el? The girls are
not so bad, with clink of gold in the pocket after a cruise. Wait,
though--there is someone coming down."

I crouched backward into the bushes, and, a moment later, the newcomer
moved past me scarcely a yard distant, along the narrow strip of sand.
He appeared no more than a black shadow, wrapped in a loose cloak,
thus rendered so shapeless as to be scarcely recognizable. Directly
opposite my covert he paused peering forward in uncertainty.

"Estada." He spoke the name cautiously, and in doubt.

"Ay, Captain," and another figure, also shapeless, and ill-defined,
emerged noiselessly from the gloom. "We await you."

"Good," the tone one of relief. "I rather questioned if you caught my
signal. I was watched, and obliged to exercise care. How many have you
here?"

"Four, Senor, with Manuel Estevan."

"Quite sufficient; and how about the others?"

"All safely aboard, Senor; asleep in their bunks by now, but ready.
Francois LeVere has charge of the deck watch."

"Ah! how happens it the quadroon is with you? A good choice, yet that
must mean the _Vengeance_ is still at Porto Grande. For what reason?"

"Because of greater injuries than we supposed, Captain. There were two
shots in her below the water line, and to get at them we were obliged
to beach her. LeVere came with us, expecting this job would be done
before now, for by this time the schooner should be in water again,
her sides scraped clean of barnacles, fit for any cruise. We have been
waiting for you along this coast for several weeks."

"Yes, I know. The boat we intended to take met with an accident, while
the one we did take proved the slowest tub that ever sailed. How is it
here? Are there suspicions?"

"None, Senor. We have cruised outside most of the time. Only once were
we hailed; while Manuel, with a boat crew, was ashore for nearly a
week, picking up such news as he might. There is no warship in these
waters."

"So I discovered on landing; indeed I was told as much in England.
However your disguise is perfect."

Estada laughed.

"There is no mistaking where the _Namur_ came from, Senor; she's
Holland from keel to topmast, but the best sailing Dutchman I ever
saw. You said you were being watched on the sloop. Are you known?"

The other uttered an oath snarling through his teeth.

"'Tis nothing," he explained contemptuously. "No more than the bite of
a harmless snake in the grass. A dog of a servant who came over with
us--on