"Good God! Yes, you're right," said Norris. "What does that mean?"
We retreated into the shelter of the trees. And I sickened with a horrid sensation. It was as much anxiety regarding the Pearl, as fear for ourselves; and we had no proper defence, from which we could stand off a dozen or more armed black devils. The Orion changed her course and bore down direct for the isle. We stood, paralyzed with our surprise and dread, gazing on that vessel as it bore down under the freshening breeze. For ten minutes we stood thus.
"Shall we take to the skiff?" said Robert at last.
None answered him. I had just noted a strange thing. The black sailors on the Orion—now almost directly north of us—had none of their interest centered on the isle. I turned my eyes back the way the Orion had come. And there were the sails of another schooner coming from behind that point.
"Look!" I cried.
"The Pearl!" said Grant Norris. "That tells the story: the Orion's running away from her."
He danced with joy. And we three struck one another in our ecstacy of relief.
The Orion rounded the isle, and the Pearl, coming in chase, was soon opposite us, and near enough to hail. We rushed down to the water. Our friends, at the rail, waved to us.
"All is safe!" we called. "Drive the Orion out if you can!"
"Aye! Aye!" came back Ray's voice, and the chase continued.