“From here to Cape La Move, following the indentations,
must be somewhere between five and six hundred miles,
perhaps more than that. The breeze is regular,
and with a sail we ought to make from forty to fifty
miles a day—say forty—so that
in three weeks we should thoroughly have searched
the coast, even allowing for putting in three or four
times a day to make inquiries. The yacht must
follow, keeping a few miles astern. At any rate
she must not pass us.
“At night when she anchors she must have two
head lights, one at the crosstrees and one at the
topmast head. I shall be on the lookout for her,
and we will take some blue lights and some red lights
with us. Every night I will burn a blue light,
say at nine o’clock. A man in the crosstrees
will make it out twenty miles away, and that will
tell them where I am, and that I don’t want
them. If I burn a red light it will be a signal
for the yacht to come and pick me up.”
“Then you will go in the boat yourself, Major?”
“Yes, I must be doing something. I shall
take Pedro with me, and perhaps Dominique. We
can get another pilot here. Dominique is a shrewd
fellow, and can get more out of the negroes than Pedro
can. Certainly, that will be the best plan, and
will avoid the necessity of spoiling the yacht’s
speed, which may be of vital importance to us at a
critical moment.
“Call Dominique down. I will send him ashore
at once with Pedro, to get hold of a good pilot and
four good negro boatmen, and a native sail. I
think that is all we want.”
As soon as the dinghy, with Dominique and Pedro, had
left the side of the yacht; the captain, by Frank’s
orders, set four men to work to paint the gig black,
while others gave a coat of dull lead colour to the
varnished oars. The order was received with much
surprise by the men, who audibly expressed their regret
at seeing their brightly varnished boat and oars thus
disfigured.
After about three hours on shore, the dinghy returned
loaded with fruit and vegetables, which Pedro had
purchased, and a native mast and sail. The former
was at once cut so as to step in the gig. The
sail was hoisted, and was then taken in hand by one
of the crew, who was a fair sailmaker, to be altered
so as to stand flatter. Half an hour later the
new pilot and four powerful negroes came alongside
in a shore boat.
It was now late in the afternoon, so the start was
postponed until the next morning. A few other
arrangements were made as to signalling, and it was
settled that if Frank showed a red light, a rocket
should be sent up from the yacht, to show that the
signal had been observed, and that they were getting
up sail. They were to keep their lights up, so
that Frank could make them out as they came up, and
put off to meet them.
