A light seen in the middle watch gave warning of an unexpected landfall, and calling up the Old One, who had a store of knowledge gained by much cruising in those seas, they lay off and on until dawn, when they made out an island of the Bahamas. It seemed, since by their reckoning they were still a day's sail from land, that there was some small fault in their instruments; but to this they gave little heed², and which island it was and what occasioned the light they never knew, though some ventured one guess and some another as they bore past it and lifted isle³ beyond isle. For two days, with the Old One conning⁴ the ship, they worked their way among the islands, and thus at last they came to a deep bay set among hills, which offered a commodious⁵ and safe anchorage, notwithstanding that on the point that guarded the bay there was the wreck⁶ of a tall ship.  
In the shallop they had taken from the fishing pink, the Old One and Jacob, with four men to row them, went out to the wreck and returned well pleased with what they had found.
 
"God is good to us," cried the Old One, perceiving that Harry⁷ Malcolm waited at the waist for their coming. "Though her foremast and mainmast be sprung, yet her mizzen is sound as a nut."
 
"And is it to be fetched out of her unharmed?"
 
"Yea, that it is! Come, Master Carpenter, haul out our broken old stump⁸ of a mizzen. By this time on the morrow our good Rose of Devon will carry in its place as stout⁹ a stick as man can wish. Faith, the ill fortune of them whose ship lies yonder shall serve us well."
 
There was a great bustle¹⁰ in the old frigate¹¹, for work was to be done that needed many hands. Some went to the wreck to save masts and spars, and others, led by the one-eyed carpenter, toiled¹² to haul out the stump. Boatswain Marsham and his mate laid ready ropes and canvas; and the most of the company being thus busied with one task or another, Martin and the cook caught a store of fresh fish, which the cook—who had now become a chastened, careful man—boiled for supper, while Martin went onshore for fruit that grew wild in abundance and for fresh water from a sandy spring. It was three days instead of one before the work was finished; but meanwhile there was fresh food and water aft and forward, and having spent at sea many weary weeks, the men rejoiced to pass time so pleasantly in a snug¹³ haven¹⁴.
 
Indeed, a man might have passed a long life in comfort on such an island, and there were many who cried yea, when Joseph Kirk declared himself for building a town there, to which they might return with a store of wives and wines, and from which they could sally forth¹⁵ when their supplies of either got low, and get for themselves others out of the King of Spain's ships and plantations¹⁶. But the Old One laughed and cried nay¹⁷. "I shall show you a town," said he, "in a land as fair as this, but with houses built and ready for us, and with gold piled up and waiting, and with great cellars of wine and warehouses¹⁸ filled with food."
 
So they sailed from the island one morning at dawn and for a week they picked their way down the windward passages. At times they lay hidden in deep harbours of which the Old One knew the secret; and again they stood boldly out to sea and put behind them many leagues of their journey. And thus progressing, one night, as they worked south against a warm breeze scented¹⁹ with the odour of flowers, they sighted on the horizon a dark low land above which rose dimly the shape of a distant mountain.
 
The men gathered about master and mate and Jacob, then Harry Malcolm went swarming²⁰ up the rigging and from the maintopsail yard studied the dim bulk of the mountain. After a time he cried down to them, "Douse²¹ all lights and hold her on her course!"
 
For an hour they stood toward the land, then Malcolm came down from aloft smiling, and there ran through the ship a great wave of talk. Though a man had never sailed those seas before, he would not have found the reason for their talk hard to guess, since there were few secrets on board. Time and distance had made less the grumbling²² occasioned by the disastrous²³ brush with the Porcupine²⁴ and by the littleness of the profit got from the pink, and they had warmed their hearts with the Old One's tales.
 
Bearing to the west, the Rose of Devon skirted the dark shore for miles; but the master and mate were growing anxious lest dawn overtake them before they should reach the hiding-place they sought; and when they rounded a certain wooded point and sailed into a deep, secluded²⁵ bay where a ship might lie for a year unseen,—which put an end to their fears,—they let go their anchors with all good will and furled their sails; and at break of day they kedged the ship into a cove²⁶ that might have been a dock, so straight were the shores and so deep the water.
 
