"What he told me, my boy: take possession, and hold it if the enemy come back. I have told the men to try and knock up a breastwork and close up the windows. To put it into a state of defence is not possible, but they can make it look stronger, and it will be better than the open jungle if those mongrel scoundrels do come on. Winks is there with half-a-dozen men; join them and superintend. Make them stick to it hard. I am afraid of their thinking that there is no danger, and taking it too coolly."

"All right, father," said Poole, giving Fitz a glance as he stood ready for starting off.

"Oh, by the way, Mr Burnett, I am sorry to have got you into this trouble. It doesn't seem the thing, does it? But I can't help myself.

I daren't let you get into the hands of the enemy, for they are a shady lot. Only please mind this; you are a looker-on, and you are not to fight."

"Of course not, sir," cried Fitz.

"Well, don't forget it. Let's have none of your getting excited and joining in, if the row does begin. But it's hardly likely. If the scoundrels see a strong-looking place they will give it a wide berth.

But if they do come, just bear this in mind; you are a spectator, and not to fire a shot."

"I shall not forget my position, sir," said Fitz quietly. "That's right. You can't be in a safer place than in the shelter of Ramon's farm. Off with you, Poole. I will join you soon."

The two lads trotted off, and as they ran on side by side, Fitz said rather testily--

"Your father needn't have talked to me like that. 'Tisn't likely that I should join in such a fight as this."

"Of course not," said Poole coolly; "only you look rather warlike carrying that double gun."

"Absurd! A sporting piece, loaded with small shot!" cried Fitz.

"Not so very small," said Poole, laughing. "I shouldn't like it to be loaded with them by any one firing at me. Oh, there's the hacienda yonder. I heard of this place when I was here before. It's a sort of summer-house near the river and sea, where Don Ramon used to come. My word, though, how it seems to have been knocked about! It looks as if there had been fighting here. The grounds have all been trampled down, and the porch has been torn away."

"What a pity!" cried Fitz, as he trotted up, with his gun at the trail.

"It must have been a lovely place. Oh, there are some of our men."

"Yes," said Poole, smiling to himself and giving a little emphasis to one word which he repeated; "there are some of 'our' men. Look at old Chips scratching his head."

For the carpenter on hearing their approach had stepped out into the wrecked verandah, and two or three of the sailors appeared at the long low windows belonging to one of the princ.i.p.al rooms.

"Oh, here y'are, Mr Poole, sir!" cried the carpenter, waving his navy straw hat and giving it two or three vicious sweeps at the flies. "Just the very gent as I wanted to see. How are yer, Mr Burnett, sir? Warm, aren't it? Don't you wish you was a chips, sir?" he added sarcastically, as Fitz gave him a friendly nod.

"A chips? A carpenter, Winks?" said Fitz. "No; why should I?"

"Of course not, sir. Because if you was you would be every now and then having some nice little job chucked at your head by the skipper."

"Why, of course," cried Poole. "What are you on board the schooner for?"

"Oh, nothing at all, sir--only to stop leaks and recaulk, cut sticks out of the woods to make new spars and yards, build a new boat now and then, or a yard or two of bulwark or a new keel. Just a few little trifles of that sort. It's just like so much play. Here's the very last of them.

Nice little job ash.o.r.e by way of a change. Skipper's fresh idea. He didn't say so, but seems to me as if he means to retire from business, and this 'ere's going to be his country house."

"And a very nice place too," said Fitz, laughing. "It only wants doing up."

"That's right, sir," cried the carpenter; "only just wants doing up, and a bit of paint, and then all you'd have to do would be to order a 'technic.u.m van or two of new furniture out of Totney Court Road, or elsewhere. And an other nice little job for me to lay down the carpets and hang the picturs, and it would be just lovely."

"Well, you seem in a nice temper, Chips," said Poole.

"Temper, Mr Poole! Why, I feel as soft and gentle as a baby. I arn't got nothing to grumble at."

"And if you had you are the very last person in the world to say a word; eh, Chips?"

"Hear that, Mr Burnett, sir? That's Mr Poole, that is! He's known me two years and a narf, which means ever since he come on his first voyage, when I teached him how to handle an adze without cutting off his pretty little toes. If ever I wanted my character, Mr Burnett, sir, I should refer captains and other such to Mr Poole Reed, as knows me from the top of my head down to the parts I put lowest in my shoes."

"Look here, Chips, I want you to get to work. Whatever is the matter now?"

"Oh, nothing at all, sir; nothing at all! Carn't you see how I am smiling all over my face?"

"Oh yes, I know your smile. Now then, speak out. What do you want?

What is there wrong?"

