CHAPTER TWELVE.
ABDUCTION AND PURSUIT.
"Well, what is it, Dick? It looks like a number of very old boxes.Have you come upon a pirate's hoard?--as you ought to do, you know, insuch a cunningly concealed cavern as this," exclaimed Flora, laughingly,as she peered inquisitively at the pile that even now she could only seevery imperfectly.
"Ay," answered Dick. "You may laugh as much as you like, little girl,but that is precisely what I have done. Of course I am not prepared toassert positively that it is a `_pirate's_ hoard,' although it looksuncommonly like it, I must confess; but that it is treasure, and veryvaluable treasure, too, is indisputable. Do you see this pile of blackbricks here? Well, those are _gold_ bricks; and I estimate their valueat something approaching three-quarters of a million sterling."
"Three-quarters of a million?" repeated Flora, incredulously. "Oh,Dick, you cannot mean it; you are surely joking!"
"I assure you, dear, I never spoke more seriously in my life; what I amtelling you is fact--plain, simple, indisputable, delightful _fact_!And the gold is only part of the story."
He lifted the covers of the other cases and held a candle while shelooked at their contents, uttering exclamations of delighted amazementas she gazed. Then he withdrew the buckskin bag from the jewel-chest,and placed it in her hands.
"Lift that," he said simply.
"Oh, dear, how heavy!" exclaimed the girl. "I should not like to beobliged to carry this very far. What does it contain?"
Dick plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out the handful of gemsthat he had abstracted from the bag.
"It is full of pretty little stones like these," he answered, displayingthem to her astonished gaze. "Put your hand into the lucky-bag, dear,and see what you can find there."
She did so, and pulled out a similar handful to those which glittered inDick's palm.
"Why, this is a perfect cave of Aladdin, Dick," she exclaimed, indelighted astonishment. "Where did it all come from, do you think?"
"It is impossible to say with certainty," answered Leslie; "but I havevery little doubt that it was brought to this hiding-place from that oldwreck that you discovered sunk in the lagoon. At all events it has lainhere for many years--a hundred, at least, I should think; and itsoriginal owners have long been dead and gone, leaving no trace of theiridentity behind them. It is therefore now _ours_, sweetheart--our veryown; so the fact of our being cast away upon this desert island has notbeen an unmitigated misfortune, after all, you see."
"No, indeed," agreed Flora, heartily. "There was a time when Icertainly so regarded it; but I do so no longer, for it has given meyou, and it has made you a rich man. Why, Dick, you must be a veritablemillionaire!"
"Yes," agreed Dick; "there cannot be much doubt about that. At least,we are _jointly_ worth quite a million, which practically means the samething. And now, do you wish to adorn your pretty self with any of thesegewgaws? Because, if so, you had better make your selection, and thenwe ought to be going, for I see that the sun is getting low."
"Yes, let us get away from here; it is a horrid place, notwithstandingthe fact that it is a treasure-cave. And, as to wearing any of thosethings, I would very much rather not, Dick, please. They suggest to meall sorts of dreadful ideas--scenes of violence and bloodshed, thesacking and burning of towns, the murder of their inhabitants, and--ohno, I could not wear any of them, thank you."
"Very well," said Dick; "then I will just make everything safe here, andwe will be off."
And, allowing Flora first to withdraw into the open air, he closed thechests again, extinguished the candles, and, rearranging the bushes infront of the cave so as effectually to conceal its entrance, left thespot.
