"Well, it's kind of you to say so, Frank," Jimmy went on; "but just now I was thinking how neat we could give these fellers the slip, if only we had a boat of some sort. There's plenty of water at the bow, with the tide still comin' in like fun. My kingdom for a boat; any old hooker'd do to fill the bill, because we ain't particular."
"Could we manage to make a raft, do you think?" asked Teddy.
"There's plenty of loose stuff around," Ned remarked; "but while a boat might help us out, I don't think we could do anything with a clumsy raft, even if we had a chance to launch the same, without being found out. I had considered whether we might get overboard at the bow and make off up the shore, but the chances of being discovered seemed too great."
"And besides we'd be apt to get our guns wet, and that might keep us from using the same, when they were badly needed," Jack suggested. "So it seems as though we'll have to give up the idea of leaving the fort by the water door."
This started them to canvassing the whole situation over again, and several ingenious schemes were proposed. Unfortunately, on entering deeper into the same, they showed weakness in one particular or another, so that all of them had to be cast aside.
What made it doubly irritating was the knowledge that if they waited until the dawn came, their position would be doubly dangerous, since they might not even show themselves along the side of the wreck, without inviting a shot. As to escaping, it was not to be thought of while the sun remained above the horizon.
"We've got to do something to-night, that's flat!" urged Teddy, possibly in the hope that Ned might have a plan of his own, which he was holding back, just to ascertain what his chums could do along those lines.
"I've got a hunch that they're nearly ready to give us another whirl," Jimmy was remarking, as he leaned over the rail of the vessel, as though to see better.
"What makes you say that?" questioned Jack.
"There's a suspicious movement below that makes me believe some of the bog-trotters are creeping along close beside the boat. I think they must have come out of the water, where it slaps up against the wreck. Right down underneath us they are, Ned. If I had a kettle of scaldin' water, I could start the biggest yelping chorus ye ever heard right now."