"In there," he would say, "I feel like a man with his back to the wall. It's safe enough, but there's no telling what's behind it."
And the wall was quite too high to climb, for the only eastward view from the summit of the hill was of the higher ridge, which ran right across the island, with only one possible passage, and that but a narrow one.
They used to mildly chaff the old man about his fears, but he took it all with characteristic good humour.
"Ay, ay, all right!" he would say. "Just you wait, and we'll see who laughs last. When they come, it'll be no laughing matter, I'm thinking."
"They've probably forgotten all about us by this time, and have found easier pickings elsewhere," said Blair.
"That kind doesn't forget in a hurry, and they know they've only got to break us up to get all the pickings here they want," said Cathie stubbornly.
And it was thanks to these ceaseless precautions that, when the time came, they were not taken unawares.
Cathie had run out in the launch one morning as usual, and presently came plunging back through the passage with a haste that betokened the unusual.
"They're coming," he said quietly, as the others met him on the beach.
"What, the nightmares?" said Blair, with a keen glance, for the captain was not above a joke.