Alaric obeyed, and the young sailor began to move as rapidly as possible toward the beach. With inexcusable carelessness the Lieutenant had left his boat hauled up on the shore without a man to guard her. Bonny noticed this, and also that the sloop's dinghy still lay where he had left it. If they could only reach the dinghy unobserved they would stand a much better chance of making an escape by water than by land.
So the boys crept cautiously through the undergrowth without attracting the attention of their only near-by pursuer, until they reached the beach, where a cleared space of about one hundred feet intervened between them and their coveted goal, and this they must cross, exposed to the full view of any who might be looking that way. They paused for an instant, drew long breaths, and then made a dash into the open.
Almost with the first sound of rattling pebbles beneath their feet came a yell from behind. The bluejacket had discovered them, and was leaping down the steep slope in hot pursuit.
"RUN, RICK! YOU'VE GOT TO RUN!" PANTED BONNY.
"Run, Rick! You've got to run!" panted Bonny. "Give me the bag." Snatching the canvas bag from Alaric's hands as he spoke, the active young fellow darted ahead and flung it into the dinghy. "Now shove!" he cried. "Shove with all your might!"
It was all they could do to move the boat, for the tide had fallen sufficiently to leave it hard aground, and with their first straining shove they only gained a couple of feet; the next put half her length in the water, and with a third effort she floated free.
"Tumble in!" shouted Bonny, and Alaric obeyed literally, pitching head foremost across the thwarts with such violence, that but for his comrade's hold on the opposite side the boat would surely have been capsized.
With the water above his knees, Bonny gave a final shove that sent the boat a full rod from shore, and in turn tumbled aboard.
He was none too soon; for at that moment the sailor reached the spot they had just left, and rushing into the water, began to swim after them with splendid overhand strokes. Bonny snatched up the dinghy's single oar, and seeing that they would be overtaken before he could get the boat under way, brandished it like a club, threatening to bring it down on the man's head if he came within reach.