The men were too tired that evening to do much, but ere the sun rose next morning Amyas had them hard at work fortifying their position.  It was, as I said, strong enough by nature; for though it was commanded by high cliffs on three sides, yet there was no chance of an enemy coming over the enormous mountain-range behind them, and still less chance that, if he came, he would discover them through the dense mass of trees which crowned the cliff, and clothed the hills for a thousand feet above.  The attack, if it took place, would come from below; and against that Amyas guarded by felling the smaller trees, and laying them with their boughs outward over the crest of the slope, thus forming an abatis (as every one who has shot in thick cover knows to his cost) warranted to bring up in two steps, horse, dog, or man.  The trunks were sawn into logs, laid lengthwise, and steadied by stakes and mould; and three or four hours’ hard work finished a stockade which would defy anything but artillery.  The work done, Amyas scrambled up into the boughs of the enormous ceiba-tree, and there sat inspecting his own handiwork, looking out far and wide over the forest-covered plains and the blue sea beyond, and thinking, in his simple straightforward way, of what was to be done next.

To stay there long was impossible; to avenge himself upon La Guayra was impossible; to go until he had found out whether Frank was alive or dead seemed at first equally impossible.  But were Brimblecombe, Cary, and those eighty men to be sacrificed a second time to his private interest?  Amyas wept with rage, and then wept again with earnest, honest prayer, before he could make up his mind.  But he made it up.  There were a hundred chances to one that Frank was dead; and if not, he was equally past their help; for he was—­Amyas knew that too well—­by this time in the hands of the Inquisition.  Who could lift him from that pit?  Not Amyas, at least!  And crying aloud in his agony, “God help him! for I cannot!” Amyas made up his mind to move.  But whither?  Many an hour he thought and thought alone, there in his airy nest; and at last he went down, calm and cheerful, and drew Cary and Yeo aside.  They could not, he said, refit the ship without dying of fever during the process; an assertion which neither of his hearers was bold enough to deny.  Even if they refitted her, they would be pretty certain to have to fight the Spaniards again; for it was impossible to doubt the Indian’s story, that they had been forewarned of the Rose’s coming, or to doubt, either, that Eustace had been the traitor.

“Let us try St. Jago, then; sack it, come down on La Guayra in the rear, take a ship there, and so get home.”

“Nay, Will.  If they have strengthened themselves against us at La Guayra, where they had little to lose, surely they have done so at St. Jago, where they have much.  I hear the town is large, though new; and besides, how can we get over these mountains without a guide?”