Keeping Alie and Janet by my side I descended to the boat allotted to us and we took our seats in the stern. By the time we had pulled to a distance of about a hundred yards, the deck of the yacht was level with the water. Five minutes later the gallant but ill-fated Lone Star tipped up on end, gave a sullen plunge, and disappeared beneath the waves to be no more seen by mortal man. I slipped my arm round Alie's waist and drew her closer to my side. She was trembling violently.
"Be brave, dear love," I whispered. "For all our sakes, be brave."
She turned her head in the direction where the poor yacht had disappeared and said, almost under her breath:
"Good-bye, Lone Star, good-bye."
Then she stooped forward and buried her face in her hands.
To divert her thoughts, I turned to the boat nearest us, which was commanded by Patterson, and asked what he thought we had better do.
"Sail up the coast as fast as we can," he answered. "My boat will take the lead, the rest had better follow in single file. If this wind holds we shall fetch the settlement, or be somewhere thereabouts, by daybreak."
The wind did hold and we did make the settlement by the time he specified. Then passing behind the great doors which, as I have said before, concealed the entrance to the canal so cleverly that even from the close distance of a mile I had not been able to detect where the imitation began and the real cliff ended, we pulled inside. Then, to cheer us, standing before them all, I unbared my head, and cried, perhaps a trifle theatrically:
