are snug
in port, I am not going to run the risk of losing any of my tackle while
the wind is shifting about like this. If I was you I should go in for a
general dry up, and maybe you and your uncle, if the rain holds off,
would like to go and have a look round the town."

The skipper moved away, and Rodd went to the side to have another look
at the French brig, and then, not satisfied, he went below to fetch the
small spy-glass, finding his uncle busy re-arranging some of his
apparatus in the laboratory, and as he did not seem to be required, the
boy took the small telescope from where it hung and made his way back
again on deck, where he focussed the glass and began to scan the brig,
scrutinising her rig and everything that he could command, from trucks
to deck, making out the long gun covered by a great tarpaulin, and then
bringing the glass to bear upon such of the crew as came within his
scope.

And as he watched the well-built, smartly-rigged vessel with such
knowledge as he had acquired during his life at the great English port,
he made out, though fairly distant now, that there seemed to be
something in Joe Cross's remarks, so that when he closed his glass to go
down below, he began to dwell on the possibility of the smart brig being
indeed a privateer, and this set him thinking of how horrible it would
be if she did turn inimical and make an attempt at what would have been
quite an act of piracy if she had followed the _Maid of Salcombe_ out to
sea and seized her as a prize.

"Why, it would break uncle's heart, after all his preparations for the
expedition," mused the boy; "and besides it would be so treacherous.
But Captain Chubb would not give up, I am sure. I never thought of it
before, but he must have thought a good deal more about an accident such
as this happening when he was taking such pains to drill and train the
men. What did he say--that as we were going along a coast where the
people were very savage and spent most of their time in war and
fighting, we ought to be prepared for danger, in case we were attacked.
Was he thinking of the French as well as the savages when he said this?
Perhaps so. If one of his men thought so, why shouldn't he? Well, I
will ask him first time I get him alone. Hullo! What are they doing
there? Somebody going ashore from the brig."

Rodd could see with the naked eye the lowering down of a ship's boat
over the brig's side, and that made him quickly focus his gl