"Not a bit, sir. What's the good? Don't make it any better to go on the dump. It can't last. It's like the weather--either gets better or it gets worse. My word, what a fine thing a bit o' sleep is! Bit cool though. Always is just before sunrise. Seen anything of the yacht, sir?"
"Bah! Impossible! How could I?"
Ned said nothing, but glanced at the dimly-seen paddlers working away, and at the sleeping party who were in the bottom of the canoe, and then turned his attention astern.
"Wonder where they are taking us, sir," he said. "There must be a big island somewhere out in this direction, and--"
He became silent so suddenly that Jack turned to him in surprise, and saw that he was gazing fixedly over the stern of the canoe into the black darkness, for there was no sign of the coming day.
"What are you thinking?" said Jack at last.
"That I shall have to report you to the captain, sir, for not keeping better watch. I didn't set you to it. You volunteered."
"What do you mean, Ned?" cried Jack excitedly.
"You said, when I asked you whether you had seen anything of the yacht, 'Bah! Impossible! How could I?'"
"Well, how could I in the dark?"
"By keeping a bright look-out, sir. There's her light."
"What!" cried Jack.
"Steady, sir, steady. Don't jump out of the boat."
"But you don't mean--"
"Oh yes, I do, sir. Look yonder."
"Oh, nonsense!" cried Jack bitterly; "that must be a star setting in the west."
"Well, it may be, sir, and if it is, it's so close down that in another five minutes it'll be one; but it strikes me that there's a little lighter look yonder, and that it's the east. Of course I don't know for certain like, and I've been asleep. Let's watch for a bit. I believe it's our star as the guv'nor's had lit up to let us know he's coming after us--that's what I think, sir."
"It is too much to hope," said Jack despondently.
"Not a bit, sir. You can't say but what it's as likely as likely. But there, we shall soon know. I wonder whether the niggers have seen it yet."
Evidently they had not, and this, knowing how sharp-eyed they were, strengthened Jack's belief that it was only a star, and he said so.
"All right, sir," said Ned, after a long watching, "pr'a'ps you're right; but it's a new kind if it is, for it don't come up nor it don't go down. Anyhow that's the east, for the sun means to come up there, or I'm a Dutchman."
They sat watching for about a quarter of an hour longer, and then Jack exclaimed softly--
"You were wrong, Ned, it was a star, and it has sank out of sight."
"Down in the east, sir?"
"It cannot be the east, Ned, it must be the west."
"Then it's last night again, sir, and that's a speck left up to show where the sun went down."
As Ned spoke he pointed to where there was a faint flush of light, which grew warmer and warmer as Jack sat trying to keep from being too sanguine. Then he turned away and feared to gaze aft any more, oh account of the blacks, who were paddling steadily away, for against a pale streak of light in the east, there, plainly enough to be seen, were the hull and spars of the _Silver Star_, while like a pennon there floated out behind her a long dark cloud of smoke, telling that her engine fires were roaring away and her propeller hard at work.
"I was afraid to hope, Ned," whispered Jack. "Think they see us?"
"Think they see us, sir! Why, of course. Mr Bartlett's up in the main-top with his glass to his eye, you may be sure, and the lads below are shovelling in the coals as if they cost nothing. Look at the smoke.
I say, see how the niggers are at it. They know. Shouldn't be surprised if we catch sight of the place we're going to when the sun's up. All I hope is that it's so far away that they can't reach it."
The sun rose at last, and the mountain became glorified once more, but it was a long time before a glimpse could be caught of their destination, and then, like a faint cloud extending right and left for miles, there was land--dim, low-lying misty land, without a sign of elevation or peak.
"That's it sure enough, Mr Jack, sir," said Ned, shading his eyes from the glare of the sea; "and now it's a question of paddles against screw."
"Yes. Which will win, Ned?"
"Screw, sir. If it was wind and sails in this changeable sort of place I should be a bit doubtful, but I ain't the least."
A stern chase is always a long one, they say, and to the prisoners it seemed to be here, and Hope and Doubt alternately held sway, while to Jack's agony the dim, distant flat land, which by degrees began to assume the aspect of a long range of extremely flat islands, appeared to come steadily nearer, while the yacht hardly seemed to stir.
"She will never catch us, Ned," said Jack despondently.
"Go along with you, sir. She'll do it before we get near. Not but what these fellows paddle splendidly. Hallo! what are they going to do?"
The answer came in the quick hoisting of a couple of low masts and the same number of matting sails, for the water was beginning to be flecked by a coming breeze. In addition, the men rapidly rigged out a couple of bamboos on one side, and lashed their ends to another which lay along the bottom of the boat, so as to form an outrigger to counteract the pressure of the sails.
A few minutes later the paddles were laid in, for the great canoe was gliding through the water faster than the men could propel her.
At last, though, hope began to grow stronger in the prisoners' breasts, for it was plain now that with full steam on the yacht was rapidly coming up.
"They'd got no pressure on at first, sir, only enough to send her along a bit. What do you say to it now?"
"It's in doubt, Ned. They may run us into shallow water where the yacht dare not come."
"But she dare send her boats, sir. Oh, we're all right now.--If they don't knock us on the head when they find they're beaten," Ned added to himself.
The faces of those on board the yacht began now to grow plain as the mountain seemed to be steadily sinking in the distance, and figures could be made out on the low shore in front.
"Ned, Ned, look," whispered Jack excitedly. "It's all over with us."
"Why, what for?"
"Can't you see they are getting out two more canoes?"
"You've got better eyes than I have, sir; I can't see anything."
Jack proved to be right, for soon after a couple of great canoes came through an opening in a line of breakers, and made straight for the one which bore the prisoners.
"It's going to be a close shave, Mr Jack," said Ned at last. "If they get near enough to the land they'll win, because the _Star_ won't dare to follow, but I don't give up yet. Only look here, sir, if matters come to the worst they'll try and kill us, so be on the look-out. You can swim now after those lessons I gave you."