“Quite safe! All those scamps are sound asleep, and will not attack before dawn. The barrier is built up as strongly as we can do it, your cannon are all right, and, what with the mine and the broken glass, I think they’ll find it pretty hard to get even as far as they did to-day.”
“Is Mr. Crispin all right, sir?”
“Yes; he got safely into the boat, sent up a rocket to tell us of his success, and by this time is on his way to Syra for help.”
“I saw the rocket, sir, so I guessed it ’ud be all right. D’ye think, sir, we’ll hold out till he brings the yacht here?”
“Of course we will,” said Maurice, who had joined the pair; “our defence here, even with our small numbers, is quite strong enough to stand one storming. If some of them get their feet cut to pieces by the glass, and others blown up sky-high by the mine, I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave up the attempt and sailed away.”
“Suppose they don’t, sir?” questioned Dick dubiously.
“Then, my Richard, I have a plan for closing up this pass.”
“How, sir?”
“You see those overhanging rocks up there? Well, as they are just over the entrance of the pass, to-morrow, so soon as we have beaten back those wretches, we’ll go up and bore holes along the narrowest part for dynamite cartridges. Then we’ll attach wires as in the mine, and if we find that we can’t stand against a second assault, all we have to do is to inveigle our friends under those rocks, explode the charge, and then, my Richard—oh, what a time they will have!”
“But that ’ull shut us up in the island, sir.”