Just as we got beyond the rollers I made out in the darkness the figure of a man running down to the beach. I knew he could see us better than we could see him.
“Pull, Mr. Millward!” I cried; “they are after us. Get down in the bottom of the boat Alice, quick! they may shoot.”
The words were hardly out of my mouth when three pistol-shots were fired in rapid succession, and the balls whistled close by us. From the flash I thought I could make out the captain as the murderous assailant.
He did not fire again and we were soon out of range, and casting anchor began the work of setting up the masts and rigging. The light of the moon, which soon rose, showed nobody on the beach. It was almost light enough to read coarse print, and this facilitated our work greatly. As soon as the boats were in sailing trim we stood off to the north with a gentle breeze coming from the south. By midnight we were off the north cape, and here we cast anchor in plain sight of the rocks surrounding the galleon basin and in such a position that we could see the pearl-divers’ boat long before it could come within gunshot, if it should put to sea and attempt to round the cape.
I now told my companions of the narrow escape I had had at the cocoanut grove, which, owing to more recent events, was no surprise to them.
We arranged to keep a watch as follows: I would take the first watch until two o’clock; then Alice would watch until four, and Mr. Millward until six, and then I would take another turn while they slept in the morning. Alice insisted on taking her share of this duty.
Mr. Millward rolled himself up in the bottom of the boat and in five minutes was sound asleep. Alice and I sat in the stern sheets together. She insisted she was not sleepy, and wanted to change the order of the watches agreed upon, and to take the first watch herself. This I would not let her do, as I had determined if she went to sleep not to waken her. I could not persuade her to lie down. We sat silently thus for half an hour, when I saw that she had fallen asleep. I gently drew her toward me that she might rest with some comfort, and held her thus unconscious in my arms, the moonlight falling softly upon her sweet, pale face. I felt that here was a treasure to console me for the loss of the galleon.