“Yes, sir,” answered Hooper.
“Can you see anything of the other men?” inquired the doctor.
“There are none on the reef, sir, but I thought I saw one or two peeping over the ship’s bulwarks.”
“I guessed as much,” said McCarthy. “You ought to think twice, sir, before you go to meet these men. You would be an easy mark for any one hiding in the forecastle; and they may think that, if they once got you out of the way, they could do anything they pleased.”
“That’s possible,” said Captain Ranken. “But I can’t help that. There is a chance of avoiding bloodshed, and it is my duty to go.”
“Well, any way, let us take any precautions we can,” urged Rolfe. “Five or six of us can take our rifles, and show ourselves over the top of the barricade. They will see that if they have you at their mercy, we have Gott and Shirley and Sullivan at ours.”
“You may do that, if you like,” said the skipper. “There is never any harm in showing that one is prepared.”
The mate’s suggestion was acted on. Half a dozen marksmen, including the two Dutchmen, Rivers, Margetts, Whittaker, and the mate, took their guns, climbed on to the top of the barricade, and then stationed themselves behind it, the muzzles of their rifles projecting from between the stones. Then the captain, accompanied by McCarthy, went down to the edge of the reef, and, hailing the three men opposite, asked what they had to say.
“We’re very sorry,” said Gott,—“sorry as you’re displeased, sir. But the most of us don’t know what we’ve done.”
“Do you call running the ship on a reef, and then trying to plunder her, and after that attempting to murder us, nothing?”