x, who had been alone so long, and who
craved so much the companionship of his kind.

He drew yet deeper into the undergrowth and taking the rifle out of the
hollow of his arm held it in both hands, ready for instant use. The men
came nearer, looking along the edge of the forest, perhaps for water,
and, as he saw them better, he liked them less. The apparent leader was
a short, broad fellow of middle years, and sinister face, with huge gold
rings in his ears. All of them were seamed and scarred and to Robert
their looks were distinctly evil.

The door of welcome suddenly shut with a snap, and he meant to bar it on
the inside if he could. His instinct gave him an insistent warning.
These men must not penetrate the forest. They must not find his house
and treasures. Fortunately the dinghy was up the creek, hidden under
overhanging boughs. But the event depended upon chance. If they found
quickly the water for which they must be looking, they might take it and
leave with the schooner before morning. He devoutly hoped that it would
be so. The lad who had been so lonely and desolate an hour or two
before, longing for the arrival of human beings, was equally eager, now
that they had come, that they should go away.

The men began to talk in some foreign tongue, Spanish or Portuguese or a
Levantine jargon, perhaps, and searched assiduously along the edges of
the forest. Robert, lurking in the undergrowth, caught the word "aqua"
or "agua," which he knew meant water, and so he was right in his surmise
about their errand. There was a fine spring about two hundred yards
farther on, and he hoped they would soon stumble upon it.

All his skill as a trailer, though disused now for many months, came
back to him. He was able to steal through the grass and bushes without
making any noise and to creep near enough to hear the words they said.
They went half way to the spring, then stopped and began to talk. Robert
was in fear lest they turn back, and a wider search elsewhere would
surely take them to his house. But the men were now using English.

"There should be water ahead," said the swart leader. "We're going down
into a dip, and that's just the place where springs are found."

Another man, also short and dark, urged that they turn back, but the
leader prevailed.

"There must be water farther on," he said. "I was never on this island
before, neither were you, Jose, but it's not likely the trees and bushes
would grow so thick dow