“I wonder what that means?” the planter, who was sitting at dinner in his veranda with Jacob, said angrily.

“It looks like a signal fire,” Jacob remarked calmly.  “I have heard that they are sometimes lit on the seacoast of England as a signal to smugglers.”

“There are no smugglers here,” the planter said, “nor any cause for such a signal.”

He clapped his hands, and ordered the black slave who answered to tell the overseer to take two of the guards, and at once proceed to the fire, and examine its cause.  After dinner was over the planter went out to the slave huts.  All the white men were sitting or lying in the open air, enjoying the rest after their labor.  The negroes were singing or working in their garden plots, The list was called over, and all found to be present.

“I expect,” the planter said, “that it is only a silly freak of some of these black fellows to cause uneasiness.  It can mean nothing, for the garrison and militia could put down any rising without difficulty and there is no hope of escape.  In a week we could search every possible hiding-place in the island.”

“Yes, that is an advantage which you have over the planters in Virginia, to which place I hear our Scottish brethren have sent large numbers of the malignants.  There are great woods stretching no man knoweth how far inland, and inhabited by fierce tribes of Indians, among whom those who escape find refuge.”

That night when all was still Harry Furness and his seven comrades crept through the opening in the hut.  In the grove they were joined by Jacob.  They then made their way to the seashore, where they saw lying a large shallop, drawn partly up on the beach.  A man was sitting in her, while many other dark figures lay stretched on the sand near.  Harry and his party moved in that direction, and found that the men from two of the other plantations had already arrived.  A few minutes later the other two parties arrived.  The whole body advanced noiselessly along the shore, and seized and gagged the sleepers without the least difficulty or noise.  These were bound with ropes from the boat, and laid down one by one on the sand, at a distance from each other.

CHAPTER XIX.

A sea fight.

The instant the rowers were secured Harry Furness embraced his faithful follower William Long.  He had learned from Jacob that the ship had appeared in sight about two in the afternoon, and that it was not thought likely by the sailors of the port that she would reach it until the breeze sprang up in the morning, although she might get within a distance of five or six miles.  The whole party had, in concurrence with Harry’s orders, brought with them their hoes, which were the only weapons that were attainable.  It was agreed that their best course would be to row along the shore until near the lights of the port, then to row out and lay on