For some time after this nothing of importance occurred to vary themonotony of existence on the island, Leslie devoting himselfenergetically to the important work of providing the material for andconstructing the ways upon which he intended to build his cutter. Thisheavy task absorbed rather more than two months of his time; for it waslaborious work, involving the handling of heavy masses of timber, whichcould only be done with the aid of tackles and other appliances,supplemented by the ingenuity of the highly trained sailor; moreover,Leslie was one of those individuals who believed in the wisdom of doingeverything thoroughly well at first rather than incur the risk of beingobliged to undo much of his work and do it all over again. But atlength the ways were completed to his satisfaction; and, that done, thejob of laying the keel and setting up the ready-made frames of thecutter in their correct respective positions and securing them there wascomparatively simple and easy. This occupied exactly a month, at theend of which time the completed skeleton of the cutter stood revealedupon the stocks, to Dick's supreme gratification and Flora's wonder andadmiration. And, indeed, Leslie had ample cause to be both satisfiedand delighted; for this completed skeleton displayed the form of aremarkably handsome boat, possessed of exceptionally fine flowing lines,with a keen entrance and a perfectly clean delivery, yet with asplendidly powerful mid-section, and a depth of hull that promised greatweatherliness with an ample sufficiency of freeboard. It was evidentthat her design had emanated from the drawing-board of a naval architectof quite unusual ability, for her shape seemed to promise the speed ofthe racer with the seaworthiness of the cruiser; indeed, as Dick wasnever tired of asserting, she could not have been more perfectlysuitable for his purpose had she been specially designed for it. "Giveme another hand to keep watch and watch with me, and I'll take her roundthe world!" he was wont to declare, when summing up the good points ofthe craft. It was at this stage of affairs, namely, when the skeletonframework of the cutter had been completely set up, and Leslie waspreparing to commence the task of planking-up, that, upon emerging fromthe tent one morning after breakfast to wend his way down to theshipyard, he was amazed to see a cloud of smoke rising from the nowpartially dismembered hull of the brig, followed, even as he gazedincredulously, by an outburst of flame. Rushing back to the tent forthe telescope, he brought the instrument to bear upon the craft, andthen discovered that not only was she on fire, but also that there was aboat or canoe of some sort alongside her, and a moment later he saw aparty of natives on board her!
He stamped his foot on the ground with anger and vexation. Nativesagain, and this time in the form of wanton marauders; for he had nodoubt that they had been plundering the wreck, and, having secured allthat they required or could carry away, had maliciously set fire to her.And who were they, and where had they come from? Were they Cuffy andSambo, returned to the island with a party of friends for the purpose ofsecuring possession of some intensely coveted object--as seemed morethan probable--or were they strangers, who had come upon the islandaccidentally? This last was scarcely probable, for there had been nobad weather to blow them out to sea, and the nearest land was so fardistant that, assuming them to have come from it, they would scarcelyhave adventured the passage across so wide a stretch of ocean on merespeculation. At all events, let them be whom they might, and no matterwhere they came from, they must be driven off; for the presence of aparty of strange natives upon the island constituted an intolerablemenace that must at once be put an end to.
These reflections flashed through Leslie's brain even as he lowered thetelescope from his eye, and, calling to Flora, he pointed out to her theburning brig, saying--
"Look at that, sweetheart! The poor old _Mermaid_ is on fire, and weare about to see the last of her. That, however, is not a matter ofvery great moment, for I believe I have got out of her practicallyeverything that I need; the point that is of importance is that she hasbeen set on fire, either wilfully or accidentally, by a party ofnatives, who are at this moment on board her. There are some ten or adozen of them, so far as I can make out, and it seems pretty clear thatthey have come here on a looting expedition, organised, as likely asnot, by those fellows Sambo and Cuffy, who seized the opportunity of myabsence from the camp, in search of you, when you met with your accidentat the treasure-cave, to return to t
heir own island, taking along withthem a few unconsidered trifles. Doubtless they have now been helpingthemselves again; and, although it is unlikely that they have takenanything of real value, I will not have them paying marauding visits tothis island. They cannot again loot the brig, it is true, for they haveset fire to her, and she must now burn until she burns herself out; but,unless I can very effectually convince them of the folly of such aproceeding, we shall next have a small army of savages descending uponthe island itself, for the purpose of looting the camp, which will meana big fight, involving heavy loss of life to them, and ending in mydeath and your captivity. Such a contingency as that will not bearthinking of; I am therefore about to go out to them and induce them, oneway or another, to clear out. In plain language, I am going to drivethem out to sea; and if harm comes to them, they will only havethemselves to thank for it. They came here with a dishonest purpose,and they must take the consequences. You will, of course, remain here,with Sailor to take care of you. And do not be anxious if I do notreturn for a few hours; I intend to drive them so far to sea that theywill find some difficulty in returning, especially as they must befairly tired already with their long paddle to windward. And nowgood-bye, dear; I want to get afloat in time to prevent them fromlanding."
