“I can easily believe that,” answered Chase. “I know too much to be allowed to remain at large, don’t I? I don’t want you, however.”
“We’ve got business with you,” continued the red-whiskered man, who was the commander of the Stella, “and you had better listen to reason before we use force. Drop that axe and come down here.”
“I think I see myself doing it. I’d look nice, surrendering myself into your hands, to be shut up in that dark hole with poor Fred Craven, carried to Cuba and shipped off to Mexico, under a Spanish sea-captain, wouldn’t I? There’s a good deal of reason in that, isn’t there now? I’ll fight as long as I can swing this axe.”
“But that will do you no good,” replied the captain, “for you are surrounded and can’t escape. Where is Coulte?” he added, in an impatient undertone, to the men who stood about him.
“Surrounded!” thought Chase. He glanced quickly behind him, but could see nothing except the darkness that filled the cave, and that was something of which he was not afraid. “I’ll have friends here before long,” he added, aloud, “and until they arrive, I can hold you all at bay. I will knock down the poles as fast as you put them up.”
“Where is Coulte, I wonder?” said the master of the smuggling vessel, again. “Why isn’t he doing something? I could have captured him a dozen times.”
These words reached the boy’s ear, and the significant, earnest tone in which they were uttered, aroused his suspicions, and made him believe that perhaps the old Frenchman was up to something that might interest him. It might be that his enemies had discovered some secret passage-way leading into his stronghold, and had sent Coulte around to attack him in the rear. Alarmed at the thought, Chase no longer kept his back turned toward the cave, but stood in such a position that he could watch the farther end of “The Kitchen” and the men below at the same time.
A long silence followed the boy’s bold avowal of his determination to stand his ground, during which time a whispered consultation was carried on by Mr. Bell, Pierre, and the captain of the schooner. When it was ended, the former led the way toward the beach, followed by all the vessel’s company. Chase watched them until they disappeared among the bushes that lined the banks of the gully, and when they came out again and took their stand about the fire, he seated himself on the ledge at the entrance of the cave, and waited with no little uneasiness to see what they would do next.
“I know now what that fire on the bluff was for,” thought he. “It was a signal to the smugglers, and they saw it and ran in here while I was asleep. They came very near capturing me, too—in a minute more Pierre would have been in the cave. I can’t expect to fight a whole ship’s company, and of course I must give in, sooner or later; but I will hold out as long as I can.”
Chase finished his soliloquy with an exclamation, and jumped to his feet in great excitement. A thrill of hope shot through his breast when he saw the Banner come suddenly into view from behind the point, and dart into the cove; but it quickly gave away to a feeling of intense alarm. His long-expected reinforcements had arrived at last, but would they be able to render him the assistance he had hoped and longed for? Would they not rather bring themselves into serious trouble by running directly into the power of the smugglers? Forgetful of himself, and thinking only of the welfare of Walter and his companions, Chase dropped his axe and began shouting and waving his arms about his head to attract their attention.