“Not all the time, I guess. There were a few minutes while you were searching The Kitchen that you didn’t have your eyes on her, and during that time pap and me came out of the bushes and boarded her. Mr. Bell knew very well that if you could have your own way you would get him into a scrape, and so he put a bold face on the matter, and bluffed you square down.”
While the boys were asking one another if there were any other points they wanted Pierre to explain, they heard a voice calling to them through the hatchway. It was Perk’s voice; and when they answered his summons, they were surprised to see that his face was pale with excitement, and that he was trembling in every limb. “Hurry up, fellows,” he whispered. “She’s coming.”
“Who is?”
“The frigate. We can see her lights. Walter is going to give her the slip if he can, and go back to the village.”
“Aha!” exclaimed Pierre who caught the words. “What did I tell you? It will do you no good to go to town, for Mr. Bell will be on hand with proof to back up all his charges.”
Without waiting to hear what Pierre had to say, the boys sprang out of the hold, slamming the hatch after them. Walter met them in the standing room, and issued his orders with a calmness that surprised them. He sent Bab to the wheel, and with the others went to work to cat and fish the anchor, which, with a few turns of the capstan was heaved clear of the ground. As busy as they were, they found time now and then to cast their eyes toward the Gulf. There were the lights that had excited Walter’s alarm, in plain sight; and the fact that they stood high above the water, and that the waves communicated but little motion to them, was conclusive evidence that they were suspended from the catheads of some large and heavy vessel. Beyond a doubt, the approaching craft was the iron-clad frigate they had seen in the harbor of Port Platte.
Never before had our heroes been placed in a situation like this. Conscious that they had done nothing wrong, they felt that they were playing the part of cowards, and disgracing themselves by running away from the frigate, instead of boldly advancing to meet her. But the young captain, and his counsellor, Perk, did not know what else to do. Had the crew of the man-of-war been composed of his own countrymen, or had they been even honorable people, who would accord to him the treatment that civilized belligerents usually extend to their prisoners, the case would have been different. In spite of the evidence against him, Walter, feeling strong in his innocence, would fearlessly have surrendered himself and vessel; but he was afraid of the Spaniards, and he had good reason to be. They were so vindictive, cruel and unreasonable. Men who could deliberately shoot down a party of young students, for no other offence than defacing a monument, were not to be trusted. The longer Walter pondered the matter, the more alarmed he became.
“All gone, Bab,” he exclaimed, as the anchor was pulled clear of the ground and the Banner began to drift toward the beach, “fill away, and get all you can out of her. Heave that lead, Eugene, and use it lively, for I don’t know how much water there is here, and we must keep as close to the shore as we possibly can.”
By the time the anchor was taken care of, the Banner was flying along the beach through darkness so intense that the anxious young captain, who perched himself upon the bow to act as lookout, could scarcely see a vessel’s length ahead of him. There was now one question that was uppermost in his mind, and it was one to which time only could furnish a solution: Was the entrance to the bay wide or narrow? Upon this their safety depended. If they could get so far away from the frigate that they could slip by her in the darkness unperceived, their escape could be easily accomplished; but if they were obliged to pass within reach of the sharp eyes of her crew, their capture was certain. With his feelings worked up to the highest pitch of excitement, but to all outward appearances as calm as a summer morning, Walter awaited the issue.