"Good-bye, Dick dear," answered Flora. "Be sure that you take theutmost care of yourself, and do not be away any longer than isabsolutely necessary. I shall be anxious until you return."
"Ah, but that is just what you must not be," exclaimed Leslie, as hebuckled on a belt containing two fully loaded revolvers, and began tostuff packets of ammunition into his pockets. Then, seizing a brace ofWinchester repeating rifles from a rack in the corner of the tent, hestarted on a run for the beach, loading his rifle as he ran, for he sawthat the blacks were in the act of leaving the brig.
Leaping aboard the catamaran, Dick cast off and made sail with allspeed, for it looked as though the blacks meditated attempting alanding. As soon, however, as they saw the strange craft beating off tomeet them, and making short tacks to keep between them and the beach,they whisked the canoe round and paddled desperately for the channel,with the catamaran in full chase.
The canoe--a big, wholesome-looking craft, propelled by ten paddles--reached the channel first, with a lead of about three-quarters of amile, and at once, upon fairly reaching the open sea, headed away to thesouth-east, or dead to windward, her occupants having already apparentlygrasped the fact that the catamaran could only progress in the samedirection by following a zigzag course. It was Leslie's intention toturn them, if possible, and drive them round the southern extremity ofthe reef, and so to leeward, reckoning upon the fact that they mustalready be considerably exhausted by their long paddle of something overone hundred miles to windward, and believing that if he could drive themfar enough beyond the lee of the island to get them fairly into the fullrun of the sea and the full strength of the trade wind on that side,they would be in no mood or condition to paddle up to windward again; hetherefore made a long board to the eastward on clearing the channel,hoping that on the next tack he would be able to near them sufficientlyto execute the desired manoeuvre. But, to his disgust, upon gettinginto their wake, he found that he had gained upon them little ornothing, while they continued to paddle with a vigour that spoke wellfor their endurance.
Leslie now tacked again to the eastward, standing on until he could onlysee the canoe when she and the catamaran topped the back of a swelltogether, when he again hove about. Twenty minutes later he once morecrossed the wake of the canoe, and now found that he had done muchbetter, having neared her to within about eight hundred yards. He nowlashed the catamaran's helm for a moment, leaving her to steer herself,and, picking up one of the rifles, took careful aim with it at theflying canoe, hoping to send a bullet near enough to her to spur hercrew to renewed exertions, so tiring them out and compelling them totake the direction in which he desired them to go. He waited afavourable opportunity, and presently, when the canoe was hove up intoplain view, brought both sights dead on her, and pulled the trigger. Amoment later she sank into the trough and disappeared, but as she was onthe point of vanishing he distinctly saw one of her occupants leap up,with a wild flourish of his paddle, and sink back into the bottom of theboat. Then he tacked once more to the eastward.
Altering his tactics now, and making short boards athwart the wake ofthe canoe, Leslie found that the chase was once more holding her own,this state of things prevailing until they had worked out an offing ofabout nine miles, when the catamaran again began to gain, until she hadneared the chase to within about a quarter of a mile. Meanwhile Lesliehad been carefully considering the whole situation. He was by nature amost humane man, one who would not willingly injure a fellow-being onany account, and, indeed, would go far out of his way to do even a totalstranger a service; but there could be no two opinions upon the matter,he told himself--these savages _must_ be made to understand that raidingexpeditions to this particular island were too dangerous andunprofitable a pastime to be indulged in. He therefore once more openedfire upon them, and now in deadly earnest, his first three shotsmissing, while his fourth struck the hull of the canoe and made thesplinters fly. Then he scored two more misses, followed by a hit thatextorted a shriek from one of the crew. This last shot had the desiredeffect; the canoe bore up and headed away to the southward and westwardwith the catamaran hot in chase.
