“‘T’ud ha’ saved a deal o’ trouble if that there barrel had rolled a bit further,” says Joe, and he picks up a stone and shies it out to sea, for the mere easement of his temper.  My eyes followed the flight of the stone idly, but when it flopped into the water a notion came to me which I was quick to impart.

“By Jupiter, Cludde,” I cried, “we’ll bombard ’em!”

He stared at me as though he feared my wits were astray, but when I pointed to the innumerable stones strewing the cliff side, from boulders of great size to nuggets no bigger than an apple, and showed how easy ’twould be for our negroes to cast them on to the very deck of the brig, his face changed, and I saw a light in his eyes that reminded me of the time when he was one of the ringleaders in the prankish tricks of the Shrewsbury Mohocks.  Then all at once he fell sober again.

“But what’s the good,” he said.  “We can clear the deck, ’tis true; but be never a whit the nearer to capturing the vessel.”

“I don’t know that,” said I.  “If we clear the deck they go down below; if they go down below they will not be able to keep so good a lookout upon us; and while the niggers are stoning the deck we may get a chance to creep up and be among ’em before they know it.”

“But they would see us from the portholes,” he persisted.

“True, if we are fools enough to approach ’em broadside,” I said.  “The bow is pointing shorewards; if we make for a point exactly opposite and go in single file in a line with the vessel’s keel, they will not see us unless they put their heads clean out of the portholes and look down and aslant, and they will not do that with the chance of getting a broken skull.”

“Smite my timbers,” cries Joe, “’tis a pretty ploy, and would tickle my captain mightily.  We’ll do it, sir, and all I wish is that the niggers can aim straight.”

We lost no time in putting things in trim for the venture, and indeed ’twould not be long before the tide washed the brig and rendered the attack I proposed impossible.  Gathering the negroes, we set them to collect stones of a fair size (but not too big, for I did not wish to break holes in the deck with jeopardy to Mistress Lucy), and pile them up so as to be handy.  And since I have ever believed that folk, whether black or white, work more willingly if they see the aim and purpose of their toil, I told them as they set about the task what our intent was.  It pleased them, and they worked with a will, being indeed childishly eager to begin the bombardment before the time was ripe.

When a sufficiency of missiles had been collected, I ranged the negroes along the cliff so that, while they could see the brig, they could scarcely be seen from it.  They were stupid enough to be sure; from what I saw of negroes then and since I cannot but think they are no better than children in intelligence; and in their eagerness to begin this merry sport, as they regarded it, they went a deal too near the edge of the cliff and exposed too large a portion of their bodies.