Part 27 (2/2)

When at last Carlos had gone, Robert and I settled down amongst the cocoanut palms just above the beach. We watched land crabs and turtles crawling up on the sand; anon we would look into one another's black faces.

”When do you think the _Orion_ will get here?” said Robert.

”Tomorrow, if the winds are favorable,” I answered; ”or a day or two after, if they're not. Duran will come as fast as he can, of course.”

”Of course,” agreed Robert. ”But I can't make my mind give in to the idea that he will land at that place on the beach that you and Captain Marat marked. There can't be any gold mine about that place. Except those two hills, the map shows nothing but sand and palms, and marshes, and bushes.”

I brought out of my pocket a folded paper on which I had copied from Marat's chart this portion of the coast. I put my fingers on the Twin Hills, near the foot of which we expected Duran would land; for it will be remembered Marat had heard him say as much, that night when Marat and I, in our own boat, had crept up to the _Orion_ in the dark. To the west of the hills was a shallow bay of which the little cove mentioned was a part. To the east and south of the hills lay a greater bay, (not to mention its proper name, we will call it Crow Bay, for it is much the shape of a crow's foot). The neck of land between the two bays was all low, marshy and impenetrable thickets.

”Now,” I said, ”I agree with you that this seems not a proper place--at these hills--to make a start for anything like a gold mine. But is not

that the very reason that Duran makes his landing here? Isn't it, for some reason or other, the most favorable for covering up his trail? And then, too, landing out there on the open beach, he can easily see whether anyone is following him.”

”Yes,” said Robert, ”that must be it. He's just that shrewd. And then, when he sees his crew row back to the _Orion_ and sail away, he knows none of his blacks are following him.”

Darkness had soon spread over everything. And it must have been ten o'clock, when we heard Carlos' whistle. And then at our answer a boat's prow touched the sand of the beach. We had our packs and guns aboard in a minute, and Robert and I, each pulling an oar, we moved, paralleling the beach, to the east. The boat was as light as a canoe, almost, and our progress was rapid.

”I find my friend,” said Carlos, telling of his visit to the city. ”An'

he wonder where I been so long. He say Duran have not come back. But he hear much talk among voodoo about devil-guns--shoot, make no noise. My friend help me find this boat. He buy it for me--eight dollar. The man glad to sell for much money.”

In an hour the moon--now in the last quarter--came out of the sea in front of us. We rowed round the point, into the bay. We pa.s.sed the narrow entrance to the little cove, and made for the east side of the bay, where a bight of the bay pushed in to within a mile and a half of the back of the Twin Hills, as our bit of chart showed us.

We carried our boat above the beach into the bushes, and so made our camp, at midnight.

When the sun rose we were abroad, and soon we had picked our way over to the Twin Hills. They lay some way apart, towered perhaps a hundred feet, and were grown over with brush. We climbed to the top of that nearest the beach. That vantage point gave us a splendid view of the beach and sea.

All that day some of us remained there on the lookout. The _Orion_ did not come. We all three made our beds there that night. Before morning a squall sent us scampering back to our boat, and we escaped a drenching by turning the little vessel bottom up and creeping under.

Another day pa.s.sed on the hill-top, and no _Orion_ came.

”I wonder if he's fooled us again,” said Robert.

”I don't think it,” I answered.

”I think he come,” encouraged Carlos.

I was sleeping soundly when an insistent hand on my shoulder brought me suddenly awake. It was Robert, whose watch was eleven to one.

”They're here,” he said. ”I heard a block rattle.”

Carlos was now up. We could barely make out a dark ma.s.s well out from the beach; the night was very dark in spite of the brilliancy of the stars. We scrambled down the hill, and in a few minutes were in the bushes that fringed the beach.

Not many minutes more pa.s.sed till we heard oars knocking in the tholes.

And then a small boat touched the sand, and a figure stepped out.

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