It opened her for a length of thirty feet—a thin, nasty leak, which would be hard to find and impossible to stop without docking. It was the work of an expert wrecker, and he grinned to himself as he let the current take him away.
Not a mark had he made upon the beautiful white hull, and yet she was even now filling rapidly through seams which had been carefully calked.
Of course, if the weather remained calm enough for them to work a small boat alongside and study her bilge a couple of feet below the water, they would come upon the seam. But the weather was not going to remain calm very long. He knew it would be blowing hard before daybreak, before there would be any light to see her smooth side below the water where the green of her copper paint had hardly been disturbed.
He had passed his knife along the seam after the line was removed, and it was open. His work was done.
Sam picked him up half a mile astern, and they rowed silently back aboard the Sea-Horse. All the others had turned in, and they did likewise, after lowering down the mainsail and paying out enough cable to hold the vessel should it blow before they awoke. The small boat was towed astern, for they were well back behind the key, and quite sheltered.
In the still hours of the early morning Captain Smart was awakened by the unusual sound of water washing about in the yacht's bilge. He roused himself and listened. The first note of the rising wind droned through the rigging, and the man on watch came to his door to call him. In a moment he was on deck.
The night was still dark, although it was nearly four o'clock. The wind had come from the southeast, and it was freshening every moment. The hands were called, and the cable given to the anchor while the heavy bower was dropped, that she might set back upon them both.
There was plenty of room, and she brought up nicely, riding easily to the fast-increasing sea. She was heading it, and, therefore, had not begun to plunge enough to wake the party aft. But every moment the whistling snore aloft told of what was coming.
After seeing that his ship was snug and safe for the time being, Smart went below to get into his oilskins. It had not yet started to rain, but it was coming, and he would not have time to leave the deck if anything went wrong.
While he sat upon his bunk-edge he again heard the washing sound from below. It came loud and insistent, not to be confounded with the wash from the sea outside. At that moment the mate came into his room.