These reflections and the long, expectant waiting were beginning to tell on their nerves, when they heard the welcome put-put of a distant launch.
"They are coming, at last," said Charley, with a sigh of relief. "I can recognize that exhaust. The Hunters launch is the only one that sounds just like that."
"The schooner must be somewhere near but I don't see her lights," Walter observed.
"Why, thar she is," exclaimed the captain, "sneaking inshore like a thief in the night."
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE SURPRISE.
So silently that they had been unaware of her approach, the strange craft had stolen in like a phantom ship to within two hundred yards of where they lay concealed. She now lay directly in the moon's path and its rays so bright set out every rope and sail in dark relief. Not a light shone aboard. Her captain had evidently been made wary by his former alarm and was taking all possible chances against drawing the attention of others.
As silent as a ghost ship the graceful craft crept in to within a cable's length of the beach. Then, with a faint creak of traveling blocks she rounded gracefully up into the wind and a muffled splash told that her anchor had been dropped.
She made a beautiful sight laying, swan-like, full in the glowing pathway of the moon, her great white sails quivering in the gentle breeze.