"Good! And did you tell them who you were, and why you wanted
gasoline?"
"No. I only said our automobeel was broke down, an' we wanted the
baseball scores. That was all. They ast who was we. I said you was
John Doe--you see, I didn't want to tell your real name, so I didn't
say Black Bart."
"And you didn't mention our boat?"
"Of course not! Whose business is it what pirates does? They strike
hardest when least expected. To-night we can run in an' rob the store,
easy."
"Jean!" I cried, horrified, "what do you mean? Let me hear no more
such talk, or by my halidom! back you go to your home by first train.
I'll not be responsible for the ruin of any boy's morals in this way."
"Well what do you think about that, Jimmy!" said Jean, somewhat cast
down and much mystified. "Ain't we pirates, an' don't pirates live on
booty?"
"Booty enough you have in your boat, Jean," said I, "and let us get it
aboard and in our tanks, for to-night we sail."
"For to rob the store?" anxiously.
"No, once more for the Spanish Main, my hearties! I seek a greater
treasure; and plenty of danger, believe me, lies between here and
there."
"When'll we start?" queried L'Olonnois eagerly.
"To-night, at six bells. Make all ready," was my reply.
And that very night, with our search-light half covered, and at slow
speed and with the sounding lead going, Peterson felt his way out from
our moorings and along the full length of Henry's Bayou, silently as
he might. We saw few signs of life beyond now and then a distant light
in some negro cabin, and with all the lights doused we swept by like a
ghost in the night, along the front of the plantation at whose store
my men had got their gasoline. At last we broke open the lower end of
the bayou, which, coming in from the main stream in a long open reach,
showed like a lane of faint light in the forest; and to my great
relief presently, felt the current of the great stream pick us up,
and saw the channel lights ahead, so that we knew we might for a time,
at least, advance in safety.
In all this work, my two faithful lieutenants were awake and alert;
but I saw nothing of Helena that day, nor had message either from her
or her aunt in the full round of twenty-four hours since last we met.
Had she sought deliberately to repay me for the grief I caused her,
Helena could have devised no better plan than her silence and her
absence from my sight, after what time I had seen her weep.