'The pirates.'
'The pirates already!'
'We have been anticipated by the four caiques!' cried several voices.
'Out with the sweeps and oars!—down with the mast and yard!—in with the sail!' I commanded, with excited energy, and the orders were obeyed with alacrity.
'Clap on to the sweeps now!'
'Give way, my boys—give way with a will!' said Belton.
Flash after flash came rapidly and redly from the dark and wooded bay; the boom of carronades pealed over the water, and then came the patter of small arms.
My soul was full of anxiety; I panted rather than breathed, for I was without a doubt that we had been anticipated—that those wretches had commenced their attack, and that Sir Horace was fighting gallantly, like a brave English gentleman.
'But see,' said Callum, to whom I had freely communicated all my fears, 'there are three or four vessels now rounding the promontory and entering the bay, for good or for evil?'
'The telescope, Jack—the telescope, for God's sake!—thank you,' said I, adjusting it for a night observation, as the darkness had now almost set in; but I could distinctly perceive four long, low, and sharply-built caiques, full of men, many of whom appeared to be armed with muskets, pulled swiftly round a black promontory of rock which jutted into that sea of amber, and each in succession shot swiftly into the wooded bay.