ill at once made out the list of the stores he
required, and sent Harman on shore with it, telling him to take two boats
and bring everything back with him. At five o'clock in the afternoon the
two boats returned, carrying all the stores required. The water-tanks had
already been filled up, and a quarter of an hour later the cutter was
under sail and leaving the harbour.

Will, of course, had nothing whatever to guide him in his search for the
schooner beyond the fact that she was heading west at the time when he
last saw her. At that time they were to the south of Porto Rico, so he
concluded that she was making for Cuba. Every day, therefore, he cruised
along the coast of that island, sometimes sending boats ashore to examine
inlets, at other times running right out to sea in the hope that the
pirate, whose spies he had no doubt were watching his movements, might
suppose he had given up the search and was sailing away. Nevertheless, he
could not be certain that she would endeavour to avoid him should she
catch sight of him, for with a glass the pirate captain could have made
out the number of guns _L'Agile_ carried, and would doubtless feel
confident in his own superiority, as he would not be able to discover the
weight of the guns. Will felt that if the pirate should fight, his best
policy would be at first to make a pretence of running, in the hope that
in a long chase he might manage to knock away some of the schooner's
spars.

One day he saw the boats, which had gone up a deep inlet, coming back at
full speed.

"We saw a schooner up there," Harman reported; "I think she is the one we
are in search of. When we sighted her she was getting up sail."

"That will just suit me. We will run out to sea at once; that will make
him believe we are afraid of him."

Scarcely had the boats been got on board, and the cutter's head turned
offshore, when the schooner was seen issuing from the inlet. Will ordered
every sail to be crowded on, and had the satisfaction of seeing the
schooner following his example. He then set the whole of the crew to shift
the long-tom from the bow to the stern. Its muzzle was just high enough to
project above the taffrail, and in order to hide it better he had hammocks
and other material piled on each side of it so as to form a breastwork
three feet high.

"They will think," he said, "that we have put this up as a protection
against shot from his bow-chasers."

After watching the schooner for