e hull, and emboldened by the fact
that the man who had brought the line aft was now well forward,
Trask stepped to the bulwark and looked over the side.

At first he could see nothing in the blackness below, but a new
flurry of rain came, and the drops striking the water hissingly
made it slightly luminous, outlining a dark, formless mass close to
the side of the schooner. It moved forward slowly, its progress
coincident with the movement of the man going along the rail. Trask
could see his head and shoulders against the fog-like sheen of the
water over the bows.

At once the whole affair was made plain to Trask. The dinghy, which
had been lowered from the after davits when the _Nuestra_ anchored,
was being stolen! The crew were pulling it forward by the line
which the man had taken aft, and this man was keeping the boat
clear of the schooner's side. The line evidently had been made fast
to the dinghy's painter.

Here, indeed, was something which gave every appearance of being
underhand work. With the Golden Isle only a few hundred yards
distant, and all hands to go ashore in the morning, there could be
no other reason for stealing the dinghy than a plan to visit the
island under cover of darkness. The plan foreshadowed treachery.
The crew sought some knowledge which they wanted before the other
members of the expedition could be aware of conditions on the
island.

Trask saw at once the purpose of the crew, although he had no way
of knowing how they intended to gain any advantage to themselves
unless they contemplated abandoning the _Nuestra_, or destroying it
and those remaining aboard. He had no doubt the scheme was to learn
whether or not there was gold, and so to act, in the event they
found it in great quantities, that they would be assured of having
it for themselves.

It was a wild idea, this going out in the night to hunt gold. But
it was plain that the cupidity of the crew had been aroused by the
prospect of a shining, yellow beach. But what was to Trask far more
important, and fraught with danger to Marjorie, Locke, Dinshaw,
Jarrow, and himself, was the knowledge that Peth, if not the leader
of the enterprise, at least must be aware of what was taking place.

The rain came on now with steady, monotonous force, turning the sea
into a boiling cauldron. Trask, drenched in the first minutes of
the downpour, remained where he was, crouching under the bulwark
with his head high enough to get the bulwark fo