wouldn't be minded to be so careful, not looking
for anybody to be after them this early."

The captain and I kept close together, sneaking along with our pistols
cocked, quiet as possible. Rajah brought up the rear, and in this
formation we marched along, alert for danger. At times the rustle of a
bush in the breeze put us on our guard, and we crouched down with muscles
tense and pistols raised; or the flutter of a bird over our heads, or the
shrilling of an insect, or the creak of a tree sounded an alarm which
would delay us. But Rajah's sense of hearing was very keen, and whenever
we stopped from such sounds he would grin at us and push on ahead. We
trusted a great deal to his woodcraft, for he was at home in the jungle.

Riggs was a few yards ahead of me when I saw him stop abruptly and motion
me forward with a gesture of caution. He pointed through the bushes, and
as I crept up I saw a white patch through a tangle of green leaves.

"It's a boat," he whispered. "It's here they made their landing and we'll
have to go slow now. Maybe Buckrow or some of the others are about,
sleeping or keeping watch."

We crawled up carefully, letting Rajah go ahead to scout. We found both
boats hidden in a patch of _colgon_ grass, screened from the sea by a
rank growth of vines and young bamboo. The boats were covered with
freshly cut palm-leaves and a litter of dead, dry vines pulled from an
uprooted tree. There was a little inlet running right up into the jungle,
so the pirates had had little trouble in getting the boats ashore, using
a block and tackle on a convenient cocoanut-palm.

The grass and bamboo thicket were well trampled, and we could see the
marks in the moist ground where the sacks of gold had been piled. One of
the sacks had evidently burst, for we picked up several gold coins in the
mud, and found a sail-needle in a loop of twine where they had repaired
the sack.

"Now," whispered Riggs, when we were sure none of the pirates was lurking
about, "we'll take the plugs out of the boats and hide them and the
oars, and take a look around to see where our lads have gone. It's no
easy job to go very far with that gold, and they won't hurt themselves
with work, knowing they have plenty of time and thinking there is nobody
to be after them."

We took the oars and boat-plugs quite a distance away up the beach and
buried them in the sand opposite a tree of peculiar formation, and then
began to skirt the territory around t