"Why should I? Come on, Bessie, if we"re going for a walk. If we stay here much longer Margery"ll get so dry from talking that we"ll have to go and get her some more water."
"Let"s go up the path and get on the bluff again," said Bessie. "I like it up there, because you seem to be able to see further out to sea than you can here."
"All right. I don"t care where we go, anyhow, and it is more interesting up there than on the beach, I think."
The night was a beautiful one, and walking was really delightful. Below them the beach stretched, white and smooth, as far as the cove itself.
At each end of the cove the bluff on which they were walking curved and turned toward the sea, stretching out to form two points of land that enclosed the cove.
"They say this would be a perfect harbor if there was a bigger channel dredged in," said Dolly. "Of course it"s very small, but I guess it was used in the old days. There are all sorts of stories about buried treasure being hidden around here."
"Do you believe those stories, Dolly?"
"Not I! If there was any treasure around here it would have been found ever so long ago. They"re just stories. I guess those pirates spent most of the money they stole, and I guess they didn"t get half as much as people like to pretend, anyhow."
"It would be fun to find something like that, though, Dolly."
"Well, Bessie King, you"re the last person I would ever have expected even to think of anything so silly! You"d better get any nonsense of that sort out of your head right away. There"s nothing in those old stories."
"I suppose not," said Bessie, and sighed. "But in a place like this it doesn"t seem half so hard to believe that it"s possible, somehow. It looks like just the sort of place for romance and adventure. But--oh, well, I guess I"m just moonstruck. Dolly, look at that!"
Her eyes had wandered suddenly toward the yacht, and now, from their higher elevation, they were able to see a small boat drawing away from her, on the seaward side, and so out of sight of the girls on the beach.
"That"s funny," said Dolly, puzzled. "I should think that if they were going to send a boat ash.o.r.e she"d come straight in."
"Let"s watch and see what happens, Dolly."
"You bet we will! I wouldn"t go now until I knew what they were up to for anything!"
"It"s going straight out to sea, Dolly, and it"s keeping so that the yacht is between it and the sh.o.r.e. It does look as if they didn"t want to be seen, doesn"t it?"
"It certainly does! Look, there it goes through the little gap in the bar! See? Now it will be hidden from the people on sh.o.r.e--and it"s going toward West Point, too. See, I"ll bet they"re going to make a landing there!"
They hurried along the bluff, and in a few minutes they saw the boat graze the beach at the end of West Point. Three men jumped out and hauled the little craft up on the sh.o.r.e, and then they began to move inland, toward Bessie and Dolly.
"We"d better work back toward the camp," said Dolly, excitedly. "It wouldn"t do to have them see us--not until we know more about them."
"I wonder if they"ll come back this way, toward the camp? And why do you suppose they"re acting that way? It seems very funny to me."
"It does to me, too. I"m beginning to think Miss Eleanor had a good reason for being nervous, Bessie. I don"t believe that yacht is here for any good purpose."
"It"s a good thing we came up this way, isn"t it?"
"It certainly is, if we can manage to find out something about them. I say, do you remember where the spring is? Well, right by it there"s a mound, with a whole lot of bushes. I believe we could hide there, and be waiting as they come along."
"Let"s try it, anyhow. Maybe there"s something we ought to know."
They found it easy to hide themselves, and when, a few minutes later, the three men came along, they were secure from observation.
"Do you think it"s Mr. Holmes?" whispered Bessie, voicing the thought both of them had had.
"It"s just as likely as not! It"s the sneaky way he would act," said Dolly, viciously. "They"re pretty careful about the way they walk--see?"
But then the men came into the range of their eyes, and the sigh of disappointment that rose from them was explained by Dolly"s disgusted, "It"s not Mr. Holmes, or anyone else I ever saw before."
The men came nearer, and seemed to be looking down at the camp.
"They"re the ones! That"s the outfit, all right," said one of them.
"Well, it"s easy to keep an eye on them."
CHAPTER XIV
A NIGHT ALARM
Bessie and Dolly looked at one another. Holmes wasn"t there, but who but Holmes or someone working for him could have any such sinister interest in keeping an eye on the camp as was implied by that sly remark?
Evidently luck had favored them once more, and they had stumbled again on early evidence of another coming attack.
But they took little time--could take little time, indeed--to think of the meaning of what they had heard. It was too important for them to find out as much as possible from these men. They dared not speak to one another; the men were so close that they were almost afraid that the sound of their own breathing would betray them.
And, dark as it was, they could see that these were men of a type who would stop at little if they felt they were in danger of failure. They were big, burly, ugly-looking men, rough in speech and manner, and, though they masked their movements, and went about their business, whatever it might be, as quietly as possible, their quietness was furtive and a.s.sumed and by no means natural to them.
"They won"t run away to-night, Jeff," grumbled one of the men. "You ain"t a-goin" to stay here and watch them, are you?"
"No, I"m not--but you are," growled the one addressed as Jeff. "See here, my buck, the boss don"t want any slip-up on this job--see? He"s been stung once too often. I"m goin" back to the boat, but you and Tim will stay here till daylight--right here, mind you!"
"Aw, shucks, that"s a fine job to give us!" growled Tim. "Larry"s got the right dope, Jeff. They won"t run away to-night."
"Listen here--who"s giving orders here? What I say goes--do you get that? If you don"t, I"ll find a way to make you, and pretty quick, too.
I don"t want none of your lip, Tim."
"What"s the game, Jeff?" asked the man Larry, in milder tones. "We"ll do as you say, all right, all right, but can"t you tell a guy what"s doin"?"
"I don"t know myself, boys, and that"s a fact," said Jeff, seemingly mollified by this submission to his orders. "But the boss wants them two gals--and what he wants he gits, sooner or later."
"Guess he does!" laughed Tim. "You said something that time, Jeff!"
"There"s money in it, I know that," Jeff went on. "Big money--though I"m blowed if I see where! But we"ll get our share if we do our part."
"I can use any that comes my way, all right," said Larry, with a smothered laugh. "Always broke--that"s what I am!"
"How about the morning, Jeff?" asked Tim. "We can"t stay here when it gets to be light. They"d spot us in a minute."
"Won"t be any need then, Tim. We can keep an eye on them from the yacht. And the boss is apt to turn up here himself most any time."
"Why not pull it off to-night, Jeff?" asked Larry. "It"s a good chance, I"d say."