Dave went with them, of course, for he was thoroughly familiar with that section of the coast. Each was armed with a revolver and a belt of cartridges, but orders were given that there should be no shooting except in self-defense or as a last desperate resort to make "the gang"

deliver up their prisoner.

They landed on a little gra.s.s-covered peninsula about a hundred yards from the cove, and immediately began to look around them for good station points to observe the movements of "the enemy." The ground in that locality was somewhat higher than the surrounding expanses, and therefore less swampy; but there were numerous little zigzag ditches or watercourses in which the tide rose until it overflowed the banks.

"We'd better not linger here," said Norton.

"When the tide comes in, this little point of land will be under water."

"No, no," said Dave, shaking his head. "Safe here---see!" He pointed to the dry gra.s.s blades on which were no traces of brine. "You stay here. Me and Billy go get canoe."

"Canoe? Where can you get one?"

Again Dave pointed, this time to a group of three ramshackle cabins just visible through the bushes. In one of those cabins Hugh was even then a prisoner. Had Dave or Billy known this, they would not have hesitated to swim to the place, if need be to say nothing of the difficulty of going there and "borrowing" a canoe, in which they all could approach the smugglers' headquarters.

Dave explained that the cabins on the cove were called "Durgan's settlement," and that the place bore a bad reputation. He added that to his certain knowledge the revenue men had intended for some time past to raid the place, and that they had waited only for more proof that the smugglers foregathered there.

Having a.s.sured the others that he and Billy would soon return with some kind of a canoe or boat, Dave set forth, accompanied by Hugh's chum. The others, separating, took up their positions where they were concealed by the long gra.s.s, but where they had a good view of the islands and straits, the cove, and the three cabins.

They were now pickets on duty.

CHAPTER VII

A GATHERING OF THE CLAN

"If there are any of the gang around here, where on earth are they?"

The question came in a whisper from Billy, as he and the Seminole pursued their way cautiously along the edge of a watercourse, in the direction of the cabins. Bending forward, sometimes crawling on hands and knees, they advanced---an inch at every step, it seemed to impatient Billy.

"Do you think they're hiding near here?" he asked, and Dave shook his turbaned head.

"Gone 'way," was his answer. "Boat come back to-night, mebbe so."

"Boat? What boat?"

"_Esperanza_."

"Oh! Then you think they'll try to leave this part of the coast soon?"

"Dunno. Wait. We see, we tell _Petrel_."

There was nothing else to do, so Billy curbed his eagerness to learn the present whereabouts of the smugglers and crawled forward in silence. Once he drew back with a gasp of horror as a large moccasin snake darted across his path; but seeing the loathsome creature glide away to a safe distance, he went on, following the guide.

Nevertheless, a chill ran down his spine when he thought how narrowly he had escaped stumbling full tilt upon the reptile, which, unlike the rattlesnake, never gives warning of its presence.

When they had traversed the stretch of marsh between the peninsula and the cove, alternately walking on soft springy ground above a bed of coralline limestone and wading knee-deep along the watercourse, they emerged upon the left bank of the cove. The two smaller cabins were not more than twenty paces distant, and between them was a plank bridge rudely built in the form of a trestle. Dave and Billy approached this bridge.

Suddenly they stopped short and crouched in the high gra.s.s. Plainly to their ears came the shrill barking of a dog.

Dave expressed his feelings in one round oath, which, being uttered in his native dialect, sounded to Billy "Like gargling the throat."

It needed no expletives to inform Billy that the dog's appearance on the scene of action was certain to cause trouble.

"Ketch um dog, choke um!" said Dave, looking about him to see if the barking had brought anyone to the place.

"Where is the cur?" Billy asked.

"Don't see um," replied the Seminole. He straightened up until his head was above the top of the gra.s.s. "A-ah!" he exclaimed in a guttural tone. "Man in sailboat yonder."

Impulsively Billy scrambled to a kneeling position, and his gaze followed Dave's. The two spies then beheld the figure of a man seated in the stern of a dug-out canoe that carried a mast and sail and was coming around the bend of a stream.

"If he sees us-----" began Billy.

"S-s-sh!" Dave interrupted warningly. "Wait, see where he go."

"Is the dog barking at us or at him? What d'you think, Dave?"

"At us," was the answer. "Man come, let dog loose,---we better go back! Incah!"

"No," said Billy firmly. "Dog or no dog, I'm not going back till I've found out where they've hidden Hugh!"

If Billy had only known that Hugh was locked in that further cabin!

If Hugh had only been able to communicate with his friends on picket duty! How much trouble would have been avoided,---yet what an adventure they would have missed!

Dave now explained to Billy that his purpose had been to purloin the sailing canoe, so that the smugglers on sh.o.r.e would be dependent on a boat from the _Esperanza_ to take them and their goods away.

This would enable the crew of the _Petrel_ to intercept the smugglers as soon as they landed. But now, with the appearance of this man in the canoe, Dave's plan seemed about to be thwarted.

Meanwhile, what of the others who remained on the peninsula?

More than an hour pa.s.sed before any one saw a suspicious figure on the landscape. Then Alec, whose post was farthest removed from the landing place, suddenly caught sight of two men walking along the sh.o.r.e. They were carrying the same battered tin box which he and Billy had found half buried in the sand, many hours ago. Evidently the box was heavy, for they appeared to stagger with its weight.

Alec raised his voice in the weird, low call of the otter. As his patrol was named after that animal, he knew that Chester, also of the Otter patrol, would recognize the signal. In this case it meant "Danger. Look around you."

From a distance, hidden behind a clump of palmettos, Chet responded with the same call twice, in quick succession.

But the men carrying the box heard the calls. They knew it was still too early in the afternoon for otters to be hunting so noisily, and they were surprised, startled, suspicious. To Alec's dismay, they dropped the box, stood still, and stared all around them. Alec lay flat on the ground, trusting that his khaki suit and brown flannel shirt would help him to escape observation. At the same time he dread lest one of the other pickets would be seen too soon.

The two men, after gazing out to sea as if expecting to sight a vessel on the horizon, picked up the box and came on again. Every step brought them nearer Alec, who of course had been told to allow all strangers to pa.s.s unchallenged---until to-morrow.

"Hark!" said one of the men, listening. "That's Rover barking!"

"He barks at nothing!" declared the other. "Eet is a fool dawg, zat Rover! I know heem, yes."

"You haven't as much sense as that 'fool dawg,' Max!" retorted the first speaker, who was none other than the swarthy ruffian, Harry Mole. "Somethin's going on over there at the settlement or the dog wouldn't bark. Come on, hurry; Branks may need us."