With wind and sea abeam, the chased and the chaser now went along withconsiderably accelerated speed, the catamaran, however, having very muchthe best of it; and within ten minutes from the moment of bearing upLeslie found himself closing fast upon the canoe, and less than ahundred yards astern of her. He now considered himself near enough toadminister a final lesson to her crew of impudent marauders--who, to dothem justice, were by this time looking scared out of their wits, andextremely sorry that they had ever molested him--so he put his helmdown, hauled his fore sheet to windward, and dumped five raking shotsinto the canoe as he swept athwart her stern. Instantly the whole crew,dropping their paddles, flung themselves down into the bottom of thecraft, and buried their heads in their arms, as though they would bythat means protect themselves from the mysterious and terrible missileswherewith they were being assailed; while three white spots that startedinto view on the hull of the canoe told that his shots had penetratedher close to the water-line. Leslie now held his hand, for he had nomind to take the lives of these savages unnecessarily; but he watchedthem carefully, nevertheless. And presently, one after another, eightblack heads cautiously lifted themselves above the gunwale. The eyes inthose heads stared wonderingly and apprehensively at the catamaran andher occupant, their owners evidently holding themselves ready to duckagain at the first sign of danger; but at length, seeing that Leslie wasindisposed to further interfere with them, they seized their remainingpaddles--four only in number, the remainder having been lost overboardin their panic--and put the canoe dead before the wind.
It was clear to Leslie that, with only four paddles left, the savagescould not possibly propel their canoe to windward and return to hisisland; they must perforce go to leeward and make their way back totheir own island as best they could. He had therefore no more to fearfrom them--at least for the present; and he accordingly let draw hisfore sheet and, getting way on the catamaran, tacked and bore away forthe mouth of the entrance channel, leaving his enemies to paddle beforethe wind and sea, and find their way back home again if they could.
The catamaran had arrived within about six miles of the channel, andLeslie was already debating within himself the question whether, afterall, it would not have been a wiser and more prudent thing to have putit beyond the power of his surviving antagonists to return to theirfriends, and possibly organise a very much more formidable expeditionagainst him, and whether, even now, it would not be advisable to go inchase of and utterly destroy them, when his eye was attracted to a smalltriangular object of brownish yellow tint that, brilliantly illuminatedby the bright sunlight, showed up strongly again
st the dazzling white ofthe surf breaking upon the weather edge of the reef. It was in shapelike a shark's fin, but was not the same colour; it was hull down, andwas sliding along at a rapid rate past the wall of surf. It needed buta single glance to enable Leslie to determine that it was a sail, ay,and undoubtedly the sail of a native canoe.
Sick with the sudden thought of the possibilities suggested by thepresence of such an object just where he saw it, Dick took a hasty turnof a rope's-end round the tiller-head and with one bound reached theweather-shrouds, up which he shinned with an agility equalled only bythe dread that struck like a knife at his heart. In a moment he washigh enough to get a footing upon the throat of the gaff, from whichelevation he was enabled to obtain a clear view of the craft. She wasabout three miles away, well to the southward of the dense column ofsmoke rising from the blazing brig, and was edging away round the curvedouter margin of the reef, heading so as to pass to the southward of theisland in a westerly direction. She was too far distant, of course, toenable Leslie to distinguish details with his unaided eye, but he couldsee that she was a big craft, capable, he thought, of carrying quiteforty men, she showed a very large sail to the freshly blowing breeze,and was skimming along at a very rapid pace.
This was as much as Leslie could make out at that distance; but it wasenough, and, groaning with dire apprehension of some dreadful evil, heslid down the shrouds and went aft to the tiller. He could see throughthe whole devilish scheme now. The gang who had set fire to the brigwere evidently only a small contingent of the expedition, and it hadbeen their duty to attract his attention and decoy him away from theisland while the others--headed without doubt by those scoundrels Samboand Cuffy--raided the camp.
That, Leslie savagely meditated, was undoubtedly what had happened.And, meanwhile, where was Flora? What had been her fate? Had shereceived sufficient warning to effect her escape to the Treasure-Cave,which, armed with her revolvers, she could hold for hours against anynumber of savages? Or had she been surprised? The thought of thelatter alternative plunged Leslie into a cold sweat, and set him tomuttering the most awful threats of vengeance. He had no room in hismind for thought of the possible extent of irremediable damage that thesavages might have wrought in the camp; he could think of nothing butFlora; could only hope and pray that she might have made good herescape. The catamaran was sailing as well as ever, for there was astrong breeze blowing, yet Leslie ground his teeth in a fever ofimpatience at what he deemed her snail-like pace; for his first businessnow must be to ascertain the fate of the girl he loved. The very worstthat could possibly have happened, apart from harm to her, wascomparatively unimportant. Yet, all the same, his mind once set at restabout her, he would exact a terrible penalty from those daringmarauders; he would pursue them, ay, to their very island itself, ifneed were; while, if he caught them at sea, not a man should survive toorganise another expedition against him. He felt now that he had been aweak fool not to utterly exterminate the decoy party that he had justleft.
