"You will make a better
defence of it from the island here, with the few cannon you have not
dismounted."
"In that case I had best take boat, tell Captain Pomery to drop his
anchor, leaving the ketch to her fate, and fetch him ashore to help
us."
"Do so," said I. "Yet I trust 'tis a false alarm; for that these are
Corsicans I'll lay odds."
"It may even be," suggested Dom Basilio, "that the two are enemies,
the one in chase of the other."
"No," I decided, scanning them; "for they have the look of being
sister ships. And, see you, the leader has rounded the point and
caught sight of the _Gauntlet_. Mark how she is carrying her
headsheets over to windward, to let her consort overtake her."
"The lad's right!" exclaimed my uncle. "Well, God send they be not
Genoese! but I must pull out to the ketch and make sure.
You, Prosper, can help Dom Basilio meanwhile to muster his men and
right as many cannon as time allows."
He stepped to the door, tip-toeing softly, and we followed him--with
a glance, as we went, at the figure bending over the bed. The Queen
did not heed us.
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