“Here I am!” piped up Jesse W. himself, “and you’ll find that I am pretty wide awake.”

The boys picked up their coats, and put them on, and the man muttered, his eyes opening wider every moment: 

“Huh! that was a neat trick!  Then the boy was not there at all?”

“No, he was on his way for help,” said Jack.  “Never judge too much by appearances.  Still, I am glad you did this time.”

The boys and their friends now left the house, the man being taken a short distance to prevent his giving the alarm, although the natives had already scattered in many directions at the coming of Ben, Buck and the boys.

“Young Smith got to us all right,” said Harry to Jack and Dick, “and we set out without delay.  You must have had quite an adventure.”

“So we did, and it might have been worse.  Rollins is on this part of the island, sir,” to the captain.  “He got in yesterday or to-day, I am not sure which.  I do not believe he has seen the man who was signaling to him last night, and I do not think he knows anything about him.  He does know that government vessels are on the watch for him, however, and I think he will shortly get away from here.”

“I wish we could get word to them so as to stop him,” growled the captain.  “These smugglers give honest traders a bad reputation, for folks think we are all alike.”

A considerable number of the Hilltop boys had come to the rescue of the two boys, and these were now carried on the shoulders of the others, and a triumphal march back to the vessel was begun, young Smith being taken up as well as Jack and Dick, the boys saying that he had traveled enough for one day and that he needed a rest.

Many of the boys had pocket lights with them, and others cut pine branches and made torches of them so that there was light enough to show them the way, and it was not necessary to wait for the moon to rise.

The boys sang and shouted, and made a lot of noise on the way back so that if the smugglers or any of the natives had had any idea of attacking them they would have been deterred by the very din.

They reached the shore at length, and were taken on board the yacht, Bucephalus presently announcing that supper was ready, the boys having the best of appetites for it, and making it a feast in honor of Jack, Dick and young Jesse W., who was considered as much a hero as his older schoolmates, and was certainly regarded so by them.

Not all the boys had gone over to the other side, some staying away on account of the fatigue of the journey and others, noticeably Herring and his cronies, because they were either not asked or would not have gone if they had been.

It was a feast in honor of the three boys, nevertheless, and those who were not ready to join in praise of the heroes were wise enough to keep quiet and not to make any dissent.

After supper Jack and a few of the boys discussed the situation, and tried to calculate how long it would take the vessel which Mr. Smith had sent out to reach them.