y-to close to the shore; and, after a while, Amyas
saw two boats pull in from her, and vanish behind the mangroves.

Sliding down a liane, he told what he had seen. The men, tired of
inactivity, received the news with a shout of joy, and set to work to
make all ready for their guests. Four brass swivels, which they had
brought up, were mounted, fixed in logs, so as to command the path; the
musketeers and archers clustered round them with their tackle ready, and
half-a-dozen good marksmen volunteered into the cotton-tree with their
arquebuses, as a post whence "a man might have very pretty shooting."
Prayers followed as a matter of course, and dinner as a matter of
course also; but two weary hours passed before there was any sign of the
Spaniards.

Presently a wreath of white smoke curled up from the swamp, and then the
report of a caliver. Then, amid the growls of the English, the Spanish
flag ran up above the trees, and floated--horrible to behold--at the
mast-head of the Rose. They were signalling the ship for more hands;
and, in effect, a third boat soon pushed off and vanished into the
forest.

Another hour, during which the men had thoroughly lost their temper, but
not their hearts, by waiting; and talked so loud, and strode up and down
so wildly, that Amyas had to warn them that there was no need to betray
themselves; that the Spaniards might not find them after all; that they
might pass the stockade close without seeing it; that, unless they hit
off the track at once, they would probably return to their ship for the
present; and exacted a promise from them that they would be perfectly
silent till he gave the word to fire.

Which wise commands had scarcely passed his lips, when, in the path
below, glanced the headpiece of a Spanish soldier, and then another and
another.

"Fools!" whispered Amyas to Cary; "they are coming up in single file,
rushing on their own death. Lie close, men!"

The path was so narrow that two could seldom come up abreast, and so
steep that the enemy had much ado to struggle and stumble upwards. The
men seemed half unwilling to proceed, and hung back more than once;
but Amyas could hear an authoritative voice behind, and presently there
emerged to the front, sword in hand, a figure at which Amyas and Cary
both started.

"Is it he?"

"Surely I know those legs among a thousand, though they are in armor."

"It is my turn for him, now, Cary, remember! Silence, silence, men!"

The Sp