The figure sat up and looked about.It was Ward.Slowly be arose and approached the pile of salvage.Theriere drew his revolver, holding it in readiness for an emergency.Should the first mate look in the direction of Barbara Harding's shelter he must certainly see the four figures waiting there in the moonlight.Theriere turned his own head in the direction of the shelter that he might see how plainly the men there were visible.To his delight he saw that no one was in sight.
Either they had seen Ward, or for the sake of greater safety from detection had moved to the opposite side of the shelter.
Ward was quite close to the boxes upon the other side of which crouched the night raiders.Theriere's finger found the trigger of his revolver.He was convinced that the mate had been disturbed by the movement in camp and was investigating.
The Frenchman knew that the search would not end upon the opposite side of the salvage--in a moment Ward would be upon them.He was sorry--not for Ward, but because he had planned to carry the work out quietly and he hated to have to muss things up with a killing, especially on Barbara's account.
Ward stopped at one of the water casks.He tipped it up, filling a tin cup with water, took a long drink, set the cup back on top of the cask, and, turning, retraced his steps to his blanket.Theriere could have hugged himself.The man had suspected nothing.He merely had been thirsty and come over for a drink--in another moment he would be fast asleep once more.Sure enough, before Byrne returned with Miller and Swenson, Theriere could bear the snores of the first mate.
On the first trip to the cliff top eight men carried heavy burdens, Divine alone remaining to guard Barbara Harding.
The second trip was made with equal dispatch and safety.No sound or movement came from the camp of the enemy, other than that of sleeping men.On the second trip Divine and Theriere each carried a burden up the cliffs, Miller and Swenson following with Barbara Harding, and as they came Oda Yorimoto and his samurai slunk back into the shadows that their prey might pass unobserving.
Theriere had the bulk of the loot hidden in a rocky crevice just beyond the cliff's summit.Brush torn from the mass of luxuriant tropical vegetation that covered the ground was strewn over the cache.All had been accomplished in safety and without detection.The camp beneath them still lay wrapped in silence.
The march toward the new camp, under the guidance of Divine, was immediately undertaken.On the return trip after the search for water Divine had discovered a well-marked trail along the edge of the cliffs to a point opposite the spring, and another leading from the main trail directly to the water.In his ignorance he had thought these the runways of animals, whereas they were the age-old highways of the head-hunters.
Now they presented a comparatively quick and easy approach to the destination of the mutineers, but so narrow a one as soon to convince Theriere that it was not feasible for him to move back and forth along the flank of his column.
He had tried it once, but it so greatly inconvenienced and retarded the heavily laden men that he abandoned the effort, remaining near the center of the cavalcade until the new camp was reached.
Here he found a fair-sized space about a clear and plentiful spring of cold water.Only a few low bushes dotted the grassy clearing which was almost completely surrounded by dense and impenetrable jungle.The men had deposited their burdens, and still Theriere stood waiting for the balance of his party--Miller and Swenson with Barbara Harding.
But they did not come, and when, in alarm, the entire party started back in search of them they retraced their steps to the very brink of the declivity leading to the cove before they could believe the testimony of their own perceptions--Barbara Harding and the two sailors had disappeared.
