Page:Anderson--Isle of seven moons.djvu/398

386 "Better give up the chase, Sally," said the Captain.

"No, let's stick till noon, then sail, homeward bound," she replied.

With that, the smoke-avalanche weakened a little, and under the uplifted dark curtain, as they anchored off the Cape of the Solitary Palm, for a brief hour the island became its old living green self again.

From the deck the longboat sank to the waves. Into it tumbled the Captain and Ben, Benson and Jack Beam, and with six sturdy tars as oarsmen, they swung through the galloping white-toothed squadrons of breakers, and ran her up on shore.

But even as they vanished into the thicket, two standing guard by the boat, the dark mists descended, the sun turning to the colour of coagulated blood again.

During the eventful day of her captivity, well had Sally kept her head, and she had a natural sense of location, so her directions this morning had been fair enough. Following these, the searchers headed on an angle through the woods for South Bay.

But so dense was the gloom of the forest under the canopy of cloud, so intricate the tangle of roots and vines and sharp branches, that three hours of cautious scouting and constant reference to the compass passed before they discovered the first sign.

It must have been high noon when Ben, ahead and a little to the right of the rest, saw a flame flickering between the greenish black boles that buttressed the saucer-shaped glen.

They deployed. Over the rim of the saucer and through