may be up to her before they find us out. The moon won't rise
for the next four hours, and we shall have time to board, and get her
under weigh before then. The breeze, you see, is setting down the
channel, and if it holds as at present, we shall have an easy job, or if
she should take the ground, and we find that we cannot get her off, we
can but set her on fire, and so have done with her."

Jack and Terence thought Needham's plan a good one, and resolved to
carry it out, trusting to his sagacity to pilot them up to where they
hoped to find the schooner.

A short distance off was a high bank which projected some way into the
channel. As the trees which grew on it hung over the water it would
afford shelter to the boats, and the men while there might take some
refreshment, and snatch a couple of hours' sleep. They accordingly
pulled in, and found that the place fully answered their expectations.
Jack was too wise, however, not to take precaution against surprise. He
and Terence having landed, fixed on four spots at which they posted
sentries, armed with muskets and cutlasses, leaving orders with them to
fire should the enemy appear, and then to retreat to the boats. They
had been so carefully concealed among the boughs, that even should any
one pass up or down the channel, Jack felt sure that they were not
likely to be discovered. Biscuit and beef, with grog, having been
served out, the rest of the men lay down along the thwarts or at the
bottom of the boats, to enjoy such rest as could be found. Jack and
Terence, however, sat up; they were too anxious about the success of the
expedition to sleep, indeed they rather doubted whether they were wise
in venturing up the narrow channel, through which they might possibly
have to run the gauntlet on their return, between two fires from a
vastly superior number of foes.

"We have often had to encounter far greater dangers," observed Terence.

"Yes, but then we did not knowingly run into them," said Jack, "and that
makes all the difference."

Still neither of them liked to abandon the enterprise, they calculated
that half an hour would carry them up to the schooner, and little more
than that time, supposing the breeze should hold, would enable them to
get clear of the channel.

"It won't take us many minutes to capture her, so we need not allow much
time for that," observed Jack. "We may give the men, at all events,
nearly three hours' rest."

Three hours went