Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/91

Rh "and then I give you knife to keep. Go away now. I send for you bimeby."

For the next few hours they could only wait with all the patience they could muster. The night proved to be perfect for their purpose. The wind was now blowing strongly, straight toward the reef from where the schooner lay, and the dwindling moon was obscured by heavy clouds. Keith's chief fear was that he might not reach the reef in the darkness.

It was two hours after midnight when the whale-boat was pushed off the beach. Keith did not consider it necessary to have the oars muffled, as the wind would carry any slight noise they made away from those on the schooner. The blacks pulled for over half an hour before Keith stopped them and listened intently. Presently he distinguished the swish of the waves as they hit the reef away to the right. Steering was largely guess-work in the darkness, and at any moment a jagged peak might pierce the bottom of their craft. They were, however, under the lee of the reef, and fortune favoured them, for presently the bows ran on the short, shelving beach. It had been arranged that Peter Pan was to swim back to the reef after severing the schooner's cable, and then, if he did not readily find the whale-boat he was to call until Keith answered.

The black glided away into the darkness, crossed