"Inshore! Into the Spaniards' mouths?"
"All in the Inquisition in a week's time."
"Better stay here, and be drowned."
"You're right in that last," shouts Cary. "That's the right death for blind puppies. Look you! I don't know in the least where we are, and I hardly know stem from stern aboard ship; and the captain may be right or wrong—that's nothing to me; but this I know, that I am a soldier, and will obey orders; and where he goes, I go; and whosoever hinders me must walk up my sword to do it."
Amyas pressed Cary's hand, and then—
"And here's my broadside next, men. I'll go nowhere, and do nothing without the advice of Salvation Yeo and Robert Drew; and if any man in the ship knows better than these two, let him up, and we'll give him a hearing. Eh, Pelicans?"
There was a grunt of approbation from the Pelicans; and Amyas returned to the charge.
"We have five shots between wind and water, and one somewhere below. Can we face a gale of wind in that state, or can we not?"
Silence.
"Can we get home with a leak in our bottom?"