“When we saw you had gone up the river, I was sure you were all aboard. I knew you’d find nothing up the river, and I thought we should have time to get down to Wild Cat Island before it was quite dark. I thought you’d be going back there at once. But I never thought of your leaving a shore party and going up the river simply to trick us into our own trap. It really was a great plan.”
“But it wasn’t a plan, really,” said Captain John. “At least I never thought of it. But what were you going to do?”
“Well, it worked, anyhow,” said Captain Nancy. “Our plan was very simple. We were going to sail to Wild Cat Island. My mate was to put me ashore there and sail on and wait in the next bay. I was going to hide, and then, when you came back and went to the camp, I was going to collar Swallow and go off to look for Peggy and the rest of the fleet.”
“What did happen?” said Susan.
“It took us much longer to get here than I had thought it would. It got dark so quickly, and we had a horrible time getting through the islands. And then, when we saw your lantern …”
“Lighthouse,” said Titty.
“We thought you’d got back before us. Then we saw a light moving on the island.”
“That was my torch,” said Titty.
“And we thought we’d sail on and wait somewhere till dawn. Then we saw the two lights, and I guessed at once that they were on the marks. So I came in under oars to tell you about tomorrow. Then we went to the camp and found nobody. Then we shouted a bit, and came back to the harbour, and there was no Amazon . Titty did her part awfully well.”
“Then what did you do?” asked Susan.