e back to the island; bring the schooner in close to the cliffs
on the other side and get into a bay if you can find one. You will
then be out of sight altogether unless somebody happens to look down
from the edge of the cliffs above you.

"Then search the whole of the back of the island with boats, keeping
at oar's length from the cliffs. There must be some places where a man
can climb up, probably gulleys worn by streams. Then to-morrow night
sail round and join us again. I will be waiting for you about two
miles off the land, and will show a light to seaward so that you will
know where to find me. Then we can talk matters over, and you can get
back to the other side again before morning."

While the captains of the two English vessels were holding
consultations a similar talk was going on between the three captains
of the privateers, and the conclusion they arrived at was precisely
similar to that of the English officers. It was agreed that no attack
was likely to be made by the ships, as they would almost certainly be
sunk by the plunging fire of the battery as they came along the
channel; while an assault by the boats would be sheer madness.

"We have only to wait and tire them out," the captain of the schooner
said, rubbing his hands. "The first gale from the north they must run
for shelter, and before they can come back to their station again we
shall be gone. Of course we will load well up beforehand with all that
is really worth taking away, and can let them have the pleasure of
destroying the rest after we have gone."

"They will know all that as well as we do," the captain of La Belle
Marie said. "They will never be fools enough to try and starve us out,
but you are quite mistaken if you think we are out of danger."

"Why, what danger can there be?" the others asked. "We have agreed
they cannot attack us by the channel."

"No, they cannot attack us from the channel, but they can attack us
from somewhere else now they know we are here. They will find some
place where they can land and take us in rear."

An exclamation of dismay broke from the other captains.

"_Sapriste!_ I never thought of that. Of course they can. I have never
examined the coast on the other side, but there must be places where
they could land."

"No doubt there are; and you may be quite sure that is the course they
will adopt. These English are slow, but they are not fools; and I will
bet ten to one that is the next move they will