"Well," returned Norris, plucking the bones from his fish, "I"m thinking there"ll be no lack of gas for it while you"re awake. When you"re not awake--well, you"ll dream enough hot air to--"
"Just what I was going to say," broke in Ray. "It delights me to see you"ve come round to my dream idea. You"re awake at last. Not that you"re to blame for having golden dreams; even I, in my younger days--"
"Not on your life!" interrupted Norris, "I--"
"Even Wayne, here, has dreams," continued Ray. "He follows that nightmare, Duran, and suddenly he vanishes into nothing--all dreams."
"Not on your life!" declared Norris, taking Ray half in earnest.
"There"s gold somewhere in that creek we were on today, and I"ll show you before we get through with it."
"Maybe Duran has already cleaned it out," I suggested.
"Don"t you believe it!" said the optimistic Norris. "He hasn"t got away with it at any rate, or what is he doing back here?"
We crawled under our mosquito bars early, leaving Ray on watch by the stream. I fell asleep to the music of the little cascade, whose continual plash kept from my ears the hara.s.sing song of the mosquitoes, who with voodoo thirst sought flaws in my citadel.
I was awakened at last by an insistent hand on my shoulder and Robert"s voice in my ear.
"I think Duran or somebody just went by," he said.
He had detected a sound of plashing in the water, like someone wading, though he heard it imperfectly, confused as as it was with the noise of the little waterfall. He had peered hard into that inky darkness, and it seemed to him that a shape crept along the bank of the creek.
We aroused the others, who began at once to gather our traps together, while Robert and I, with utmost caution, sought the path, and with more or less difficulty followed its course toward the bay.
It was about two o"clock when we started, and when we came to the inlet, there showed in the east signs of the moon coming, topping the horizon.
That was half-past-three; so that we were an hour and a half covering those three or four miles.
I crept to the spot where we had seen Duran"s canoe concealed in the tall gra.s.s.
"It"s gone!" I told Robert. "Let"s hurry the others."
A few hundred yards back Robert came upon them. And now not a minute was lost in setting our little boat in the water. The moon lay a timid light on the bay by the time we had come out of the inlet.
"There!" cried Robert, pointing to the east.
Barely a half mile away we made out an object on the water.
"He"s going down the bay," I observed, "not across to the Twin Hills."
"Well, let"s keep him in sight," said Norris, "now that we"ve got our peepers on him at last."
"He"ll see us if we go too fast," cautioned Robert.
A camouflage for our boat was suggested. So we hurried to the sh.o.r.e, and six pairs of hands quickly harvested an abundance of reeds and gra.s.ses.
With this we wove a screen, as for duck-stalking. And with the sh.o.r.e for a background, it would have taken a sharper eye than a human"s to distinguish us. Fortunately, the moon, being but a thin, fading crescent, gave a rather imperfect light.
Now we moved at a swift pace down the sh.o.r.e, Norris and Marat at the oars. And so we gained on Duran, who was out nearer the middle of the bay, little thinking that his plans were _gaun agley_, with his enemies hanging on his tail in spite of all his devices.
Nearly every eye was on that canoe and its paddler, and barely a word spoken till we had navigated almost a mile of the bay.
"Now where is that skunk making for, I wonder?" said Norris, resting on his oar and peering through the screen.
"He go to the island, there, I theenk," offered Jean Marat.
"Yes," added Carlos. "He go right for thee island."
I had noted the island when we were on the cliffs. It was triangular, and on Marat"s chart it measured a half mile in its greatest dimension.
"What"s on it?" queried Norris, again resuming his rowing.
Carlos said he had been there many years ago, and then there were palms and brush, and in the midst, a hut and garden.
"There! He"s going to land," spoke Robert.
Captain Marat trained his gla.s.ses on the island, now barely more than a half mile away.
"Yes," he said, "he land. He is on thee sh.o.r.e now, an" he pull out thee canoe, I theenk."
We set our boat in toward the south sh.o.r.e of the bay and here we found the mouth of a stream. A few rods up this creek we made our landing, and in a little we had got boat and all out of the water and into a sheltered place under the palms, for day would soon be breaking.
"You"re the darndest bunch!" said Ray, rubbing his eyes. "You"d think I hadn"t paid for my lodging."
He had fallen asleep in the boat, and didn"t awaken till Norris had almost rolled him out into the water.
"It"s that cannibal-priest-voodoo-skunk again I suppose," continued Ray.
"Where have you got him now?"
"We"ve got him cornered, surrounded on Crusoe"s island," returned Norris.
"Surrounded," sniffed Ray, "like a gay porpoise, with water. And I"ll bet when you catch him, you"ll find he"s only Crusoe"s man, Friday."
This suggestion, although made in sport, startled us. Perhaps after all, the occupant of the canoe had not been Duran. It might have been only one of his numerous blacks, one more in his confidence than any of those on his schooner.
When day came, and that was but an hour after our landing, I began anxiously to scan that island through Marat"s gla.s.ses. It was not long till I saw a rowboat put off from the island and move toward the south sh.o.r.e far down the bay. Unmistakably, it was a black in the boat, and alone, apparently, and his bulk was much too portly for the figure of Duran. And before the morning was half gone another figure appeared, coming out of the palms on the island. And my heart thumped with excitement as I strained my eyes at the gla.s.ses.
The figure (black of face) stood on the sh.o.r.e, looking out across the bay to the west. Was it Duran? I asked myself. Surely the form was not unlike his, but there were many real blacks in his employ who, at that distance would have looked much the same.
And then occurred a thing that settled the matter, and I thrilled all over. The man"s hand went up to the side of his head, and the fingers toyed with the ear in that characteristic manner of Duran"s, when he was in deep thought. There could be no doubt, I saw the hand moving up and down with the stroking. It was Duran!
I turned to my friends and gave them my news.
"Well, anyway," pouted Ray, "his man Friday was there; he went off in a boat."
"And now, what do you suppose he"s doing on that island then?" asked Norris.
"He"s burying his gold, of course," said Ray.
"Or maybe he"s just after provisions," I suggested.