And now, forgetting their songs, they put their shoulders to the task before them. Meeting the swells at an angle to avoid the dash of chilling waters, they rose on the crest of a high one to drop into the trough, then swept across a half score of low crests, to be again lifted on high.
“Listen!”
This time it was the girl whose instinct told her to rest on her oars. Once again there passed over the waters that whisper that ended in a sigh.
“It is as if voices of the Unseen were trying to tell us something, perhaps to warn us.” Her voice was low. “Do you believe in the Unseen?”
“I—I don’t know.” It was weird, this whisper in the night.
Once again they took up their oars. Not long had they to wait ere they saw that which was creeping upon them in the night. The moon had long been under a cloud. Now it sent its beams across every sweeping swell. And upon one of these swells rode a boat.
“A rowboat,” Red grumbled low. “A boat and two men. Now it is life or death. They are armed. They will not hesitate to shoot.”
Realizing the truth of his words, the girl thrilled to the very center of her being.
There was need for no explaining. The scout had been right; these men had been watching. They had, perhaps, watched from the wrong point. This had given the boy and girl a start. But now here they were, some hundreds of yards behind, two men against a boy and a girl, and half the distance yet to go.
“Now!” The boy’s hiss answered the hiss of a wave that rolled by. “Now we must show them!”