“A sail, a sail!”
Lord Reginald sprang to his feet, and looking in the same direction, observed, “She’s a large ship, too, and standing this way. What if she should prove to be the Wolf?”
Dick made no answer. He almost hoped that she would not prove to be their ship. The time he had enjoyed so much would come to an end, and he must henceforth associate with those in whose society he could no longer take pleasure.
Lord Reginald, not for a moment doubting that Dick was as pleased as he was, altered the Janet’s course in the direction of the stranger. They had brought a telescope, a remarkably good one for its size. He turned it towards the approaching ship.
“From the cut of her sails, I doubt whether she’s the Wolf, after all,” observed Lord Reginald, “even if she’s English,” he added. “No, that she’s not. She’s hoisted her colours. If my eyes don’t deceive me, that’s the French flag. Here, Hargrave, see what you can make out.”
Dick took a steady look. “That’s the French flag, no doubt about the matter,” he answered; “if you look again you will be certain of the fact.”
“I was nearly certain of it before,” answered Lord Reginald, “and as I have no fancy to be taken on board a Frenchman, we will haul our wind, and get back to our bay. We should fetch it with one tack, and by unstepping our masts very probably the boat will not be seen, or our hut either, unless the Frenchmen narrowly examine the island.”
“With all my heart,” said Dick, greatly relieved, as he hoped to get into the bay before the Frenchmen had discovered the Janet.
She, it will be remembered, was low down in the water, so that the look-out aloft on board the stranger might not have seen her from the distance they were off. The wind freshened, and the little craft made good way.
“The sooner we are on shore the better. I don’t like the look of the weather to the westward,” observed Lord Reginald.