“I believe that he speaks of what he knows, but I think it not unlikely that he could tell, if he would, where it is gone.”
“Then is our venture a failure?”
“Who can tell? Anyway we shall not give up the search.”
As there seemed reasonable assurance that they were alone in the forest, they advanced rapidly and exercised no special caution till they were nearing the harbor. Approaching the fringe of wood near the water’s edge, they carefully made their way to a point where an unobstructed view was had of the bay. Tom was the first to announce to the others the identity of the other vessel they had seen from the tree top.
“By all that is wonderful! If there isn’t the Sea Eagle just moving out of the harbor!”
“The Sea Eagle? Well, this is hard,” said Jo. “Just to arrive in time to see her sailing away.”
“And what a row they are having on board the Marjorie; looks like a regular mutiny,” cried Berwick.
The panorama on the bay, which was being enacted before them, was one of startling interest. What had happened to have brought the now disappearing Sea Eagle to the harbor they could not determine, but disorder and confusion was apparent on the Marjorie’s decks.
“Captain Beauchamp is not to be seen,” said the professor. “There seems to be merely a lot of sailors, and it looks as if two factions were contending for the mastery.”