At midnight the three watchers put on the bathing-suits which were supplied by Maxwell Kane, and then seated themselves again on the after-deck, to await developments.

“What I want to know is, how are we going to carry any guns with us, with this rig?” asked Kane, as they seated themselves, and Nick asked Chick if he had supplied himself with weapons.

“I think that two apiece will be sufficient,” replied Nick, “and you can easily carry them.”

“But how?”

“In a belt around your body. See? Here is mine,” and he lifted his belt from another chair. “I shall buckle that around me before we go into the water.”

“But they will get wet.”

“Sure.”

“Won’t they be useless after that?”

“Hardly. Get yours, and I will load them for you with my cartridges. You could soak them in water for a week, and they would do their work just as well after that.”

For an hour and a half they talked upon random subjects, but all the time the keen eyes of the detective never wandered from the water of the cove. He had[75] brought his watch on deck with him, and from time to time he glanced at it.

“It is two o’clock,” he announced, after an unusually long silence between them. “I think we will make a move now, if you are ready.”

“Ready,” they each replied.

“Are you a good swimmer, Max?” asked Nick.

“The best that ever was,” was the reply.

“All right. I’m going to take the lead in this affair. Chick will follow me, and you will follow behind him.”

“All right. Where——”

“You will take your cues from Chick. Whatever you see him do, you will copy without delay. Understand that?”

“Yes; it’s plain enough. Where——”

“If he dives, you are to dive, and you are to follow him under the water wherever he goes. No matter what he does, you do it, too.”

“I will. Now, confound it, tell me where you are going?”

“To the Aurora.”

“You haven’t seen any sign of the pirate, have you? I haven’t.”

“No.”

“Then what makes you so certain that the Aurora is the place to go?”

“I think, from what you have said, that she is the yacht which will be the object of attack, if an attack is made; but, anyhow, her position is much better than ours. She is farther out and she lies so that she will[76] be first in line for attack, even if the pirate has no direct information about her.”

“But the watch will see us come aboard, and there will be the devil to pay.”

“I have just told you that you are to do as Chick and I do; however, I may as well tell you that I am not going aboard of her.”

“Oh! You are not?”

“Max, there is only one way to capture this pirate and his ship as well, if he does enter this harbor to-night, and that is to go aboard of the Shadow.”

“I’m onto that, all right.”

“I shall, therefore, not make the slightest effort to prevent him and his men from looting the Aurora from stem to stern, if they care to do so. It will be while they are up to that trick, or one like it, that we will get in our fine work.”

“You might as well tell me something about what that will be before we take to the water. I will be all the better able to obey orders in that case.”

“Very well; listen.”

“I’m listening.”

“We will swim out to the Aurora. When we get within a reasonable distance from her, we will dive, and not come to the surface again until we are under her chains. In that way we will avoid observation from her deck.”

“Sure.”

“Fortunately, it is a warm night, and the water is[77] quite warm, also, but I don’t think it will be necessary for us to remain in the water all the time.”

“Thank goodness for that.”

“A yacht like the Aurora is not very well guarded when she is at anchor in a place of this kind.”

“Huh! I know that only too well.”

“Fortunately, the tide is coming in, and her bow points toward the open Sound. It will be high and slack in a couple of hours, so under her bow will be the best vantage ground for us, and it will be the least-guarded part of the yacht.”

“I know that. You mean to get aboard of her, don’t you, and to keep watch from there?”

“If it is practicable, yes.”

The detective buckled his belt around him, and then let himself carefully down over the side into the water. His companions d............