"Nowhere in sight, sir; but they've left the broken canoe as a present for you. It's floating close in to the sands where we made our start the day before yesterday. Lovely morning, sir, but I wish the neighbours hadn't been quite so friendly and wanted to come and see how we were getting on." CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. THE USE OF THE LANCE. Edward was right. There, a few hundred yards from the yacht, and close in shore, lay the great canoe; but not floating, for she was aground, with the water lapping over her, and only the prow and raised stern standing above the surface. Jack had a good look at the vessel through his glass, and then turned to watch the proceedings going on, just as Captain Bradleigh came up to him. "Well, squire!" he cried, "that was a bit of a scare for us." "Yes; it was horrible. But are they quite gone?" "We can't make out any signs of them from the mast-head; but as they know we're here, they may set over their fright and come back." "Why, we're steaming," said Jack in surprise. "We are, my lad. This is just the time when steam is useful; it helps me to run back gently to our old moorings; and as soon as Sir John comes up, I'm going to propose that we take a run right round the island from outside the reef, so as to make sure that the blacks have no village here." Directly after that the yacht hooked up the tub which buoyed the cable, and they swung in their old moorings. "Now then," said the captain, "I'm going to have a look at that canoe; will you come with me?" "Of course," cried Jack. "Get your gun and cartridges then. It will not do to go unarmed anywhere now we have found that there is an enemy." Jack fetched his double gun, wondering whether he would ever have occasion to use it, and on returning to the deck he found the captain examining the stem of the cutter, now hanging from the davits. "Look here, Squire Meadows," he said, "this is a specimen of the value of good things. Now if this had been a common, cheaply-made boat her planks would have been started, and a lot of carpenter's work wanted before she would have been any use. As it is, she will want a bit of varnish there, and a few taps of the hammer where the copper covers the front of the keel. You came a pretty good crash into that canoe, I suppose?" "I was not in the boat; but they seemed to." "I suppose so. Well, come and jump in." He led the way to where Lenny was seated in the dinghy, and they stepped down, and were rowed by the man toward the submerged canoe. "Keep a sharp look-out along the edge of the trees," said the captain quietly. "I don't think any one can have landed; but there is no harm in being safe." Jack began sweeping the green edge just beyond the golden sands, but his attention was taken off by the captain as they approached the canoe. "Look at the brutes," he said, pointing. "Half-a-dozen of them under her." Jack looked at him in horror. "There, you can see their dusky bodies against the sand."