om the surrounding
gloom and rapidly increase until it assumed the proportions of a
large bonfire.

The outlaws were carrying out the first part of their plan, which was
to attract the revenue men away from the vicinity of the cabins while
they effected a loading of their munitions or other contraband goods
upon the _Esperanza's_ boat. They counted on the probability that the
revenue men would hasten to put out the fire on the coast---which was
quite a little distance from the cabins---and would be unaware of
other operations at the same time.

But in this scheme they reckoned without their pursuers; for the crew
of the _Petrel_---even now hurrying to the scene of action---had
received information of this very ruse, and had decided to ignore it
and to make directly for Durgan's Cove.

Not knowing that the _Arrow_ was lying near, or that the dozen men
from the fort, with the scout pickets, were already on the scene,
those energetic seamen of the _Petrel_ were bending every effort to
reach the smugglers' headquarters on time.

Captain Bego, of the _Esperanza_, however, knew that the _Petrel_
was on his trail, and he was all the more anxious to make "a getaway
with the goods."

The bonfire, instead of dying down at last, seemed to rise higher
and higher, casting a lurid glow over the marshes and streams, and
even upon the dark waters of the ocean. Made of driftwood, bundles
of dried saw-grass and withered cypress boughs---industriously piled
on by Max, the half-breed, who had been sent there for that very
purpose---it blazed merrily, and a shower of sparks swirled around it,
veering toward the cabins. To all appearances, the three cabins
seemed doomed to take fire; in which case nothing could save them or
their contents.

The soldiers from the fort and Dave had disappeared into the darkness
of the deeper shadows.

Eager to see the fire and to find out what was going on in that
vicinity, Billy, Alec, and Roy Norton crept forth from their hiding
place and approached the glowing beacon.

For the most part, they followed the bank of a creek or inlet which,
like all its fellows, wound and zig-zagged through the springy turf
of the marsh. This particular waterway reflected the glow of the
bonfire more brightly than the others, from which fact they deduced
that it would be the most direct path.

On getting nearer, the hum of human voices showed them that a number
of men had assembled, some of whom were engaged in