"So can I," whispered Fitz, though the words were not addressed to him.

"Why, Poole, he means to fight!"

"Does he? For a penny he doesn't mean to let them come on board. Why, look at b.u.t.ters; he's lying down on the deck."

"Yes," whispered Fitz; "to be in shelter if they fire while he's working the spokes. Look, the sails are filling once again."

"It's too soon," whispered Poole hoa.r.s.ely. "They'll see from the gunboat and fire, and if they do--"

"They will miss us, my boy," said the skipper, who had approached unseen. "Lie down, my lads--every one on deck."

"And you too, father," whispered Poole. "They may hit you with a bullet."

"Obey orders," said the skipper sternly. "The captain must take his chance."

_Crack, crack, crack_, and _whizz, whizz, whizz_!

The officer of the cutter saw through the manoeuvre at last, and fired at the retreating schooner's skipper, while a minute later, as the _Silver Teal_ was gliding rapidly into a bank of gloom that seemed to come like so much solid blackness down the vale, there was a bright flash as of lightning, a deep boom as of thunder, which shook the very air, and a roar of echoes dying right away, while the great stars overhead now stood out rapidly one by one in the purple velvet arch overhead.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

BY THE SKIN OF THEIR TEETH.

"When we have escaped," cried Fitz excitedly, a few minutes later, a very brief time having sufficed to shut out the cutter and gunboat too.

"Escaped!" said Poole, with a little laugh, as he clapped his companion on the shoulder. "Well, _we_ have."

"Yes, yes, of course," said Fitz; "I meant you. But what will be done now? We are--you are regularly shut in this bay. The gunboat will keep guard, and her boats will begin patrolling up and down so that you can't get away. It only means waiting till morning."

"Waiting till morning, eh?"

"Of course. And then they'll sink you as sure as you are here."

"Yes," said Poole, laughing merrily; "not a doubt about it."

"Well," said Fitz, "I don't see anything to laugh at."

"Don't you? Then I do. Why, you don't suppose for a moment that we shall be here? The fellows in that fishing-boat brought father some despatch orders for a _rendezvous_ somewhere else, I should say. Just you wait a little, my boy, and you will see what the _Teal_ can do. She can't dive, but she can dodge."

"Dodge in a little bay like this--dodge a gunboat?"

"Of course. Just wait till it's a little darker. I dare say father has got his plans all ready made, just the same as he had when it seemed all over just now. If he and old Burgess were too much for the Spanish dons in broad daylight, you may depend upon it that they will give them the go-by in the dark. Quiet! Here he is."

"Yes, here I am, my boy," said the skipper quietly. "Look here, you two. Hear--see--as much as you can:--and say nothing. Everything on board now must be quiet, and not a light seen."

"All right, father," replied Poole, "but I can't see anything of the gunboat's lights."

"No, and I don't suppose you will. They will take care not to show any.

Well, Mr Burnett, may I trust you not to betray us by shouting a warning when the enemy are near? We are going to play a game of hide-and-seek, you know. We shall do the hiding, and the Spaniards will have to seek. Of course you know," he continued, "it would be very easy for you to shout when we were stealing along through the darkness, and bring the enemy's boats upon us just when they are not wanted."

"Well, yes, sir, I was thinking so a little while ago," replied the middy.

"Well, that's frank," said the skipper; "and is that what I am to expect from your sense of duty?"

Fitz was silent.

"Well, sir," he said at last, "I don't quite know. It's rather awkward for me, seeing how I am placed."

"Yes--very; but I don't believe you would think so if you knew what sort of a character this usurping mongrel Spaniard is. There is more of the treacherous Indian in his blood than of the n.o.ble Don. Perhaps under the circ.u.mstances I had better make you a prisoner in your cabin with the dead-light in, so that you can't make a signal to the enemy with lamp or match."

"It would be safer, sir," said Fitz.

"But most unpleasant," continued the skipper. "But there, my lad, situated as you are, I don't think you need strain a point. Give me your parole that you will content yourself with looking on, and I won't ask you to go below."

"Oh, he will, father. I'll answer for that," cried Poole.

"Answer for yourself, my boy. That's enough for you to do. Let Mr Burnett give me his own a.s.surance. It would be rather mean, wouldn't it, Mr Burnett, if you did betray us?"

"Yes, sir; horrible," cried Fitz quickly. "But if it were one of our ships I should be obliged."

"Of course," said the skipper; "but as it is you will hold your tongue?"

"Yes, sir; I shall look on."

"That's right. Now then," continued the skipper, "the game's going to begin. There is sure to be some firing, so keep well down under the shelter of the bulwarks. Of course they will never have a chance to take aim, but there is no knowing what a random shot may do."

"Want me to do anything, father?" said Poole eagerly.

"No, my boy. There is nothing you can do. It will all lie with Mr Burgess; b.u.t.ters, who will be at the wheel; myself, and the men who trim the sails."

"You are going to sail right away then; eh, father?"

"That all depends, my boy--just as the chances come."

"But as the schooner draws so little water, sir," said Fitz eagerly, "won't you sail close in under the sh.o.r.e?"

"No, my lad. That's just what the enemy will expect, and have every boat out on the _qui vive_. I don't mind telling you now what my plans will be."

He was silent for a few minutes, and they dimly made out that he was holding up his left hand as a warning to them not to speak, while he placed his right behind his ear and seemed to be listening, as if he heard some sound.

"Boat," he said, at last, in a whisper, "rowing yonder right across our stern. But they didn't make us out. Oh, I was about to tell you what I meant to do. Run right by the gunboat as closely as I can without touching her, for it strikes me that will be the last thing that they will expect."

He moved away the next moment, leaving the boys together once again, to talk in whispers about the exciting episode that was to come.

"I say, Fitz," whispered Poole excitedly, "isn't this better than being on board your sleepy old _Tonans_?"

"You leave the sleepy old _Tonans_ alone," replied the middy. "She's more lively than you think."