But why there, or what for, I did not understand.
Now, as soon as the first bewilderment was over, Captain Carton gave the
order to land for the present. But this boat of his, with two hands left
in her, immediately put off again when the men were out of her, and kept
off, some yards from the shore. As she floated there, with the two hands
gently backing water to keep her from going down the stream, this pretty
little arbour attracted many eyes. None of the boat's crew, however, had
anything to say about it, except that it was the captain's fancy.
The captain--with the women and children clustering round him, and the
men of all ranks grouped outside them, and all listening--stood telling
how the Expedition, deceived by its bad intelligence, had chased the
light Pirate boats all that fatal night, and had still followed in their
wake next day, and had never suspected until many hours too late that the
great Pirate body had drawn off in the darkness when the chase began, and
shot over to the Island. He stood telling how the Expedition, supposing
the whole array of armed boats to be ahead of it, got tempted into
shallows and went aground; but not without having its revenge upon the
two decoy-boats, both of which it had come up with, overhand, and sent to
the bottom with all on board.
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