At length, after what to Leslie appeared an eternity of suspense, thecatamaran passed through the entrance channel and bore away for thecamp, a raking view of which was to be obtained as soon as the veilingwall of surf was passed. To his inexpressible relief, the framework ofthe cutter still stood on the stocks, apparently uninjured; and inshoreof it he could see the tent, also apparently uninjured. He had beencherishing a sort of half hope that he would also see Flora standing onthe beach awaiting his arrival; but she was not there, and, uponreflection, he was not greatly surprised. No doubt she was still inhiding, and would probably not reappear until he had succeeded in makingher aware of his return and of the fact that all danger was now past.As the catamaran sped along Leslie's keen glance roved anxiously overthe various parts of the camp as they opened out, and he presently sawthat his savage visitors had been busy with the varied items of thecargo that he had saved from the brig and stored under canvas, for thecanvas cover was folded back, and boxes and bales were strewed here andthere upon the sward. Ah, and there was Sailor--good dog!--lying downon the beach close to the water-line, waiting for him. But where, then,was Flora? She could certainly not be far off, or Sailor would not bethere, lying so quietly and lazily stretched out in the sun. Leslieseized his rifle and fired a signal shot to let the girl know that hewas at hand; but the echoes of the report pealed off the face of themountain and still she did not appear, nor--stranger still--did Sailorleap to his feet with a welcoming bark. What, Dick wondered, was thematter with the old dog? Why did he lie there so utterly motionless?and what was that long thin shaft that looked almost as though its pointwere embedded in his body? Leslie gave vent to a bitter groan; for ashe bore up to run the catamaran in upon the beach, he recognised onlytoo clearly that the poor dog was dead--slain by the cruel spear thattransfixed his body. And he saw, too--just in time to avoid groundingthe catamaran upon the spot--that the sand of the beach was marked withmany naked footprints, leading to and fro between the camp and a markupon the sand that had evidently been left there by a canoe.
Leaping ashore, and taking care not to confuse the footprints byobliterating them with his own, Leslie examined the marks with the mostanxious care; and presently his most dreadful fears were realised, forplainly to be distinguished here and there among the imprints of barefeet were the prints of Flora's little shoes, blurred in places, asthough she had offered strenuous resistance to the coercion of hercaptors, but quite unmistakable for all that. Dick subjected the wholelength of the track, from the water's edge to the boundary of the sward,to a most rigid examination, and at length satisfied himself thatFlora's footprints all led in one direction, namely _toward_ the water;and then, with a savage cry, he went to work to prepare for the pursuit.For there could no longer be a shadow of doubt that Flora had beencarried off, and was at that moment aboard the canoe that he had seenunder sail. Oh, if he had but known--if he had but known!
His preparations were few, and did not take very long to complete. Hefirst dashed off to the tent, and, snatching the mattress and beddingfrom his bed, rushed down to the catamaran with it, and, flinging itdown on deck, covered it with a tarpaulin. He would certainly be outone night, if not two, and Flora would need something softer than thebare planks to lie upon when he had rescued her. Then, returning to thetent, he flung into a basket all the provisions that he could lay hishands upon, together with half a dozen bottles of wine--there was notime to go to the spring for water--and this with a small case of rifleammunition and a few others matters that he thought would be useful, healso conveyed on board the catamaran. He was now ready to start; but asyet he knew not in what direction the canoe was steering, except thatshe was undoubtedly bound to the westward. Now, there were at leastthree islands lying in that direction, and the canoe was probably boundto one or the other of these; but it was of the utmost importance toknow _which_ one, for any mistake upon this point would be fatal, as itmust result in the canoe being missed altogether. So Leslie took a boatcompass that had originally belonged to the brig, and the telescope,and, thus provided, made his way as rapidly as possible to MermaidHead--as he had named the most southerly point of the island--hoping andbelieving that from the lofty cliffs of that headland the flying canoewould still be in sight.
