adies' cabin, when
Captain Branscome sang out to me to be in no such hurry, but to fold
and stow both sails neatly without detaching them--the one along the
bowsprit, the other at the foot of the fore-stay, when they could be
re-hoisted at a moment's notice.

These precautions were the more mysterious to me because a moment
later he sent me to the locker to fetch up a tarpaulin cover for the
mainsail, which he snugged down carefully, to protect it (as he
explained) from the night dews--so carefully that he twice
interrupted Mr. Goodfellow to correct a piece of slovenly tying.
The sail being packed at length to his satisfaction, we laced the
cover about it carefully as though it had been a lady's bodice.

Our next business was to get out the boats. The _Espriella_
possessed three--a gig, shaped somewhat like a whaleboat; a useful,
twelve-foot dinghy; and a small cockboat, or "punt" (to use our West
Country name), capable, at a pinch, of accommodating two persons.
This last we carried on deck; but the larger pair at the foot of the
rigging on either side, whence we unlashed and lowered them by their
falls. The punt we moored by a short painter under the bowsprit, so
that she lay just clear of our stem.

This small job had fallen to me by the Captain's orders, and I
clambered back, to find him and Mr. Rogers standing by the
accommodation ladder on the port side, and in the act of stepping
down into the dinghy. Indeed, Mr. Rogers had his foot on the ladder,
and seemed to wait only while the Captain gave some instructions to
Mr. Goodfellow, who was listening respectfully.

"Are we all to go ashore in the dinghy?" I asked.

The Captain turned on me severely, and I observed that he and Mr.
Rogers had armed themselves with a musket apiece, each slung on a
bandolier, and that Mr. Rogers wore an axe at his belt.

"Certainly not," said the Captain. "Mr. Rogers and I are going on
shore to prospect, and I was at this moment instructing Mr.
Goodfellow that nobody is to leave the ship without leave from me."

"But--" I began, and checked myself, less for fear of his anger than
because I was actually on the verge of tears. I looked around for
the ladies, but they had retired to their cabin. Oh, this was
hard--a monstrous tyranny! And so I told Mr. Goodfellow hotly as the
dinghy pushed off and, Mr. Rogers paddling her, drew away up the
creek and rounded the bend under the almost overhanging trees.

"When are they coming