The skipper had urged him to go with the third party, but he had scornfully refused.
“What!” he cried. “Provide for my safety, and leave you brave Englishmen to fight my battle all alone! Bah! You would never be able to call me friend again. But tell me this: why did you not go yourself and leave me to guard the hacienda till the boat came back?—Hah! You say nothing! You cannot. No, I shall stay, and we will escape together, ready to sail round, seize Velova, and meet mine enemies when they return.”
The peril seemed to increase minute by minute, as the little party watched, straining their ears in the darkness to catch the slightest sound, while it seemed hours since the last party had left them, and they awaited the coming of the two lads to announce that the boat had returned.
It was weary work for these goers to and fro, but excitement and exertion kept them from feeling the agony of the Englishmen who, apparently calm, kept watch and ward at the hacienda, while from time to time the skipper and Winks went from fire to fire, mending them and arranging more fuel so that when they were left for good they might still keep burning.
They had been round for the last visit, and returned to the hacienda, walking very slowly, and pausing from time to time to listen for any movement in the enemy’s lines, and at last they stopped short close to the spot where the carpenter had destroyed the snake, when after standing for some time listening to a faint murmur of voices close at hand, coming from the waiting crew, the carpenter uttered a peculiar husky cough. It was so strange and unnatural that the skipper put the right interpretation upon it at once.
“Yes?” he said. “You wanted to ask me something?”
“Yes, sir. It’s this waiting makes me want to speak. I can’t stand the doing nothing at a time like this. I’d ten times rather be on the fight.”
“So would I, Winks, if you come to that. It’s a cruel strain, my lad. Worse than being in the wildest storm. But go on; what did you want to say?”
“Oh, only this, sir. I want you to give me orders to go round again and give the fires a poke. You needn’t come, sir. You are wanted here. You can trust me to do the lot.”
“Yes, I know that,” said the skipper sternly; “but that isn’t all. You were thinking something else, and now it’s come to the point you are afraid to speak.”