"How d'ye know this?" demanded Captain Jeremy coolly.
"I heard 'em talking in the fo'c'sle last night, while I was lying down on the cathead for a spell. They'll try to seize the stuff when we get it aboard."
"Will they?" said the Captain grimly. "And who may the rascals be?"
Cherry gave the names of about a dozen, all of whom had, like Slater and his companions, joined the Golden Hope from a Chatham brig. "They mean to mutiny, lay hands on the treasure, and place it in the sloop," he continued. "They can scarce hope to take the Golden Hope."
Now, the sloop was a small, half-decked vessel, of about ten tons burthen, one of the craft that Touchstone had found hard by the place where he had ambushed the buccaneers. These boats had been brought round while I had been ill, and now lay close inshore, and almost abreast of the stockade.
"Why not send an armed force aboard the Neptune and secure them?" asked Touchstone. "They'll lie safely in the bilboes, even if we do not run them up to the yard-arm."
"Nay, I'll play with them awhile," said Captain Jeremy. "Yet I'll take no risks in the matter. For aught I care, they are right welcome to the sloop. And now, Cherry, I thank you for your warning, and rest assured that I'll not forget to recompense you for it."
The sailor withdrew, and long and anxiously the two officers conferred as to their plan of action.
"'Twill be one way out of the difficulty," concluded Captain Jeremy, slapping his thigh as he was wont to do when in high good humour. "Sink me! we'll begin our preparations to-morrow."
Accordingly, soon after breakfast on the morrow he was rowed aboard the Neptune, and having assembled the crew, true men and false alike, he addressed them.