He went inside the cabin and tested the outfit. It worked perfectly. He flashed his light on the cabin clock. It was not yet nine o'clock. He made ready to call the shipper on the wireless telephone, then decided he wouldn't. There really was nothing definite that he could tell him. He could merely communicate his suspicions. After all, Captain Hardy might not be going to rob the oyster-bed. If he alarmed the shipper needlessly, the shipper wouldn't think much of his judgment in future. Alec decided he would try to learn something more before communicating with the shipper. At least he could keep a watch on the _Shark_.
Alec cast loose from the piling and made his way down the river. He hugged the shore, for he knew that his little boat could never be seen if he kept close to the tall reeds that grew in dense masses along the bank. There was enough wind blowing to drive the _Osprey_ at a good pace, but Alec dared not hoist his sail. So he sculled the boat slowly along, ever on the alert. He knew that the _Shark_ was anchored in the second reach. But he was well through this reach before he could make up his mind whether the oyster-boat still lay there or not. So dark was the night that he could see absolutely nothing of her. Suddenly he heard a great voice bawling profanely at some one, and he knew the _Shark_ was still there. Quickly came the creak of tackle-blocks. The sail was going up. Then he heard the clanking of a capstan, though evidently the sound had been muffled in some way. But it told him all he needed to know. The _Shark_ was lifting her anchor. She was going to sail. Was she heading for the oyster grounds?
For a single moment Alec hesitated. Then, "I'll do it!" he muttered between clenched teeth, and he stepped to the halyards and cautiously hoisted his own sail. "If I can't see their big sail," he reasoned, "they surely can't see my little one." Then he went back to the cockpit, took the tiller in his hand and started in pursuit of the oyster pirates.
From time to time he could hear sounds on the boat ahead of him, but gradually these grew so faint that he knew the _Shark_ was outdistancing him. So he drew away from the bank and stood out boldly into the middle of the river. As yet he had caught not a single glimpse of the _Shark_, and he knew his own presence was utterly unsuspected. But the men on the _Shark_ were sharp-eyed and it would not take them long to discover him if the night grew lighter. And to Alec it seemed as though it were becoming lighter. Perhaps that was because his eyes were growing so accustomed to the dark. He did not like to think what might happen to him if he fell into the hands of these men, so far away from any other human beings. If they should harm him--he did not like even to think of the word murder--he might never be able to warn the shipper about the intended theft of his oysters. Now Alec saw that he had been unwise in trying to trail these desperate men without first telling the shipper.