Perhaps they had been seen already! As if to emphasize this new peril, there was an interval of silence.

Steam had been shut off.

Philip touched the girl's lips lightly with a finger.

Then he lay flat on the ledge and began to creep forward.

It was impossible that he should run and warn the others, but it was essential, above all else, that he should ascertain what the men on the launch were doing, and the extent of their knowledge.
He found a tuft of the grass that clung to a crevice where its roots drew hardy sustenance from the crumbling rock; he ventured to thrust his head through this screen, following Domingo's example some hours earlier.