hey do not greatly trouble
me; for if they keep no better watch there on other nights than they did
on this, it would be easy for a couple of resolute men to enter the
place, even as I did, bind and gag the sentinels, and spike all eight of
the guns, and never a man of them any the wiser until they came to put
fire to their pieces.

"Then, having seen all that I desired, I left the battery as I had
entered it, and made my way up the hill to the castle on the top. Here,
however, I was less fortunate, there being no way of entering the
building, save by walking in through the gate, or climbing the walls
with the help of a scaling ladder. The place is much more formidable
looking than the battery, being in appearance a strong castle, with dry
ditch, drawbridge, and portcullis to the main and, so far as I could
see, the only entrance. In plan it is shaped like the letter L, with
the angle turned harbour-ward; and it must mount about thirty pieces of
ordnance, for I managed to count that number of embrasures on its two
faces. But of sentinels I saw none; so, if they set a watch, I presume
that, like those in the battery, the rascals are in the habit of
sleeping their watch through; which is so much the better for
freebooters like ourselves. For the dry ditch is not difficult to
cross, and I estimate that, once on the other side, a ladder of twenty
foot in length should enable a party of half a dozen to reach the top;
and, once on the parapet, they should be able to spike the whole thirty
of those footy ordnance in ten minutes. And all this means, friend
Dick, that with the whole of the heavy ordnance spiked, in castle and in
battery, there is nothing to prevent the _Adventure_ from sailing into
the harbour, coming to an anchor, storming and blowing up both defences,
and then holding the town to ransom, as well as capturing the galleon!
For, as my soul liveth, I firmly believe that the castle and the battery
constitute the entire defences of Cartagena! And then, hey for old
England again; for, with the ransom of the town and the booty from the
galleon, there ought to be enough to make us all rich for life."

"And if there is not, it ought not to be very difficult for us to play
the same game with two or three other towns," remarked Dick. "For I
suppose it is safe to reckon that all the towns along the Main are
wealthy enough to pay for looting?"

"Ay; no doubt there are good pickings to be had out of every one of
t