"Oh, nothing worth speaking of, Mr Poole. I arn't the sort of fellow to grumble, Mr Burnett, sir; but now just look here, gentlemen.--Get out, will you! Bother the flies! I wish I could 'ford to keep a n.i.g.g.e.r with a whisk made out of a horse's tail. They are regular tarrifying me to-day. I wouldn't keer if I could kill one now and then; but I carn't.

Either they're too fast or I'm too slow. But now just look here, both on you, gentlemen. Here's a pretty position for a fellow to be in!

n.o.body can't say even in this hot country as I arn't willing to work my spell, but here's the skipper says to me, he says, 'I want you to do everything you can,' he says; 'take what men you want, and make this 'ere aitch--he--hay--ender as strong as you can.' Now, I ask you, just give your eyes a quick turn round the place and tell me, as orficers as knows what's what, how am I to make a thing strong as arn't strong, and where there arn't a bit of stuff to do it with? For what's the good of a lot of bamboo-cane when what one wants is a load of good honest English oak, or I wouldn't say no to a bit of teak."

"Well, it is a ramshackle sort of place, certainly, Chips."

"Ramshackle, sir? Why, a ramshackle shed is a Tower of London to it.

It's just a bandbox, that's what it is--just one of them chip and blue paper things the same as my old mother used to keep her Sunday bonnet in. Why, I could go to one end, shet my eyes, and walk through it anywhere. Why, it wouldn't even keep the wind out. Look at them windows--jalousies, as they calls them, in their ignorant foreign tongue. Look at 'em; just so many laths, like a Venetia blind. What's to be done to them? And then them doors. Why, they wouldn't keep a cat in, let alone a Spaniel out. I dunno what's to be done; and before I know where I am the skipper will be back asking me what I have been about. Do you know what I'm about? About off my head. A man can't make something out of nothing. Where's my tools? says you. Aboard the schooner. Where's the stuff to work with? Nowhere. Why, I aren't got so much as a tenpenny-nail. It's onreasonable; but I suppose it aren't no use to talk. Come on, my lads, and let's see. Axes here. Get one in between them two floor-boards and wedge one of them out--that's the style!" And as he spoke, _rip, rip, crack_! the board was wrenched out of its place, leaving a long opening and easy access to the boards on either side. "Steady there, mates; don't lose a nail. They are very poor ones, and only rusty iron now, but just you handle them as if they was made of gold. That's your sort. We'll just nail them boards up across the lower parts of them windows, far enough apart for us to fire through, and when that's done they'll make a show if they don't do anything else. It'll satisfy the skipper; but as to keeping the bullets out, when the beggars begin to fire, why, Mr Poole, sir, I believe I could take half-a-dozen of them little sugar-loaf-shaped bits of lead in my mouth and stand outside and blow them through.--What do you say, Camel? Where's a hammer? There are dozens of them, mate, in High Street, Liverpool, at any price from one-and-six up to two bob. Did you leave your head aboard the schooner?"

"Did I leave my head aboard the schooner? What are you talking about?"

growled the cook.

"Thought perhaps you had left it in the galley, stood up in one of the pots to keep it safe till you got back. Turn the axe round and use the head of that, stoopid. Chopper-heads was invented before hammers, I know."

"Well, you needn't be so nasty, mon," growled the cook.

"Make you nasty if you was set to cook a dinner without any fire, and no meat."

Andy grunted and began hammering away, helped by two of his messmates, who held the floor-boards in place while such nails as had come out of the joists were driven in.

Satisfied with this, the carpenter set to work at the end of one of the joists, using a sharp axe so deftly that the great wedge-like chips began to fly, and in a minute's time he had cut right through.

"That's your sort!" he cried. "Now, lads, two on you hoist up."

The men had hold of the freshly-cut end of the stout joist in an instant, raised it up, its length acting as a powerful lever, and it was wrenched out of its place, to be used beneath its fellows so dexterously that in a short time there was no longer any floor to the princ.i.p.al room of the hacienda, the joists being piled up on one side, and those who were in it stood now a couple of feet lower with the window-sills just on a level with their chests.

"Bravo! Splendid!" cried Fitz excitedly. "Why, that gives us a capital breastwork--bulwark, I mean--to fire over."

"Yes," cried Poole, "and plenty of stuff, Chips, for you to barricade the doors."

"Barricade the doors, sir? You mean stop 'em up, I suppose. But how?

Arn't got a big cross-cut saw in your pocket, have you?"

"Go on, old chap, and don't chatter so," cried Poole. "Break them in half."

"Nice tradesman-like job that'll make, sir! It is all very fine to talk. Here, stand aside, some on you. I never was in a hurry but some thick-headed foremast-man was sure to get in the way. Let's see; where's my rule? Yah! No rule, no pencil, no square. Lay that there first one down, mates. What are they? About twelve foot. Might make three out of each of them."

One of the joists was laid on the earth close to a collection of dry leaves.