"All right, Mr. Crofts! I will be up in five minutes. We can do nothing until we get the wind, anyhow."
Breakfast was speedily finished, and they went on deck. The Spanish flag was already flying from the peak. The three craft were about two miles away.
"How are they sailing, Mr. Crofts?"
"I fancy the xebec is the fastest, sir. She was astern just now, and she is abreast of the polacre now, as near as I can make out. The ship, or brig--whichever it is--seems to me to be dropping astern."
"Heave away at the anchor, Joe. Get in all the slack, so as to be ready to hoist, as soon as the breeze reaches us. I don't want them to come up to us. The line they are taking, now, will carry them nearly half a mile outside us, which is fortunate. Run in six of the guns, and throw a tarpaulin over the eighteen pounder. Three guns, on each side, are about enough for us to show."
The breeze caught them when the three Spanish craft were nearly abeam.
"They have more wind, out there, than we shall have here," the captain said; "which is an advantage, for I don't want to run away from them.
"Now, get up the anchor, Joe. Don't take too many hands."
The watch below had already been ordered to sit down on the deck, and half the other watch were now told to do the same.
"Twelve or fourteen hands are quite enough to show," the captain said.