Soon the men came back to their boat, one bringing the bucket of water, and the other an armful of dead sticks he had gathered up. Putting their burdens into the boat, they sat down upon the bow, filled their pipes, and lighting them began to smoke, evidently in no hurry to depart.
"I say, Tom," said one of them in a moment, "do you suppose we are going to get out of this scrape all right?" and there was apprehension in his voice.
"Oh! I think so," carelessly answered the other. "I see no reason to believe we are even suspected; and to-morrow we will run down in the neighborhood of Hyannis, wait until after dark, then scuttle the sloop, and separate. From different stations in that vicinity we can work into Boston, and once there, dispose of the booty, divide up, and be off to some other part of the country for another job. It's a good, stiff haul we've made this time; a cool thousand apiece."
"That is Bagsley," Judd said to his companions in a suppressed whisper.
The burglars finished their smoke without any further conversation that was of special value to the listeners, and then pushed off the boat and went back to the sloop.
As soon as they were out of hearing Judd turned to Captain Bradley and asked:
"Couldn't we bring your yawl across to this cove, captain?"
"I think so. What then?" he asked, with interest.
"Well, then let us go back to the tug and give your men orders to bring her around to this side of the island, and lie in wait off the southern point of the cove. Then we will return to the shore in the yawl, bring it over here, and wait until the burglars are quiet for the night. At the proper time we will go silently off to the sloop, shut down her hatch, give the tug the signal to come on, and boat and men are ours."
Mr. Avery and the captain discussed the plan at some length. It would involve hard work, but would offer two special advantages: They would approach the sloop from a quarter that danger would be the least suspected, and hence the chances of success would be materially strengthened. Again, in case of discovery, a force would be on both the sea and the land side of the Sea Witch, and the burglars would be less likely to escape. With a little change in the details, Judd's suggestion was adopted.