He saw them haul down the sail, drop the anchor, all four jump into the small boat towing astern, cast off the line and pull for the shore. If discovered, he would surely be murdered, for as well might Frank hope to escape the blood-thirsty jaws of a wild beast, if in its power, as to expect mercy from these cruel, half-civilized, lawless men. With a yell of exultant joy and malignant triumph, Sagasta cried, as he leaped on shore: "It's the Sea Eagle, by all that's lucky! Come on, mates. She's ours now; and no mean prize, either!" The three quickly followed Sagasta's lead, and were soon clambering up the side of the Sea Eagle, like so many overgrown, ill-favored monkeys. But their joy speedily changed to anger and disappointment, when they discovered that the schooner had been already pillaged of everything of value about her. Even the cabin door and windows were gone, and every rope and spar and sail; the cook's galley, hold and forecastle plundered of every article worth carrying off, and an air of general desolation and ruthless ransacking pervaded her from stem to stern. "Somebody's been here afore us!" said the wrecker, with a quick look shorewards. "I don't understand it. Where's her boat? What's become of her captain? If he, or any of his crew, are a-hiding anywhere on the island, I'll soon know it. Let's have a look around, lads, afore we begins work. This way!" He drew his knife from its sheath as he spoke, the others following his example, Sagasta alone of the formidable quartette producing a revolver in addition to his knife; and thus armed, and ready to meet and exterminate any foe who might happen to be near, they separated, Sagasta going around to the southward, Turpie to the north, while Lamberton made for the centre of the island and Montes bestowed all his attention on the reef and its immediate neighborhood. Frank was pale with suspense and fear. If they should find the seaward entrance to the cave, he was lost. Yet they might easily discover the causeway, and even sail through it, and still fail to find the cavern itself. He had found it only by the merest chance. The thought gave him new courage, and he dared to again fix his eyes on the beach and the bit of sea where the wreckers' boat was gracefully rocking on the short land-swells. All four returned in little more than an hour, and sat down under a wild plantain tree, not three feet from Frank's place of concealment. "There's no one on the island, I'm certain of that," said Montes, whose squat, ugly form was so near the loop-hole that it actually darkened Frank's range of vision. "I can't just make it out, but I know this much--that's the Sea Eagle, and she's ours dead sure! We'll get her off to-morrow at flood-tide. There's a bit of a blow in that cloud a-comin' up in the east, but it won't amount to much, so we'll light a fire, get something to eat, and take it easy."