Some three hours after daybreak the dusky recruits came dropping in with weapons of all sorts—­firelocks, knives, bludgeons—­and with food, of which I for one was mighty glad, being sharp set after my swimming and a cold night.  The negroes made a great clamour as their numbers increased—­there were soon pretty nearly a hundred of them, all the able-bodied men on the estate and a fair sprinkling of women, too.  ’Twas hopeless, the noise being so great, to expect that Vetch would not get a shrewd notion of the size of our force, and I saw no reason for attempting to conceal it; indeed, I nourished a secret hope that, being a coward at heart, he would be daunted at sight of us, and yield up Mistress Lucy on terms.  But this hope soon took wing.

The tide had now left the brig high and dry on the sand.  She had heeled over, but not enough to make it possible for her crew to use their brass guns against the negroes who crowded the top of the cliff.  They made some attempt to train the guns, but desisted when they saw that the utmost elevation would reach no higher than halfway up.  But the cliff top was well within range of their muskets, as one unfortunate negro, approaching the edge too closely found to his cost.  A shot struck him on the leg, and he ran howling back, causing his companions to scuttle like rabbits into the woodland.

We had discussed during the night what course we should follow in the morning, but without arriving at any conclusion.  I hoped that we should find ourselves in a state to make an organized assault on the brig and carry it by main force; but this idea was speedily dashed when I came to take stock of our forces and armament.  We had but eight muskets among us; I counted more than twenty buccaneers on the sloping deck of the brig.  Though we so greatly outnumbered them I saw that a direct assault could not succeed.  From the vantage of the deck they would have us at their mercy; and though fifty disciplined men, even unarmed, might perhaps swarm up and overcome them by sheer weight of numbers, I believed that the negroes would have no stomach for so desperate an undertaking.

And my former gloom and trouble of mind descended upon me, when I saw the tide begin to creep up again.  Unless we could do something before the flood the buccaneers would without doubt get the vessel off, for she had not sufficient way on when she struck to run her deep into the sand, and they had only to jettison a part of her cargo to float her.

I walked apart with Cludde and Punchard, all three of us at our wit’s end.  With only eight muskets we could not fire fast enough to keep the deck clear of men, and our store of ammunition was scanty; further, I doubted whether the negroes were sufficiently practised with firearms to make good marksmen.  It seemed that we should ere long see the buccaneer vessel slipping out of our reach.

’Twas a chance act of Joe Punchard that drew me out of my heaviness, and set my wits a-jump.  We were walking along the cliffs, and came to that gap I have before mentioned, where Cludde and I had nearly broke our necks the night before.