“There's no time to lose, captain! He must be set free before he's taken to the Rock.”
“Right, lad; so let's tumble out and man the guns!” cried the captain, lurching to his feet and giving his pantaloons a determined hitch-up.
“We always be ready!
Steady, lad, steady!
We'll fight an' we'll conquer agin and agin!”
“That we will,” assented Don heartily; “but first we must get the bearings of this village, captain. Where's the glass? Spottie! Hi, Spottie!—the glass here!”
In response to the summons, Puggles ran up with the captain's telescope.
“Spottie done go fetch water, sa'b,” he explained.
“There is a village,” Don announced, after adjusting the instrument and carefully sweeping the sea-shore. “Just there, in that clump of trees; the only one within range, so far as I can see. Do you make it out, captain?”
“Ay,” said the captain, taking the glass; “there's a willage below, sure as sharks is sharks.”