Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/418

 178 THE CRATER; His hope of hearing from the pirates, in time to be ready to meet them, now depended on his reports from to lee ward. The Neshamony ought soon to be in ; nor could it be long before the Martha would return. The great source of apprehension now came from a suspicion that some of the Kannakas might be acting as pirates, along with Waally. For Waally himself no great distrust was felt, since he had never been allowed to see much of the channels of the group ; but it was very different with the sea-going Kan nakas, who had been employed by the colonists. Some of these men were familiar with all the windings and turnings of the channels, knew how much water could be taken through a passage, and, though not absolutely safe pilots, perhaps, were men who might enable skilful seamen to handle their vessels with tolerable security within the islands. Should it turn out that one or two of these fel lows had undertaken to carry the strangers up to wind ward, and to take them into one of the passages in that quarter of the group, they might be down upon the differ ent fortified points before they were expected, and sweep all before them. It is true, this danger had been in a mea sure foreseen, arid persons had been sent to look out for it ; but it never had appeared so formidable to the governor, as now that he found himself completely at fault where to look for his enemy. At length, a prospect of fresh reports appeared. The Neshamony was seen in the southern board, standing across from the Peak ; and about the same time, the Martha was made out in the south-western, beat ing up from Rancocus Island direct. As the first had been ordered to land, and had also been round by the vol cano, the Anne hauled up for her, the governor being im patient to get her tidings first. In half an hour, the two vessels were alongside of each other. But the Neshamony had very little that was new to tell ! The pirates had re mained on the island but a short time after Bigelow and his companions got away, doing all the damage they could, however, in that brief space. When they left, it was night, arid nothing very certain could be told of their movements. When last seen, however, they were on a wind, and head ing to the southward, a little westerly; which looked like beating up towards the volcano, the trades now blowing