g read over to the
two seamen the first draft, and obtained their unqualified approval of
it, he at once proceeded to make the two additional copies. All three
were then duly signed, Flora also attaching her signature as a witness,
and the transaction was thereupon completed.

"Now," said Dick, "that bit of business being arranged, I should like to
take the cutter round to a little cove at no great distance from the
cave where my valuables are concealed, and get them aboard her at once,
before her decks are hampered up with gear and what not; we will
therefore get the catamaran under way, and tow her round. We can leave
the catamaran in the cove also, and walk back by way of change.
Moreover, it will afford us the opportunity to stretch our legs a bit;
we shall not get very much more walking exercise now until we arrive in
England."

As the three men were wending their way down to the beach, Leslie's eyes
happened to fall upon the case of rifle and revolver ammunition from
which he had been drawing his supplies. It was the only case of
ammunition that he possessed; and now, with a sudden fear that in the
hurry of departure it might be forgotten, he said to Nicholls--

"See here, Nicholls, we might just as well be carrying something with us
as go down to the catamaran empty-handed. If you and Simpson will lay
hold of that case of ammunition, I will bring along half a dozen rifles,
and we shall then be quite as well armed as there will be any need for
us to be. We may not want them, but, on the other hand, we _may_, and
if we should happen to want them at all, we shall probably want them
very badly."

Upon taking the cutter in tow it was found that she towed very lightly,
offering only a trifling resistance to the catamaran after both had
fairly got way upon them; and in little more than half an hour both
craft were off the entrance to the cove. Yet so cunningly had Nature
concealed it that though Leslie knew almost to an inch where to look for
it, he had the utmost difficulty in finding it, and had he not possessed
a personal knowledge of its existence, and therefore persisted in his
search, he would never have found it. But, after passing the opening no
less than four times without being able to find it, he managed to hit it
off at his fifth attempt, and, ten minutes later, both craft were inside
and snugly moored to the rocky side of the basin, the catamaran being
placed innermost to protect the dainty, fres