n he gets ready to come
back. While you are gone I'll run down and look at the other islands."

In a few minutes the jolly-boat, with an armed crew at the oars, and
Johnny Harding crouching in the bow, disappeared among the reeds and
bushes that lined the banks of the creek, and Captain Steele, unwilling
to waste an instant of time, filled away to continue his search among
the lower islands. Had he known all that was to happen in that creek
before he saw his boat's crew again, he might not have been in so great
a hurry to leave them.

Jackson and his men wondered why Johnny had come ashore, and if they had
asked him for a reason, the only one he could have offered was that he
desired to be doing something. He believed that the Crusoe men were
concealed in some place where the sloop would not be likely to go, and,
if he took a run about the interior of the island he might, perhaps,
obtain some clue to their whereabouts. Jackson set him ashore, and
continued his voyage of discovery up the creek, and half an hour
afterward came in sight of the tall, raking masts of the Sweepstakes
rising above the bushes. His first impulse was to make the best of his
way back to his vessel and report the matter to the captain, but he knew
that the Storm King was a mile down the bay by that time, and before she
could return to the creek the Crusoe men might be a long distance from
there. They were slippery fellows--they had three times succeeded in
making their escape when Jackson would have staked his chances of
promotion on their capture--and now that he had found their vessel
again, he did not want to lose sight of her. He peered through the
bushes, but could see no signs of life about the schooner. Perhaps her
crew, believing themselves safe from pursuit, had gone to sleep; and, if
that was the case, could he not board the vessel and secure them before
they recovered their wits sufficiently to resist him? Midshipman
Richardson had dared to attack them with a force no larger than the one
now at his command, and had nearly succeeded in capturing Tom Newcombe,
and that, too, when the pirates were wide-awake and ready for him. Was
he afraid to follow in the lead of an inferior officer--a boy scarcely
more than half his size? Jackson told himself that he was not, and that
if he could once get his hands on Tom's collar he would like to see him
escape.

"Give way together," said he, in an excited whisper, "and stand by me,
no matter what ha