Without a moment’s hesitation Martin slid over the gunwale into the sea, and, just as the pirate boats grappled with those of the barque, he and Barney found themselves gliding as silently as otters towards the shore.  So quietly had the manoeuvre been accomplished, that the men in their own boat were ignorant of their absence.  In a few minutes they were beyond the chance of detection.

“Keep close to me, lad,” whispered the Irishman.  “If we separate in the darkness we’ll niver forgather again.  Catch hould o; my shoulder if ye get blowed, and splutter as much as ye like.  They can’t hear us now, and it’ll help to frighten the sharks.”

“All right,” replied Martin; “I can swim like a cork in such warm water as this.  Just go a little slower and I’ll do famously.”

Thus encouraging each other, and keeping close together, lest they should get separated in the thick darkness of the night, the two friends struck out bravely for the shore.

CHAPTER VII

MARTIN AND BARNEY GET LOST IN A GREAT FOREST, WHERE THEY SEE STRANGE AND TERRIBLE THINGS

On gaining the beach, the first thing that Barney did, after shaking himself like a huge Newfoundland dog, was to ascertain that his pistol and cutlass were safe; for, although the former could be of no use in its present condition, still, as he sagaciously remarked, “it was a good thing to have, for they might chance to git powder wan day or other, and the flint would make fire, anyhow.”  Fortunately the weather was extremely warm; so they were enabled to take off and wring their clothes without much inconvenience, except that in a short time a few adventurous mosquitoes—­probably sea-faring ones—­came down out of the woods and attacked their bare bodies so vigorously that they were fain to hurry on their clothes again before they were quite dry.

The clouds began to clear away soon after they landed, and the brilliant light of the southern constellations revealed to them dimly the appearance of the coast.  It was a low sandy beach skirting the sea and extending back for about a quarter of a mile in the form of a grassy plain, dotted here and there with scrubby underwood.  Beyond this was a dark line of forest.  The light was not sufficient to enable them to ascertain the appearance of the interior.  Barney and Martin now cast about in their minds how they were to spend the night.

“Ye see,” said the Irishman, “it’s of no use goin’ to look for houses, because there’s maybe none at all on this coast; an’ there’s no sayin’ but we may fall in with savages—­for them parts swarms with them; so we’d better go into the woods an’—­”

Barney was interrupted here by a low howl, which proceeded from the woods referred to, and was most unlike any cry they had ever heard before.

“Och, but I’ll think better of it.  P’raps it’ll be as well not to go into the woods, but to camp where we are.”