ble carnage that would ensue if
the boats of the English vessels should try to force an entrance. The
following morning a lookout on the cliffs reported that two boats had
left the ships and were rowing toward the shore. On reaching the foot
of the cliffs they rowed along abreast at a distance of thirty or
forty yards of the shores. They stopped rowing at the mouth of the
entrance, and were suddenly hailed by the captain of the schooner, who
was standing on the cliff above.

"If you try to enter," he said, "you will be destroyed at once. We
don't want to harm you if you will leave us alone; but we have guns
enough to blow a whole fleet out of water, and will use them if we are
driven to it."

"Thank you for your warning," a voice shouted back from the boats, and
then an order was given, and they rowed back to the ships.

"Well, have you found the place, Lieutenant Pearson?" the captain of
the frigate asked as the young lieutenant stepped on deck.

"Yes, sir, we have found it. It is just where the boat turned and came
out again."

"I can see no signs of it now," the captain said, examining the shore
with his telescope.

"No, sir; you wouldn't until you were within a hundred yards of it.
But rowing close in as we were we saw it some time before we got
there. The rocks overlap each other, and there is a narrow channel
some fifty yards long between them. Apparently this makes a sharp turn
at the other end and opens out. We saw nothing of the vessels we were
chasing yesterday, but on high ground facing the channel there is a
battery of six guns planted so as to rake anything coming in. There
are some chains across the end. While we were lying on our oars there
we were hailed." And he then repeated the warning that had been given.

"Nasty place to get into--eh?" the captain said thoughtfully.

"Very nasty, sir. You see, the guns would play right down into the
channel; then there are the chains to break down, and perhaps more
batteries, and certainly the ships to tackle when we get inside."

"Is there width for the frigate to enter?" the captain asked.

"Just width, I should say, and no more, sir. We should certainly have
to get the yards braced fore and aft, but the ship herself would go
through with something to spare, I should say."

"What depth of water is there close in shore?"

"Plenty of depth sir, right up to the foot of the cliffs; but of
course I can say nothing as to the depth in the channel."

"No,