ld fully account for their sudden and unexpected
display of prudence. Be that as it may, we were allowed to work both
craft out to sea without molestation; when, having hurriedly overhauled
our prize and found that she was amply provisioned for a much longer
voyage than that to Port Royal, I put her in command of my second
midshipman, with a prize-crew of ten men, and, giving him instructions
to report to the Admiral without delay, dispatched him forthwith. Then,
transferring myself and the remainder of my following back to the
felucca, we re-entered the Cove and came to an anchor outside of but
close to the islet that masked the entrance, and in such a position that
the little craft could be warped right in alongside a bit of cliff that
dropped sheer down into the water. We had scarcely done this when a
deep, hollow _boom_, echoing and re-echoing along the face of the cliff
that enclosed the Cove, told us that the party which had been dispatched
to breach the road up the face of the cliff, and so cut off the retreat
of the pirates toward the interior of the island, had accomplished its
task.

Time was now all important to us; for, of course, we could not tell at
what moment Garcia, the arch-pirate, and his crew in the _Tiburon_,
might put in an appearance upon the scene; and we had a few very
important preparations to make before we could consider ourselves ready
to deal with him; therefore we had no sooner let go the felucca's anchor
than we lowered the only other boat that we had brought with us, and ran
warps away to the shore of the islet, securing them to such rocks as
were most convenient for our purpose. This done, we warped the little
craft right in alongside the cliff, and made her secure; after which our
next task was to carry ashore two stout hawsers which we had brought
with us for the purpose, and convey them to the top of the cliff under
which the felucca lay moored. Then we rigged a pair of sheers over the
vessel's hatchway, and proceeded to hoist our 68-pounders out of the
hold--one at a time, of course. Then, having got the first gun on
deck--already prepared in Port Royal dockyard, by being encased in a
stout cylindrical packing of planks--we passed the bights of our two
hawsers round it, one at each end, and with all hands tailing on--except
one, whom we set to watch as a sentinel--proceeded to parbuckle it up
the face of the cliff. It was a stiff job, but, all our preparations
having been mad