“I hardly think it will be necessary. They’ll not be able to work their way out of the hold before we return.”
“But the smugglers might take possession of the vessel.”
“If that is their intention, our presence or absence will make no difference to them. They can take the yacht now as easily as they could if we were ashore.”
Walter’s suggestion being approved by the crew, they sprang over the rail, and walking around the cove—the Banner was moored at the bank opposite the fire—came up to the place where Mr. Bell was lying. He started up at the sound of their footsteps, and rubbing his eyes as if just aroused from a sound sleep, said pleasantly:
“You young gentlemen must be very fond of yachting, to venture out on a night like this. Did you come in here to get out of reach of the wind?”
“No, sir,” replied Walter. “We expected to find Henry Chase on the island.”
“And he is somewhere about here, too,” exclaimed Wilson. “We saw him standing in the mouth of ‘The Kitchen,’ not fifteen minutes ago.”
“The Kitchen!” echoed Mr. Bell, raising himself on his elbow and looking up at the cave in question. “Why, how could he get up there, and we know nothing about it? We’ve been here more than an hour.”
“But you must have heard him shouting to us when we came into the cove.”
“Why no, I did not,” replied Mr. Bell, with an air of surprise. “In the first place, what object could he have in visiting the island, alone, on a night like this? And in the next, how could he come here without a boat?”
“There ought to be a boat somewhere about here,” said Walter, while his companions looked wonderingly at one another, “because Pierre and Coulte brought him over here in a pirogue.”
It now seemed Mr. Bell’s turn to be astonished. He looked hard at Walter, as if trying to make up his mind whether or not he was really in earnest, and then a sneering smile settled on his face; and stretching himself out on his blanket again he pulled his hat over his eyes, remarking as he did so:
“All I have to say is, that Chase was a blockhead to let them do it.”
“Now just listen to me a minute, Mr. Bell, and I’ll tell you what’s a fact,” said Perk, earnestly. “He couldn’t help it, for he was tied hard and fast.”
The gentleman lifted his hat from his eyes, gazed at Perk a moment, smiled again, and said: “Humph!”