An arrangement had been made between the captains that
the Belle Marie should transfer her cargo to the first vessel worth
sending to France that she captured, receiving as her share one-third
of its value if it reached port safely.
The captain of the Belle Marie was well content with this arrangement,
for the storehouses contained the spoils of upward of twenty ships,
and his share would therefore be a considerable one, and he would only
have to carry the cargo till he fell in with an English merchantman.
All speculation as to the British schooner's whereabouts was put an
end to the next morning, by a message from Captain Vipon saying she
had been discovered lying close in under the cliffs at the back of the
island, and that her boats were already examining the shore. An hour
later the captain himself arrived.
"It is as I feared," he said when he joined the other captains; "there
are three bays about two miles apart and at all of these a landing
could be easily effected. The land slopes gradually down to the edge
of the sea. They might land at any of them, and of course the guns of
the schooner would cover the landing if we opposed it."
"Still we might beat them back," one of the others said. "We can
muster about three hundred men between us, and they are not likely to
land more than that."
"I don't think that would be a good plan," Captain Vipon said.
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