"There'll be time enough when we've attended to the whole lot. That craft is on her reg'lar course, bound for Nassau most likely, an' will keep on within two or three miles of the key."
It was an hour before the last cask had been prepared, and in that time the stranger had lessened the distance so much that Bob unhesitatingly pronounced her a top-sail schooner.
"Her spars look a leetle too trim for a trader, an' she carries so much sail that I reckon she's a pleasure craft with a lot of fresh-water sailors aboard. Howsomever, they'll know enough to stand in when they see this 'ere illumination, an' that oughter satisfy us."
Bob waited half an hour longer before firing the alcohol, and then the evening shadows were beginning to lengthen into the gloom of night. All the stranger's spars could be seen quite distinctly, and there was but little question that she was a yacht.
When the bluish flames leaped up, casting a ghastly glare upon the surrounding objects, it was no longer possible for the party on the key to see any distance over the ocean because of the blinding light; but they had the intense satisfaction of knowing that the sudden illumination must of a necessity be observed by those on the schooner, and also that its purpose could not be mistaken.
"Set 'em all ablaze, boys!" Bob shouted; and one by one the long pillars of flame shot up from the beach until that portion of the key was fringed with fiery monuments.
After this had been done the little party stood at the water's edge trying in vain to peer through the gloom, which was growing more dense each moment; and in a short while it was ascertained that, brilliant though the beacons were, they would not continue so any very great length of time. The alcohol burned furiously, sending forth an intense heat which caused the casks to burst asunder, thereby allowing large quantities of the spirits to sink in the sand, and half an hour after the first had been ignited the volume of flame decreased very materially.
"This won't do!" Joe cried in dismay. "By the time that schooner gets near the island our signals will have died out entirely, and they may keep on their course without thinking it worth while to stop."
"We could cut some wood," Harry suggested; but realized, even as he spoke, how insignificant would be such a fire after these mighty shafts of flame.
"It'll be better to roll more casks down," Bob said quickly. "Never mind the work, so long as we can hail that craft."
No one cared how much labor might be involved providing the desired result was gained, and all hands ran swiftly up the beach to where the Bonita's cargo lay half buried in the sand. It was as much as the three boys could do to roll a heavy cask over the shingle; but they worked manfully while Bob and Joe struggled with another, and in a few moments after the first two signals had died out they were replaced by fresh supplies of this costly fuel.
During the next three hours every member of the party tugged and pulled and lifted with a feverish energy born of the knowledge that their chances of being rescued depended upon the exertions made, and then it was not possible to longer continue the task. All were so exhausted that further efforts were absolutely out of the question, and Bob said, as he wiped away the perspiration which ran down his face in tiny streams:
"It's no use, lads. What with the divin' an' this last job, I'm tuckered out. If she don't pay any attention to us after all this glare we couldn't make 'em stop by telling the whole story."
"Perhaps she has already passed," Harry suggested, as he choked back a sob. "The rate at which that schooner was sailing when we last saw her would have brought her here long before this."
"For all we can tell she may be hove-to half a mile off the shore," Bob said consolingly. "A captain would need know this shoal mighty well to run in here on a night so black as this one."
"They've got the lights to guide them;" and from the tone of Walter's voice it could be understood he was giving way to despair.
"That wouldn't do them any good, for these flames only illumine this portion of the coast, and throw the entrance of the harbor into deeper shadow," Joe said, speaking for the first time since the labors were brought to a close. "Besides, there are such things as false lights kindled for the purpose of wrecking vessels, and any careful captain would most likely want to wait for daylight; but he might at least send a boat ashore."
