heir side of the island. We now discussed the
possibility of dispatching those parties who were left behind, thinking
though there were many more than we expected, yet we might get rid of
them, and taking possession of La Luna, get off the island at once. A
mad scheme it certainly was and nothing but the ardent longing we had to
escape made us think of it so confidently.

In the meantime, Smart gained the captain's permission, to "settle" any
of the men he might catch in a convenient position, so as to shoot them,
without exposing himself or us to risk of discovery. So highly did he
appreciate this permission, that he never ceased day or night dodging
about and watching these people, and three times he came in with
ill-concealed triumph, though he respected our feelings too much to do
more than insinuate he had "settled" some one or more. We, in the
meanwhile, occupied ourselves in making sacks and putting food into
them, ready to start at a moment's warning should a favourable time
arrive.

The pirates, we suppose, now began to suspect, from the extraordinary
death of three of their men, that the two prisoners were concealed
somewhere in the island, and not being able to discover them, or to
account for deaths taking place in such different parts of the island,
they kept altogether, close to the plantation side, and left the bay
entirely to us.

This gave Smart an opportunity of getting to the ship and bringing off a
boat, which we concealed by day in a cleft of the rock, but nightly we
employed ourselves in running down to the shore with everything we had
collected, which Smart and the captain stowed in the ship. We had been
at this work about a week, in full confidence and in the highest
spirits, our hopes were great, the dangers of the voyage appeared as
nothing, all our plans seemed succeeding, when one night, just as we
were all creeping up, tired and worn out with our night's work, we heard
shriek upon shriek from one of our party.

The strong sonorous voice of the captain shouted to us to get to cover.
Smart followed, huddling us all in like sheep, but, dark as it was, we
could not see who was missing, and I could not trust my voice to ask. We
ran to the inner cavern, and there, by the light of the torch, we missed
the darling child, Zoe, and both the maids.

_Smart._--"Don't fret, Ma'am, don't fret, no harm is done. We'll have
'em back by the morn. The cap'in and I will just take a step out and
look about