Ralph looked about and presently discovered an open space, free from fallen leaves or any other shelter for a lurking snake, and persuaded Jacques to sit down and eat his biscuit and bananas in comfort.  The sailor did so, but the manner in which his glances kept wandering round him in search of snakes showed that he had not yet recovered his equanimity.  When they had finished their meal Ralph proposed that they should climb up to the highest point of ground they could find, and take a view over the island.  Two hours’ walking took them to the top of a lofty hill.  From the summit they were enabled to obtain a distant view.  The island was, they judged, some seven or eight miles across, and fully twice that length.  Several small islands lay within a few miles distant, and high land rose twenty miles off.

“This must be a large island,” Ralph said.  “Do you know where we are, Jacques?”

“I have no idea whatever,” the sailor said; “and I don’t suppose any one on board, except the officers, has, any more than me.  The charts are all in the captain’s cabin; and I know no more of the geography of these islands than I do of the South Seas, and that’s nothing.  It’s quite right to keep it dark; because, though I don’t suppose many fellows on board any of the three craft would split upon us if he were captured, because, you see, we each have a share in the profits of the voyage as well as our regular pay, and, of course, we should lose that if those storehouses, which are pretty well choked up with goods, were to get taken, there’s never any saying what some mean scamp might do if he were offered a handsome reward.  So the fewer as knows the secret the better.”

“Look Jacques!  Look at that full-rigged ship that has just come out from behind that island.  She looks to me like a frigate.”

“And that she is,” the sailor replied.  “Carries forty guns, I should say, by her size.  English, no doubt.  Well, we had better go down again, lad.  I must report to the captain that this craft is cruising in these waters.  It will be dark before we are back, and I don’t want to be in the woods after dark; there’s no saying what one might tread on.  I thought that we would stretch ourselves out under the trees for to-night and go aboard in the morning, but I feel different now.  Bless you, I should never close an eye.  So I propose as we goes down so as not to be noticed by them chaps up at the store, and then gets hold of a boat and rows on board quiet.”

“I am quite willing to do that Jacques.  I don’t think I should get much sleep either in the woods.”

“No, I guess not, lad.  Come along; the sun is halfway down already, and I would not be left in these woods after dark, not for six months’ pay.  The thought of that snake makes me crawl all over.  Who would have thought now, when I lugged you in over the bowsprit of La Belle Marie that night in the channel, that you were going to save my life some day.  Well, I don’t suppose, lad, I shall ever get quits with you, but if there is a chance you can count upon me.  You come to me any night and say I am going to escape, Jacques, and I will help you to do it, even if they riddle me with bullets five minutes afterward.”