“I have picked four volunteers for your work, Captain Walsham.  They were somewhat surprised, at first, to find that they were required for a bout in a French prison; but sailors are always ready for any hare-brained adventure, and they made no objection whatever, when I explained what they would have to do.  Next to fighting a Frenchman, there’s nothing a sailor likes so much as taking him in.  Young Middleton goes in command of the boat.  He is a regular young pickle, and is as pleased at the prospect as if a French prison were the most amusing place in the world.  He knows, of course, that there will be some considerable danger of his being shot before he is taken prisoner; but I need hardly say that the danger adds to the interest of the scheme.  It’s a risky business you have undertaken, Captain Walsham, terribly risky; but, if you succeed, you will have saved the expedition from turning out a failure, and we shall all be under obligations to you for the rest of our lives.

“Has Captain Walsham told you what he is undertaking, Mr. Horton?”

“No, sir.”

“He is going to get taken prisoner, in the gig, in order that he may, if possible, give the French the slip again, find out some way down that line of cliffs, and so enable the general to get into the heart of the French expedition.  It is a grand scheme, but a risky one.

“The chances are a hundred to one against you, Captain Walsham.”

“That is just what the general said,” James replied, with a smile.  “I don’t think, myself, they are more than five to one against me; but, even if they were a thousand, it would be worth trying, for a thousand lives would be cheaply sacrificed to ensure the success of this expedition.”

“There are not many men who would like to try it,” the captain said.  “I say honestly I shouldn’t, myself.  Anything in the nature of duty, whether it’s laying your ship alongside a Frenchman of twice her weight of metal, or a boat expedition to cut out a frigate from under the guns of the battery, I should be ready to take my share in; but an expedition like yours, to be carried out alone, in cold blood and in the dark, I should have no stomach for.  I don’t want to discourage you, and I honour your courage in undertaking it; but I am heartily glad that the general did not propose to me, instead of to you, to undertake it.”

“You would have done it if he had, sir,” James said, smiling, “and so would any officer of this expedition.  I consider myself most highly honoured in the general entrusting me with the mission.  Besides, you must remember that it is not so strange, to me, as it would be to most men.  I have been for four years engaged in forest warfare, scouting at night in the woods, and keeping my ears open to the slightest sound which might tell of a skulking redskin being at hand.  My eyes have become so accustomed to darkness, that, although still very far short of those of the Indians, I can see plainly where one unaccustomed to such work would see nothing.  I am accustomed to rely upon my own senses, to step noiselessly, or to crawl along on the ground like an Indian.  Therefore, you see, to me this enterprise does not present itself in the same light as it naturally would to you.”