of a like kind would be permitted.

I needed assistance, however, to carry this notable scheme into effect,
and I accordingly took little Bobby Summers into my confidence.

The "Mouette," I ought to mention, had been brought round with the rest
of the fleet, and was occasionally employed in communicating between the
ships and the forces on shore. Bobby and I retained our former posts in
her, and as she was required at all hours of the day and night, we had
removed our chests and hammocks to her little cabin, merely visiting the
old "Juno" at odd times, to maintain our connexion with her, when we had
nothing else in particular to do.

This arrangement was most favourable to my scheme, inasmuch as it
allowed of my embarking upon it unmolested, and it also rendered little
Bobby's assistance available at whatever moment I might require it.

There seemed to be only one serious difficulty in my way, and that was
the want of a really good and effective disguise; and this difficulty
was quite unexpectedly removed by the merest accident.

I had taken Summers into my confidence, and had received from him a
prompt promise of his heartiest co-operation; the first dark night
therefore which followed upon the unfolding of my purpose to my
enthusiastic shipmate, we took the first steps necessary to its
accomplishment.

I am, as I think I have already mentioned, an excellent swimmer, and it
was upon the possession of this accomplishment that I chiefly based my
hopes of success. My plan was simply to row in as near the shore as
possible, accompanied by Summers, in the cockleshell of a dinghy
belonging to the "Mouette," and then quietly slip into the water and
swim the remainder of the distance. The dinghy in question was so very
diminutive a craft that I felt sure we might under favourable
circumstances get quite close in without being discovered.

The first thing which I considered necessary, was to ascertain the set
and rate of the tide, such as it was; and to do this, we started away in
the dinghy one very dark night, armed with a cutlass and a brace of
pistols each, and paddled leisurely in toward the shore.

We arrived in due time within about half a mile of the harbour's mouth,
and then laid upon our oars to watch the drift of a small piece of
plank, painted white, which we launched overboard, keeping the boat just
far enough away to prevent her influencing its course, while at the same
time able to distinguish its posi