Apparently the business talk was concluded and, much more to the boys’ concern, the freighter was making ready to hoist anchor and set off for ports unknown!
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Race Begins
Even as they watched, a working light mounted on the foremast suddenly flooded the foredeck with brilliance, bringing the shadowy figures into sharp focus, like actors on a brightly lighted stage.
Instinctively, Sandy and Jerry shrank back into the shadow of the life-jacket box, until Sandy realized that the bright light on the foredeck would make the rest of the ship almost invisible to people in its rays.
For a few seconds or more, the boys watched the tableau below them until several of the sailors ambled over to the windlass. Then Jerry said, “They’re getting ready to hoist the anchor now. We have to move fast if we’re going to get to our boat before Jones gets to his!”
Still exercising the greatest care, they re-laced the canvas where they had entered the lifeboat, then quietly crept alongside the rails under the lifeboats until they came to the ladder connecting the boat deck to the afterdeck.
This, fortunately, was both deserted and unlighted, the deck crew having all gone forward to work on the windlass. The boys made their way down to the point where they had come on board via the rope ladder, which was still slung over the side, waiting for Jones’s departure.
Looking over the bulwark, they saw the two sloops below them, bobbing gently in the swell that washed against the sheer side of the tall freighter. They looked almost unbelievably peaceful, and Sandy thought once again about Jones’s comments about the unsuspicious looks of sailing craft. Next to their trim, small shapes, the freighter looked every bit as sinister as it had actually proved to be!
“This is it,” Sandy whispered. “Let’s make it fast!”
He stepped over the bulwark and disappeared down the rope ladder. Jerry was as close behind him as he could get without running the risk of stepping on Sandy’s hands. A moment more brought them to the deck of the sloop.