Then the spell of it was broken. From the end of the shadow, which
reached almost to the base of the cliff on which Philip sat, there
came a sound. It was a clear, metallic sound that left the
vibration of steel in the air, and Philip leaned over the edge of
the rock. Below him the shadow was broken into a pool of rippling
starlight. He heard the faint dip of paddles, and suddenly a canoe
shot from the shadow out into the clear light of the moon and
stars.
It was a large canoe. In it he could make out four figures. Three
of them were paddling; the fourth sat motionless in the bow. They
passed under him swiftly, guiding their canoe so that it was soon
hidden in the shelter of the cliff. By the faint reflections cast
by the disturbed water, Philip saw that the occupants of the canoe
had made an effort to conceal themselves by following the course
of the dense shadow. Only the chance sound had led him to observe
them.
Under ordinary circumstances the passing of a strange canoe at
night would have had no significance for him. But at the present
time it troubled him. The manner of its approach through the
shadow, the strange quiet of its occupants, the stealth with which
they had shot the canoe under the cliff, were all unusual.
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