ind by the
palm-grove just behind them. The three men were careless as to the
pirates seeing the smoke now, knowing that even Jose, with all his
reputation for courage and daring, would not venture to return in the
teeth of the British squadron, to attempt to secure them; yet they could
not help speculating as to what the pirate must be thinking, or what his
feelings must be, now that it was borne in upon him that people had been
on the island, though he had not found them. He would, of course, be
able to make a shrewd guess as to Gomez's fate, and Roger could picture
to himself the fellow's disappointment and anger. For, having failed to
find the papers, in search of which he had returned to the sand-bank, he
would almost certainly arrive at the conviction that the unknown people
on the island, who had evaded his keen eye in so mysterious a manner,
had come into possession of them. To have been so near the recovery of
his cherished papers, and yet to have missed them! Roger could picture
the man standing on the quarterdeck of the _Black Pearl_ gnashing his
teeth in impotent fury, and shaking his fist at the island as he
beheld the column of thick smoke rising from it. But for the
swiftly-disappearing pirate none of them cared a jot, since were not
their own dearly-loved ships near them? And, if God were good, would
they not soon be once more treading those white decks that they knew and
loved so well? Meanwhile, however, it seemed as though, even after all,
there might be a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip; for, despite the
smoke-signal that they were sending up, the ships were holding
persistently on their course after the pirates.

More fuel was piled on, and the smoke went driving away to leeward in
dense clouds. Still there was no response or sign from the ships of its
having been seen, while they were now drawing rapidly away from the
island.

"I reckon," said Jake, "that they're all lookin' at the chase, aboard
they there craft. Why can't some of 'em take a squint aft at the
island? Then they would see us, or the smoke at any rate."

As if in answer to his complaint, and immediately following upon it,
they saw a stream of flags float up from the first vessel--which, as
they rightly guessed, was the ship that Mr Cavendish had taken command
of as his flag-ship,--and a few moments later the answering signal was
displayed from the rearmost vessel, which, evidently obeying the signal,
now came round upon