“No, I suppose not, and quite right, too.  I’ll see that you don’t get into trouble on our account, but I do want to catch this chap, and make him take us out of here.”

“I heartily hope that you will, Captain,” said Jack.

After dinner the yacht steamed out into the open bay, inside the reefs, and a lookout was kept for the cutter, which might still be in the neighborhood, and at the same time Captain Storms told the doctor what he had contemplated, and asked his permission to take Jack as a pilot to discover the whereabouts of the smuggler.

“He will be in no danger, I trust?” asked Dr. Wise, glaring at the captain, as was his wont when greatly interested.

“I will look out for that, sir,” replied the captain.  “He and his chum were looking for this fellow this morning, and found out where he lay, from the shore.  I think he will be able to locate him from the water, and if he does I’ll have the rat out of his hole in a brace of shakes, provided you will let me have him.”

“Why, yes, I think so,” rejoined the doctor, looking as wise as his name would indicate.  “I am most anxious to get away from here, and if you think there is a chance of it I am quite willing to let you use your own judgment.  You know best about such matters.”

A boat was lowered containing the captain, Jack Sheldon, Dick Percival and six stout sailors, the entire party with the exception of the boys, being heavily armed.

A second boat, in charge of the mate, was lowered, and followed the first at a little distance, the officer having orders to close up quickly in case it became necessary.

Jack sat in the stern with the captain, and, as they skirted the shore, kept a sharp lookout for any possible inlet to the cove where the smuggler lay in hiding.

There was a full tide, and this enabled them to go closer to the rocks than if it had been low, and Jack peered into every opening in the hope of finding the right one at last.

At length as they were proceeding slowly at a safe distance from an ugly looking mass of rocks, which projected to some distance into the water, and where there were dangerous looking eddies, Jack noticed a steeple shaped rock higher than the rest, and at some little distance in shore.

“That is the rock I could not get around, Dick,” he said to Percival.  “Of course, I cannot from here see the rock from which I looked down on the men in the boat, but I know that rock well.  Keep on, Captain, and watch.  I think I can find the way now.”

“There was a turn in the passage, wasn’t there, Jack?” asked Dick.

“Yes, but there may have been others, and I think that the general direction of the inlet was about east.  I shall look for it at any rate.”

They kept on slowly, Jack directing them closer in to shore, and looking sharply for any sign of the channel, which he presently detected by keeping his eye on the water.