There were some twenty men running hither and thither
about the deck, pulling and hauling on ropes.
A light land breeze was blowing, and the ship had been
worked through the harbor's mouth under scant sail, but now that
they had cleared the point every available shred of canvas was
being spread that she might stand out to sea as handily as possible.
Tarzan watched the graceful movements of the ship in rapt
admiration, and longed to be aboard her. Presently his keen
eyes caught the faintest suspicion of smoke on the far northern
horizon, and he wondered over the cause of such a thing
out on the great water.
About the same time the look-out on the Arrow must have
discerned it, for in a few minutes Tarzan saw the sails being
shifted and shortened. The ship came about, and presently he
knew that she was beating back toward land.
A man at the bows was constantly heaving into the sea a
rope to the end of which a small object was fastened. Tarzan
wondered what the purpose of this action might be.
At last the ship came up directly into the wind; the anchor
was lowered; down came the sails. There was great scurrying
about on deck.
A boat was lowered, and in it a great chest was placed.
Then a dozen sailors bent to the oars and pulled rapidly
toward the point where Tarzan crouched in the branches of a tree.
In the stern of the boat, as it drew nearer, Tarzan saw the
rat-faced man.
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