“I will send two officers,” the captain said. “Peters, and a midshipman to take his place in case he should be disabled. I think it is Robson’s turn for special service.”
The next morning the boat started soon after daybreak, the ship’s crew all watching her till the two white lug-sails disappeared through the opening.
“Now we will take a strong party of wood-cutters,” the captain said, “and see if we can make a way to the top of the hill and get some idea of the country round. I don’t expect we shall see much of interest, but it is just as well that we should be kept employed. By the way, before we do that, we will get hawsers to the shore and work the frigate round so as to bring her broadside to bear upon the opening; we ought to have done that at first. The French may know of this place, or if they don’t they may learn of it from the Spaniards. Those two ships astern of us probably got themselves snug before the tornado struck them, and weathered it all right, though I doubt very much if they did so, unless they knew [pg 124]of some inlets they could run for. If they did escape, it is likely that they will be taking some trouble to find out what became of us. They may have seen their companion’s fate, but they would hardly have made us out in the darkness. Still, they would certainly want to report our loss, and may sail along close inshore to look for timbers and other signs of wreck. I think, therefore, that it will be advisable to station a well-armed boat at this end of the cut, and tell them to row every half-hour or so to the other end and see if they can make out either sailing or rowing craft coming along the shore. If they do see them they must retire to this end of the opening, unless they can find some place where they could hide till a boat came abreast of them, and then pounce out and capture it.”
“It would certainly be a good precaution, sir. I will see to it at once—but we are both forgetting that we have no boats.”
“Bless me, I did forget that altogether! Well, here is that little dug-out the carpenters made for sending messages to and from the ship. It will carry three. I should be glad if you would take a couple of hands and row down to the mouth of the entrance and see if there is any place where, without any great difficulty, a small party with a gun could be stationed so as not to be noticed by a boat coming up.”
“I understand, sir.”
The lieutenant started at once, and when he returned, some hours later, he reported that there was a ledge some twenty feet long and twelve deep. “It is about eight feet from the water’s edge and some twelve above it, sir,” he said, “and is not noticeable until one is almost directly opposite it. If we [pg 125]were to pile up rocks regularly four feet high along the face, both the gun and its crew would be completely hidden.”
“Get one of the hands on board, Mr. Farrance; I will myself go and see it with you.”
One of the men at once climbed on deck, and the captain took his place in the little dug-out. When they reached the ledge he made a careful inspection of it.
“Yes,” he said, “ten men could certainly lie hidden here, and with a rough parapet, constructed to look as natural as possible, they should certainly be unobserved by an incoming boat, especially as the attention of those in the stern would be directed into the inlet. Will you order Mr. Forster and one of the other midshipmen to go with as many men as the raft will carry, and build such a parapet. They had better take one of the rope-ladders with them and fix it to the ledge by means of a grapnel. There is plenty of building material among the rocks that have fallen from the precipices above. I must leave it to their ingenuity to make it as natural as possible.”