ere soon mended and the slack places hauled up taut, while the
_Teal's_ crew sauntered about the deck, waiting patiently for the next
attack, and compared notes about the slight injuries they had received.

Meanwhile the skipper and mate were anxiously on the alert for what
might happen next.

"I want to know what they mean, Burgess," the lads heard the skipper
say. "They'll never put up with such a rebuff as this."

"Oh, I don't know," growled Burgess. "The officers wouldn't, of course,
but they'll never get those swabs to face us for another bout."

"What do you think, then? That they will go back for fresh boats'
crews?"

"That's somewhere about it, or some stinkpots to heave aboard, or maybe,
if they have got one, for a barge or pinnace with a boat's gun."

"Possibly," said the skipper, and Poole gave Fitz a nudge with his elbow
as if to ask, Did you hear that?--a quite unnecessary performance, for
Fitz had drunk in every word.

"Yes," continued the skipper; "they'll be after something or another.
Don Cousin is bound to take us by some means, and we must be on the
look-out for a surprise. Can we wait till dark and slip out to sea
again?"

"No," said the mate abruptly; "I want broad daylight for anything like
that. I couldn't take the schooner a quarter of a mile in the dark
without getting her on the rocks."

"I suppose not," said the skipper; "and I suppose it's no use to try and
get higher up the stream?"

"Not a bit," replied the mate. "The boats would follow us anywhere. I
am very sorry. I've brought you into a regular trap, and there's only
one way out, and the gunboat's sitting on it. But under the
circumstances there was nothing else to be done. How I do hate these
tea-kettles! But one must look the plain truth in the face. They can
go anywhere, and we, who depend upon our sails, can't."

"That's all true enough," said the skipper, "but it doesn't better our
position. What I want to know is, how things are going on lower down.
Now, if you lads, or one of you," he continued, turning to the boys,
"could shin up that high cliff yonder you could see the boats and the
gunboat too, and make signals to us so that we might know what to
expect."

"All right, father," said Poole sharply, and he glanced at Fitz as he
spoke; "have me landed in the dinghy, and I'll go up and see."

Fitz looked at the speaker, and his eyes said, "All right, I'll come
with you;" but the skipper made no answer fo