carried out at once; it is well to be on the safe side."

He accordingly gave the necessary orders, and the men turned to with a
will, with the result that the guns were soon arranged as Harry had
suggested, with the muzzles so pointing as to command not only the
adjacent bush but also the whole range of the beach. The weapons were
then loaded, and the party were reasonably secure from an attack in that
direction.

By this time the tide was ebbing fast, and the men took a pull on the
ropes secured to the ships' masts, with the result that the vessels soon
began to heel over perceptibly on their sides. As the tide continued to
drop, the ropes were hauled upon, and soon the vessels were down on
their beam-ends. Then the men, like a swarm of ants, grew busy on their
exposed sides, working with hammer and chisel, paint-pot and brush, and
the scene became one of great activity.

The tide had by this time retreated so far that the hulls of the vessels
were clear of the water, and the men could work right down to their
keels, the ships being hard and fast aground, so that they could not
possibly be moved until the next tide.

As they could not leave the captured Spaniards in the careened ships,
and dared not let them loose to help with the work, they had been
transferred to the two craft still afloat, the _Elizabeth_ and the _Good
Adventure_.

Roger and Harry were slung over the bow of the _Tiger_, both of them
busy with scrapers taking off the old paint before the new was put on.
It thus happened that they were higher above the level of the beach than
any of the others, the part of the hull upon which they were working
being just below the starboard cat-head.

Roger was scraping away merrily, when Harry plucked his sleeve.

"Is that the movement you were speaking of, Roger?" said he, pointing to
the brush.

"Yes, there it is again," said Roger excitedly; "only it is somewhat
nearer this time; and see, I am certain that was the flash of the sun
upon some steel weapon."

"Yes, I see; there it is again. I see it clearly now," answered Harry.

Just then a hail came from below in the captain's voice.

"Roger, my man, the cable secured to the maintopmast seems to be working
loose, and may carry away. Get up aloft, boy, and look at the seizing,
and, if necessary, put a fresh one on."

Roger hastened away up into the main-top, leaving Harry still in his
perch, and examined the seizing. It was, as the captain had