“All the enemy are asleep; so if Gurt here, who knows these waters thoroughly, will come with me, I think we could steal down to the breakwater and obtain one of their boats. A good breeze is blowing; so, if we put up the sail, we could soon cut across the course of one of those Cretan steamers which sail to Syra from Khanea, in which case it would take but a little time to reach the yacht. Once at Syra, I would get as many men as possible, and come back at once.”
“It is a wild scheme, but not impossible,” said Justinian thoughtfully. “You’d have to sail about thirty miles; and then there is the chance of your getting picked up by a steamer.”
“With this ’ere breeze, sir,” remarked Gurt, who was not averse to the adventure, “I guess we’d get in the track of one of them Cretans in about twelve hours, more or less. Once in the line, and there’s lots of ’em plying to and fro, so the chances are we’d soon be picked up. I’m game for it, if Mr. Crispin is, sir.”
“But are you not too tired?”
“I am not,” said the poet, stretching himself; “besides anything is better than this suspense. The only thing I’m afraid of is Gurt’s wound.”
“Don’t you be afeared o’ that, sir,” replied Gurt bluntly. “I’ve lost some blood, but ’tain’t nothin’. I ain’t no babby to squake fur nothin’. If we kin git a boat, I’m ready to start this minit.”
“What do you say, Maurice?”
Roylands had been listening to these propositions not without a certain amount of approval, which was, however, mingled with a feeling that such a scheme was somewhat foolhardy.
“I hardly know what to say,” he observed at length. “There is one thing certain, if we wish to hold the island, we must have more men; and, as far as I can see, Crispin’s scheme is the only way of getting them. The mere sight of the yacht filled with troops would frighten the life out of these scoundrels, and cause them to clear out; but the difficulty is how to get a boat without being seen by the enemy.”
“I think we can manage that,” said Justinian, indicating points with his finger; for, of course, with the electric light, there was no difficulty in following his actions. “You see, the camp of the enemy is here, to the right of the harbor. I noticed that several of the larger boats were tied to the breakwater; so if Crispin and Gurt get down there, and walk along the breakwater itself, they can loosen one of the boats and tow it outward to the mouth of the harbor. There they can get in, and row off to the west, without any chance of the dip of their oars being heard by the enemy.”