sculled her off, unless you
will be charitable enough to give me a tow."

"Of course I will, with the utmost pleasure," answered Favart. And away
he bustled forward, shouting an order for all hands to lay aft and get a
couple of boats into the water. It was a very great relief to me to be
rid of the fellow for a few minutes, for, truth to tell, the interview
was beginning to get upon my nerves a bit; I could see that the French
seaman's estimate of his chief officer was just, and that Favart was
indeed "a sharp one." True, I had managed to hoodwink him, thus far,
but I was in constant dread of saying or doing something that might
awaken his suspicions, in which case all the fat would at once be in the
fire; for I had placed myself absolutely in his power, and I judged him
to be a man who would take a terrible revenge, should he prematurely
discover that something was wrong. Moreover, if his suspicions should
once be aroused, and verified, not only did we stand to lose the ship--
which I was quite determined to capture--but with twenty stout seamen at
his back he was fully capable of recapturing the factory and releasing
all the prisoners, when we should find ourselves in a very pretty mess.
Thus far, however, everything seemed to be going admirably, and I told
myself that all I had to do was to keep my nerve and neither say nor do
anything to excite suspicion; indeed it was this consideration that
caused me to hang about aboard _La Belle Estelle_ rather than hurry away
ashore again as soon as I had delivered my message.

There was a great deal of fuss and bustle on board the brig, while the
Frenchmen were clearing away and lowering the boats; then, with a vast
amount of jabber, they went down the side, took their places, and shoved
off, with me and my dinghy in tow.

Now came the critical moment when everything must be won or lost; for,
personally, I had done all that was possible, and the rest depended
entirely upon the intelligence of the little party of seamen to whom I
had entrusted the carrying out of my plan; I had explained that plan to
them, and directed them what to do and precisely when to do it, and I
was also decoying the enemy into the trap prepared for them; but I
foresaw clearly that if my men acted prematurely, and thus gave the
alarm, or, on the other hand, allowed the psychological moment to pass
before they put in an appearance, the whole affair was likely enough to
end in a ghastly tragedy.