He turned savagely upon one of the gang, who, thinking he saw a figure beside the rail a little for'ard of the stern drew trigger on it, sending a bullet dangerously near his comrade. Then, joining the sailor, this gaucho led the way forward, this time at a slower pace, searching every foot of the deck.
"Empty!" exclaimed the sailor with an oath. "Then they have gone into the cabin, and we shall have a pretty business to get them out. What's best to be done?"
He turned on those who followed him, forgetful of the fact that none knew English. But they seemed to guess at his meaning, for the gaucho promptly led the way back to the cabin.
"An ugly place to search," he admitted as he made out the outline of the roof of the saloon which Dudley and Mr. Blunt had occupied, and came to a halt at the short flight of stairs leading down to it. "A man does not care to dive into a dark hole like that and be shot down like a dog. The fellows are skulking behind the door, and will see us before we can catch sight of them. What's to be done? Coop them up below and wait till morning seems the best way out of the difficulty."
"And have a hundred busybodies asking what the noise is about, and why we are so carefully shooting white men on the river," shouted the man at his elbow, pushing him aside indignantly. "What has to be done must be done now. I'm going into the cabin."
As if to let the occupants of the tiny place know that he was coming, the ruffian emptied four of the cartridges in his revolver into the door of the cabin, sending the bullets ripping through the wood, and thudding heavily against the bulkhead beyond. Then, quickly following his messengers, he leaped to the bottom of the stairway and burst into the saloon.
"Empty!" he shouted a moment or two later. "Not a soul in here. Where are the pretty birds?"
Where indeed? The members of the gang raced up and down the deck, searching vainly for the men they wanted, and never even suspecting the trick which had been played upon them. It was not till they had felt in every corner, and come very near to shooting one another in the confusion caused by their haste and the darkness, that it slowly dawned upon their minds that the birds had flown. Then they looked for the ship on which they had taken passage, and which they had slipped from her moorings not ten minutes before, and were struck dumb with astonishment to find that she was already some ten feet from them, and hardly discernible in the darkness. Indeed it is probable that they would not even now have suspected what had really happened had it not been for a sudden commotion close at hand. They had entirely forgotten the noisy comrades who had gone ashore, and who had since embarked on a small boat. Even Mr. Blunt and his two stanch young friends had allowed the existence of this other gang to slip their memory, for their hands were very full. They had carried out their scheme in absolute silence and with wonderful celerity. They had severed the ropes, and then with a whispered word to one another had placed themselves along the rail of the captured vessel, and, keeping as low as possible, had pushed the two boats apart. Not till then had Mr. Blunt taken his station at the tiller. He looked aloft, felt the river vessel cant as the wind filled her sail, and then pushed at his tiller.