Sharp.
The suggestion was a good one; but Paul was afraid the noise in the water
might reach the Arabs, and expose the party to their fire, as the utmost
distance between the reef and the inner bank at that particular spot did
not exceed a hundred fathoms. At length another puff of air from the land
pressed upon their sails, and the water once more rippled beneath the
bows of the boat. Paul's heart beat hard, and as he managed the
tiller-lines, he strained his eyes uselessly in order to penetrate the
massive-looking darkness.
"Surely," he said to Mr. Sharp, who stood constantly at his elbow, "these
cries are directly ahead of us! We are steering for the Arabs!"
"We have got wrong in the dark then. Lose not a moment to keep the boat
away, for here to leeward there are noises."
As all this was self-evident, though confused in his reckoning, Paul put
up the helm, and the boat fell off nearly dead before the wind. Her motion
being now comparatively rapid, a few minutes produced an obvious change in
the direction of the different groups of clamorous Arabs, though they also
brought a material lessening in the force of the air.
"I have it!" said Paul, grasping his companion almost convulsively by the
arm. "We are at the inlet, and heading, I trust, directly through it! You
hear the cries on our right; they come from the end of the northern reef,
while these on our left are from the end of the southern.
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