“Even if anybody is alive on board, we cannot help them,” observed Jack; “so I vote that we take our fish to the camp, and have some dinner. I am very sharp set, seeing that we had no breakfast to speak of.”
Bill, who had no objection to offer, agreed to this; so carrying up their newly-obtained provisions, they soon had a fire lighted, and some of the fish broiling away before it.
The fate of the unfortunate vessel formed the subject of their conversation.
“I have an idea,” cried Bill. “It’s an ill wind that brings no one good luck. If we can manage to get on board that craft which has come on shore, we might build a boat out of her planking, or at all events a raft; and should the wind come from the southward, we might manage to get across the Channel, or be picked up by some vessel or other. We are pretty sure to find provisions on board. Perhaps one of her boats may have escaped being knocked to pieces, and we could repair her. At all events, it will be our own fault if that wreck doesn’t give us the opportunity of escaping.”
Jack listened to all Bill was saying.
“I cannot agree with you as to the chance of getting off,” he observed. “As soon as the wreck is seen, the Frenchmen are sure to be down on the shore, and we shall be caught and carried back to prison instead of getting away. The boats are pretty certain to have been knocked into shreds before this, and as to building a boat, that is what neither you nor I can do, even if we had the tools, and where are they to come from?”
“Perhaps we shall find them on board,” said Bill. “The vessel has held together till now, and I don’t see why she should not hold together till the storm is over. ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way,’ and I don’t see that we have so bad a chance of getting off.”
“Well, I’ll help you. You can show me what we had best do,” said Jack. “I am not going to draw back on account of the risk. All must depend on the weather. If the wind comes off shore, and the sea goes down, I should say that our best chance would be to build a raft. We can do that, if we can only find an axe and a saw, and we might get launched before the Frenchmen find out the wreck. The first thing we have to do is to get on board, and when we are there, we must keep a bright look-out to see that none of the natives are coming along the shore to trap us.”
The lads, having come to this resolution, hurried back to the entrance of the cave.
They forgot all about the smugglers’ stores, and their intention of making clothes for themselves; indeed, they only thought of getting on board the vessel. They watched eagerly for the tide to go down. The day passed by and the night came on, but the clouds clearing away, a bright moon shed her light over the scene. The wind had also sensibly decreased, and the waves rolled in with far less fury than before.