At his command the men in the whaleboat quickly covered the others with their guns. For a moment the silence was unbroken. The advantage for the present was very decidedly with the attacking party. Not only did they outnumber the others, but they were also in a condition to act, and act quickly. The situation, however, could not long remain as it was. The gunboats were not more than a half mile away, and, doubtless, assistance would be sent as soon as the predicament of the men should be discovered.
Then, too, there were the men on the shore to be reckoned with. Apparently, they had no boat with which they could come to the rescue of the luckless sailors, but they might soon obtain one, for Refugee Town was not far away. Why they had not already gone there was not apparent. Perhaps they were trusting to the aid of the rising tide and the efforts of the men.
"Pass over your guns!" said the leader on the whaleboat.
The men obeyed, and silently picked up and handed their guns to the attacking party.
"Now we'll see what can be done," said the leader, after he had deposited the weapons on the bottom of the whaleboat. "These fellows are harmless now, and we'll take our oars and see if we can't pull them off from the bar."
His men grasped their oars and began to row. The rope tightened, the boat started a little, but still stuck fast to the bottom. Again the men pulled desperately, but with all their efforts they could not move the grounded boat.
"I'm afraid we'll have to cast overboard a part of the load," said the leader, when the third effort proved as futile as its predecessors.
He arose from his seat and grasped the rope to pull the whaleboat nearer, when the four men before him suddenly united in a loud shout, and, leaping from their seats, together grasped some other guns which had been concealed beneath the sailcloth, and, turning about before their captors could recover from their surprise, stood aiming their weapons directly at their faces.
"It's our turn," laughed one of the men. "You'll hand over your own guns now!"
No one in the whaleboat moved from his position. The leader still stood, leaning over the side and grasping the rope with his hands. Every one had been so startled by the unexpected summons that he seemed almost incapable of action.