“Let them go in the tender,” Nicky pursued his argument. “Then we can take possession of this boat, and when the cutter comes we can signal, and then—isn’t there some reward for claiming salvage on a boat, some way?”
“You’re going to get a treasure out of this adventure somehow, aren’t you?” laughed Tom. “I never saw such a money-grabbing fellow!”
“Whether I do—we do—or not,” Nicky defended, “we are safer here than with those hi-jackers. If the cutter doesn’t come, we have all the food and things—maybe the arsenal. We can stand them off and——”
“Instead of them making us toe the mark, we can make them do it!” Cliff cried, fired by Nicky’s eagerness.
“That’s it!” Tom agreed. “Nicky has the right idea!”
The tender, which was used with muffled oars according to need, had by that time been lowered over the slanting side of the Senorita.
“But suppose she sinks!” a new thought came to Cliff.
“The channels can’t be very deep, even at the deepest, between these islands,” Nicky asserted. “I think she has settled onto the rock now. If she starts down we can almost jump onto that island—and we won’t be as badly off as in the hands of hi-jackers!”
Gathering most of their weapons and some supplies and dropping them into the boat, the crew hurriedly rowed away on the course toward the distant mainland and the mouth of the Shark River where they could hide for a time.
Tom, Cliff and Nicky assured that the ship was completely deserted except for themselves, came on deck and from the points of vantage watched the departure without disclosing themselves.