To climb to this point cost him twenty minutes of precious time,although he did the whole distance at a run; but when he got there hefelt that the time had been well spent. For there, some ten miles away,with the afternoon sun shining brightly upon her sail, lay the fugitivecanoe, scudding away on a due westerly course, with the wind over herport quarter. He cast a hurried glance over that part of the oceanwhere he believed the second canoe ought to be, and at length thought hecaught sight of her, but could not be certain, as the light of the sunlay strong upon the sea in that direction. But when at length he gotinto the field of his telescope the image of what he had seen, he foundthat it was some object, about the size of the smaller canoe, certainly,but floating awash. If therefore it was indeed the canoe that he
hadalready pursued, she had either capsized or been swamped, and there wasan end of her and her crew. He now carefully took the bearing of thebig canoe, and, this done, at once set out on his journey back to thecamp and beach.
The return journey was accomplished in about a quarter of an hour, forit was all downhill. Then, having reached the camp, Leslie hunted upone or two further articles that he anticipated might be useful, and,rushing down to the catamaran, got under way and headed her for thechannel. The breeze had by this time freshened up somewhat, and thecraft heeled over under the pressure of her enormous mainsail until herlee pontoon was buried to its gunwale, while the weather-shrouds werestrained as taut as harp-strings; but Dick only smiled grimly as heheard the wind singing and piping through his rigging; he would scarcelyhave shortened sail for a hurricane just then. The queer-lookingstructure tore at racing speed across the smooth surface of the lagoon,shearing through it with a vicious hiss along her bends and a roaringwave under her lee bow, and so out to sea. Leslie was compelled to haulhis wind for a short distance after shooting through the channel, inorder to clear the northern extremity of the reef; but he tacked theinstant that he had room, and stood away to the southward, skirting theouter margin of the reef as closely as he dared and gradually edgingaway as the reef curved round in a westerly direction. He found himselfclose in under the cliffs of Mermaid's Head about half an hour afterclearing the entrance channel, and then at once shaped a coursecorresponding to the bearing of the canoe as taken from the summit ofthose same cliffs.
He calculated that the canoe had secured a fifteen miles' start of him,and, estimating as nearly as he could her speed from the glimpse that hehad caught of her as she skimmed past the reef earlier on in the day, hedoubted very much whether the speed of the catamaran exceeded that ofthe canoe by more than a couple of miles in the hour, to which might beadded or subtracted a trifle according to the relative merits of therespective helmsmen. Knowing that in a stern-chase every trifle tells,Leslie steered as carefully as he knew how, and as one of thecatamaran's merits happened to be that she would steer almost as welloff the wind as she would on a taut bowline, he hoped that through thishe might be able to gain a little extra advantage. Furthermore, he hada compass--which it was reasonable to suppose that the savages lacked--and that ought to prove a further help to him.
Being now, as he believed, fairly upon the track of the fleeing canoe,and having eaten nothing since breakfast, Leslie deemed the moment afitting one wherein to snatch a meal; and this he did, steering with onehand and feeding himself with the other as he alternately eyed thecompass and looked ahead on the watch for the first glimpse of thecanoe's triangular sail, although he knew full well that several hoursmust elapse ere he might hope for that. And, meanwhile, what agonies ofterror and despair would not that highly strung and gently nurtured girlbe suffering! At the mere thought Dick set his teeth and carefullyscrutinised the set of his canvas--already trimmed to a hair--to see ifthere was anything he could do to get a little extra speed out of hisflying craft.
Meanwhile the sun slowly declined in the western sky, and finally sank,in a blaze of purple and crimson and gold, beneath the horizon; theglowing tints quickly faded to a dull purplish grey, a star suddenlyglittered in the eastern sky, and was quickly followed by another andanother, and two or three more, until the entire dome of heaven wasspangled with them, and night was upon the solitary voyager. Dick litthe lantern that he had brought with him, and so arranged it that itslight should fall upon the compass card, lit his pipe, and set himselfto the task of endeavouring to work out a scheme for the recovery of hissweetheart without injury to her or--what was of almost as muchimportance, so far as her ultimate safety was concerned--himself.
