a state of uncertainty in regard to the situation which allowed them to do nothing. They waited for half an hour, when the leadsman reported that the water was shoaling, which indicated that the Teaser was drifting towards the island.
"On board the Teaser!" shouted Lonley, so distinctly that he could hardly have been more than three hundred feet from the steamer.
"On shore," replied Christy, prompted by Mr. Blowitt.
"I am waiting for Gilder! Why don't he come on shore?" shouted Lonley, his impatience apparent in his tones.
"Where are all the men?" demanded Christy, as requested by the second lieutenant.
"They have gone a mile to the eastward where they left their bags."
"We will run down in the steamer for them," added Mr. Blowitt, talking through Christy.
"Don't do that!" protested the speaker on shore. "There is a Yankee steamer off in that direction. We heard her steam an hour ago."
"All right!" replied Christy.