"Halt! Halt!" came from the line of sleepers suddenly awakened.

In an instant both parties were under arms.
It spoke well for the temper of the men with Dunwody, perhaps better for his serious counsel of them, that none of them made any answer.

Silently, like so many shadows, they dropped down to the ground.
"What was that, Kammerer ?" cried a voice on the boat, calling down to some one on the shore.
"There are men here," was the answer.

"Somebody's out there." The night was now astir.

Men half clothed, but fully armed, now lined up along the beach, along the gunwale of the boat.
Apparently there were some twenty or more of them in all.
"River pirates, likely," said the leader, who had now come down the gang-plank.