It was a fortunate conjunction of circumstances that the savages hadchosen--doubtless for their own convenience--the time of full moon fortheir raid, and night had scarcely fallen ere a brightening of the skyin the eastern quarter proclaimed the advent of the "sweet regent of thenight." Leslie's island lay full in the wake of the rising orb; and fornearly half an hour the catamaran scudded along within the shadow of thepeak, which stretched dark and clear-cut far over the ocean ahead ofher. Little by little the shadow shortened, however, and by-and-by thecatamaran slid over the edge of it as the gleaming disc emerged frombehind the northern edge of the peak, and flooded the whole of the seato the eastward with dancing streaks of glittering liquid silver.
It was about a quarter of an hour later that, as the catamaran rose uponthe back of a somewhat higher swell than usual, Leslie's quick eyecaught a momentary glimpse of a tiny white gleaming point straightahead; and his heart leaped with joy, for he knew that what he had seenwas the upper tip of the canoe's triangular sail. Greedily he watchedfor its next appearance, rejoicing meanwhile in the knowledge that theshadowed sides of his own sails were turned toward the flying canoe, andthat behind them again loomed up the dark background of the peak; itwould consequently need very sharp eyes--even though they should bethose of a savage--to descry them.
For twenty minutes or so following upon the first sighting of the chaseLeslie was able to catch only brief intermittent glimpses of the sail,as one or the other of the flying craft was swept up on the crest of aswell, but by the end of that time he had so far gained upon the canoethat even when they both sank into the trough together he was still ableto see the upper part of the sail, while when both lifted simultaneouslyhe could see the whole of it, right down to the foot, and evenoccasionally a glimpse of the heads of the savages; he estimated,therefore, that he had closed the chase to within a distance of about amile.
Another quarter of an hour passed, at the expiration of which the canoewas in full view, and Leslie now took the two repeating rifles withwhich he had provided himself, and carefully loaded them both. But hehad no intention of opening fire at long range, the motion of both craftwas so lively that in the uncertain light of the moon accurate shootingwould only be possible at a range of about a hundred yards, or less, andhe was so fearful of the possibility of injury to Flora that he wasquite determined not to shoot until he could make absolutely sure of hismark.
And now he suddenly became aware that he was no longer gaining nearly asrapidly as before upon the chase; indeed there were moments when hedoubted whether he was gaining at all. For a few minutes he was puzzledhow to account for this--for the breeze was still as fresh as ever,indeed he was rather inclined to believe that, if anything, it wasslightly freshening--but presently, as he watched the canoe, he detecteda kind of rhythmical glinting appearance on each side of her; and thenthe explanation occurred to him. His presence, and the fact that he wasin pursuit, had at last been discovered by the savages, and they werenow endeavouring to increase their speed by paddling. "Well," thoughtDick, grimly, "let them paddle, if they will; at the speed at which thatcanoe is travelling they will be obliged to expend a great deal ofstrength to perceptibly increase it, and they _must_ tire sooner orlater. They may succeed in prolonging the chase somewhat, but I shallcatch them, all the same."
But now a new cause for anxiety on Dick's part arose, for presently--whether in consequence of some subtle clearing of the atmosphere, orbecause of the gradual change of the moon's position in the heavens--theisland that Dick knew lay somewhere ahead, and for which the canoe wasobviously steering, suddenly loomed up ahead with such startlingdistinctness that Leslie feared that they must be very much nearer to itthan was actually the case; and as the time sped on without bringing himvery appreciably nearer to the chase, he became haunted by a dread lestthe fleeing savages should after all reach the shore and gain theassistance of their friends before he could overtake them.
