“It is as I feared,” he said when he joined the other captains; “there are three bays about two miles apart and at all of these a landing could be easily effected.  The land slopes gradually down to the edge of the sea.  They might land at any of them, and of course the guns of the schooner would cover the landing if we opposed it.”

“Still we might beat them back,” one of the others said.  “We can muster about three hundred men between us, and they are not likely to land more than that.”

“I don’t think that would be a good plan,” Captain Vipon said.  “To begin with, we can’t tell which of the three places they may choose for landing at.  We certainly cannot hurry through the woods anything like so fast as they can row along the shore, so that would place us at a disadvantage.  In the second place, you know very well that we can’t rely upon our men defeating an equal number of these John Bulls; and in the last place, we should not gain much if we did.  We should lose a tremendous lot of our men, and the schooner would go off and fetch two or three more ships of war here, so that in the end they must beat us.  I think that there is no question that it will be better for us to take our chances of escape now.”

“Either the schooner will come back to-night and tow the boats of the frigate round the other side of the island, or she will send a boat with the news that she has found a landing-place, and then the frigate will send all her boats.  I don’t think the attack will take place to-night; but it may be made.  It certainly won’t if the schooner comes round, for the wind is very light.  She will not leave her anchorage until it is quite dark; and by the time she has got round to the frigate, and the boat’s crews are ready to start, and they all get to the back of the island, it will be morning.  If they send a boat it would reach the frigate after three hours’ rowing; give them an hour to get ready and start, and three hours to row back, so that brings it to nearly the same thing.  Beside, I don’t suppose in any case they would land before morning, for they would run the risk of losing their way in the woods.  So my proposal is that at about two o’clock in the morning we make a start, separate as soon as we get out of the harbor, and each shift for himself.  The frigate will have more than half her crew away, and being so short-handed will not be so smart with her sails, and will not be able to work half her guns; so that at the outside two out of the three of us ought to get safely off.”

“But suppose that the schooner happens to be round here, and they make up their minds to wait a day before attacking, we should have two of them after us then; and that schooner sails like a witch.”

“I have thought of that,” Captain Vipon said.  “My idea is to put a man on the top of the cliff just above where the schooner is anchored.  If she is lying there he is to light a fire a short distance back from the edge of the cliff.  There should be another man on the top of the hill.  When he sees the fire he shall show a lantern three times.  We will return the signal to let him know that we see it.  If the schooner goes away early in the evening the lookout is not to light the fire until he sees her returning, at whatever hour it may be.  The moment we see the light we will set sail.’