We left Judd and Mr. Avery standing upon the forward deck of the tug Thetis not far from five o'clock the evening before. The tug was off Beaver Tail, and had just sighted and begun her chase after the retreating sloop. The wind was a strong one from the southwest, and the Sea Witch was so rapid a sailer that at six o'clock the tug, though running at a high rate of speed, had not gained over a half-mile upon her. At seven o'clock they were still a mile apart, and it was now evident that before the tug could overhaul her darkness would have closed around.
Lest the suspicion of the burglars might be aroused, Mr. Avery had requested Captain Bradley to keep the tug a point or two off of the exact course of the sloop; so it happened that while the Sea Witch was steadily working up toward the east shore of Buzzard's Bay the Thetis was on a course that would have carried her into Vineyard Sound. But Cuttyhunk Island was now just ahead, and the tug must soon alter her course or she would lose sight of the sloop.
Captain Bradley was about to give the necessary orders to effect this change, when a movement on the part of the Sea Witch caused him to alter his purpose. Her helm had been thrown up, and swinging to the right, she ran directly into Chuttyhunk Island.
"The rascals are going to hold on there to-night," said the captain as he watched the sloop's course, "or else hold up to a later hour, and then run into the main shore and separate. But whatever their purpose, we have got them. I know like a book the cove they have entered, and we'll keep up the east side of the island and land some one to watch their movements. Before morning I'll promise to bag the whole gang."
A few minutes after the Thetis ran in under the east shore of Cuttyhunk, and a boat landed the captain, Mr. Avery and Judd. Slowly and cautiously, under the lead of the stalwart captain, they made their way across to the west side. Here they found a little cove, and close inshore, and sheltered by its curving arms, lay the Sea Witch at anchor. A light was in her cabin, and a boat with two men in it was just pushing off from her side.
"We are just in time, and may learn something to our advantage," whispered the captain, as he drew his companions back into the shelter of a clump of trees.
The boat from the sloop landed almost directly opposite the concealed men, and the two robbers jumped out and pulled it farther up the beach.
"There," said one, "that will stay there until we come back. The captain said we would find the water down here to the right. Take the bucket and come on."
The man addressed took a pail from the boat and followed the speaker down the shore.
"That proves that the leader of the gang is acquainted with this cove, and their coming here was intentional," remarked Captain Bradley in an undertone as the men disappeared. "Fifty yards to the south is a small spring, but a man must have been here before to know of it. So much then we have learned, and we may get some more important facts out of these fellows before they go back to the sloop."