Page:The House On The Cliff.pdf/135

Rh The rattle of oars continued and at last the boys could see the dim shape of the boat through the gloom. Finally they could distinguish the words of the dark figures in the craft. At a sign from Frank Tony cut off the engine for the time being.

But they could not make out complete sentences. The wind would whisk toward them a fragment of speech and then the rest of the words would be drowned.

"—three hundred pounds—" they heard a harsh voice saying, and then the rest of the sentence was lost.

A dull murmur of voices. Finally—

"I don't know. It's risky—"

The wind died for a moment and then through the gloom the boys saw that the rowboat was heading directly in toward the face of the cliff. It was not many yards away and as it passed by they heard the harsh voice again.

"Li Chang's share—" he was saying.

"No, we mustn't forget that," they heard a gruff voice reply.

"I hope they get away all right."

"What are you worrying about? Of course they'll get away."

"We've been watched, you know."

"It's all your imagination. Nobody suspects."

"Those boys at the house—"