At length, however, he found that he was once more creeping up to thecanoe, despite the fact that her occupants were still paddlingapparently as vigorously as ever; it was obvious that, notwithstandingappearances, their long spell of exceptional exertion was telling uponthem, and, consciously or unconsciously, they were gradually relaxingtheir efforts. Slowly, and foot by foot,
the catamaran crept up; and atlength Dick was convinced that not more than a bare quarter of a mileseparated the two craft. Then an idea suddenly occurred to him:although he was still too distant to be at all willing to hazard a shotat the occupants of the canoe, there was no particular reason why heshould not fire at the _sail_; he had with him an ample supply ofammunition, and a few lucky shots through it might cause the sail tosplit; nay, there was even the possibility that he might succeed inbringing it down altogether. Accordingly, planting himself firmly onthe deck to leeward of the tiller, with the latter just pressingsufficiently against his left hip to keep the catamaran going straightand prevent her from broaching-to, he took one of the rifles in hishand, and, determining to devote himself entirely to the effort to bringdown the sail, sighted the weapon to four hundred yards, raised it tohis shoulder, and aiming carefully at the mast of the canoe, waiteduntil he had got both sights dead on it, when he instantly pressed thetrigger. He was still too far distant to be able to see the result ofthe shot, but he was inclined to believe that he had scored a hitsomewhere, for he distinctly heard a loud shout that seemed to carry init a note of alarm. Again, patiently waiting his chance, he fired; andthis time he really fancied he saw some chips fly from the mast, closeto the sling of the yard, at which point he was persistently aiming.Encouraged by this possible success, and still more by the fact that hewas now distinctly overhauling the canoe, Leslie maintained a slow,careful, and deliberate fire upon her, always aiming for the same spot;and at length, at about the ninth shot, down dropped the yard into thecanoe, to his mingled surprise and gratification, the fall of the saileliciting a tremendous hullabaloo from the excited and astonishedsavages.
In the extremity of their consternation the flying raiders seemed unableto make up their minds what to do, and for a few minutes all wasconfusion aboard the canoe, during which the catamaran swept up to herhand over hand until the two craft were abreast, Dick taking theprecaution to keep some fifty yards of water between him and the canoe,as he fully expected to be received with a shower of spears. Nor was hedisappointed; for, as he ranged up alongside, the natives as one manrose to their feet, and in an instant some thirty spears were hurtlingtoward him. He had probably never been much nearer death than he was atthat moment, for the spears flew all round him, one of them actuallysweeping the cap off his head; but he remained untouched. Leslie atonce raised his rifle to his shoulder, and selecting as a mark theindividual who wielded the steering-paddle--in whom he instantlyrecognised the ci-devant Cuffy, with Sambo standing next to him--fired.The savage flung up his arms, staggered for a moment, and then fellbackward overboard. Then, as the catamaran swept ahead, he caught aglimpse of something white lying in the stern of the canoe that he knewmust be Flora's white-clothed body.
Quick as thought Leslie recharged both rifles, and hauling his wind,shot athwart the bows of the canoe; then he tacked, and, shaping acourse that would enable him to cross the canoe's stern at a distance ofabout eighty yards, hauled his fore sheet to windward, checking the wayof the catamaran and allowing her to cross quite slowly. Then he oncemore raised his rifle, and pointed it at Sambo. But the tragic fate ofCuffy had already produced its effect upon the now thoroughly terrifiedsavages, who by this time realised that to remain in the canoe was butto court death. Yet what else could they do? There was but onealternative, and that was--to jump overboard, and trust to their abilityto swim to the island that loomed ghostly in the moonlight ahead. Andthis they did, one after the other--the laggards being stimulated byanother shot or two from Leslie's rifle--until the canoe, a fine bigcraft of about five feet beam and forty feet long, fitted with anoutrigger, was empty of savages. Then, without troubling himselfparticularly as to what was likely to become of his beaten foes, Lesliegibed over, and shot alongside the canoe, jumping into her with the endof a rope that he had already made fast on board the catamaran. Thisrope's-end he deftly threw in the form of a half-hitch round thequaintly carved figure-head of the canoe, taking the end aft and makingit fast round the heel of the mast, thus effectually securing the craftto the catamaran in a manner convenient for the towage of the former.This done, he strode aft, until he came to where Flora lay. And hisblood rose to boiling-point as he bent over her; for he saw that notonly had she been gagged, but that she had also been bound hand and footso cruelly tight that she must have endured hours of untold agony.