The Captain and I walked around the spit together--the tide has
covered our footmarks or I could show 'em to you."
"At any rate there _was_ a man," I persisted. "And he couldn't have
been the Captain either, for he was wearing dark clothes--"
"The devil! I say, Branscome, listen to this--"
"I am listening," answered the Captain, gravely, taking, as he
stepped forward, a long look at the bank above us and at the dense
forest to right and left. "Did you see the man's face, Harry?"
"No, sir, or I should not have mistaken him for Mr. Rogers. He was
standing there, under the boughs, and seemed to be looking through
them and watching me. I was sculling the boat along with a paddle
slipped in the stern notch, and he let me come pretty close--I
couldn't have been two hundred yards away--when he slipped to the
back of the trees, and I lost him."
"You didn't see him again?"
"No, sir; I didn't land just at once. I had a mind at first to put
about and row to the schooner, thinking that Mr. Rogers had meant it
for a hint. When I brought the boat ashore, five minutes later, he
was gone."
"Which way did you take, then?"
"I went straight after you, sir, up the waterfalls; but couldn't find
any trace of you except at one spot just beside a waterfall--the
fourth, it was--where some one had slipped a foot--"
"Mr.
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