"Land ho!" called the lookout, and the captain, taking an observation, announced they were close to the bay of which he had spoken. When it was reached it was found to be a secluded harbor, with nothing in sight on the shores of it save a few old huts, that appeared to be deserted.
"Not a very lively place," commented the captain. "Still, it will do all right if we have to land the cargo."
The anchor was dropped and then all there was to do was to wait for the fire to be extinguished.
The boys remained on deck, looking at the scenery about them. Back of the bay, rising almost from the edge of the water, were a series of steep cliffs, of bare rock for the most part, but studded, here and there, with clumps of bushes and small trees, that somehow, found a lodgement for their roots on little ledges.
"It's a lonesome sort of place," remarked Fenn. "Not a soul within sight."
Hardly had he spoken than there was seen on the face of the cliff, as if by a trick, the figure of a man. He seemed to come out, as does a magic-lantern picture on a sheet, so quickly did he appear where, before, there had been nothing but bare brown rock.
"A Chinaman!" exclaimed Bart. "One of the smugglers!"
The boys jumped to their feet, and approached closer to the ship's rail, to get a better view.
As they did so the Chinese vanished as though the cliff wall had opened and swallowed him up.
"Well, what do you think of that?" asked Fenn, in surprised accents. "Did he fall down?"
"Doesn't look so," answered Frank. "I wonder if we really saw him, or whether it was a sort of day dream?"
"Oh, we saw him all right enough," said Bart. "He looked to me just like the Chinaman we saw in the woods that day."
"Just what I was going to remark," put in Ned. "I wonder if there are any more men up on that cliff?"
"What's the matter, boys?" asked Captain Wiggs, approaching at this juncture. They told him what they had seen.
"I don't see anything very surprising in that," replied the commander. "Probably he has a laundry up there, and he was out looking for customers." And the commander winked at the other chums, who joined in a laugh at Fenn.
"That's all right," announced the discomfited one. "But I'll wager there's something queer back of all this. Do you know anything about this locality, captain?"