"Mind you, Ned," or "Mind you, Hal, the night we landed on Hispaniola?" the men from the Blue Friggat were saying. And "'Twas thou at my side when we stole down through the palms and bottled the garrison²⁷ in the little fort." And "Ah, what wine we got that night!"
 
"Yea, and how drunk we got! So that Martin Barwick was of a mind to go fight a duel²⁸ with the captain of the soldiers. And then they burst out and drove us all away, and there was an end of our taking towns for a long, long while."
 
"I will have you know that I was no drunker than any man else," Martin snarled²⁹, and they laughed uproariously.
 
"Come," cried another, "since we have laid our ship in her chosen berth³⁰, let us sleep while the idlers watch. We shall be off in the cool of the afternoon."
 
"Nay, in the morning!"
 
"Afternoon or morning matters little," said old Jacob thickly, in the corner where he sat watching all the men. "The hour is near when we shall lay in the hold a goodly cargo³¹. I know well this town. We need only find two more such towns to get the money to keep us the rest of our lives like so many dukes, each of us in a great house in England, with a park full of deer, and the prettiest tavern³² wenches from all the country round to serve us in the kitchen."
 
That day, while the men slept in such cool places as they could find, the cook and the carpenter stood watch; and a very good watch they kept, for they were prudent³³ souls and feared the Old One and dared not steal a wink³⁴ of sleep. But though there was much need that the men should sleep, there was small need of a watch, for the ship lay in that deep cove in the little round bay, with masses of palms on the high banks, which hid her from waterline to truck.
 
At mid-afternoon, as the Old One had bade them, the cook and the carpenter called the men, who came tumbling up, quickly awake and breathing heavily, since there was work to be done ere another morning broke, and, like enough, blood to be spilled.
 
From a chest of arms Harry Malcolm handed out muskets³⁵ and pistols and pikes. "This for you," he said—"and this for you—and here's a tall gun for Paul Craig. Nay, curse not! Prayers, Paul, shall profit thee more than curses."
 
"I tell ye what, I'll not carry this great heavy gun," quoth he, and turned a dull red from anger.
 
"Blubububububub!" one cried, and all laughed.
 
"'Tis lucky, Paul," retorted Harry Malcolm, "that Tom Jordan is an easy, merciful man, or there's more than one back would bear a merry pattern in welts." He took up another musket—cumbersome, unwieldy weapons they were, which a man must rest for firing—and handed it to another. "And this for you."
 
Jacob was turning over and over on his palm powder from a newly opened barrel, and the Old One was leaning on the quarter-deck rail, whence he sleepily watched the small groups that were all the time gathering³⁶ and parting. Will Canty, his face a little whiter than ordinary and his hand holding his firelock upright by the barrel, stood ill at ease by the forecastle. The boys lurked³⁷ in corners, keeping as much as possible out of the way, but watching with wide eyes the many preparations. And indeed it was a rare sight, for the staunch old ship, her rigging restored and her many leaks stopped, lay in her little cove where a cool breeze stirred the ropes, and the afternoon sun shone through the palms brightly on the deck, and the men moved about bare-armed and stripped to their shirts.
 
"It would save much labour," said the carpenter, "were we to use this fair breeze to go by sea."
 
"True, carpenter, but a ship coming in from sea is as easy spied by night as by day, whereas a company of men descending³⁸ from the hills by night will have the fort before the watchdogs bark. And who is there will grudge³⁹ labour in such a cause?" The Old One looked about and the carpenter himself nodded assent⁴⁰.
 
Only Paul Craig grumbled⁴¹, and at him the others laughed as they ate and drank.
 
They slept again till just before dawn, then, running a plank⁴² to the shore, they gathered under the palms, for there was need of a last council before leaving the ship.
 
"We are forty men," said the Old One, "and forty men are all too few; but though it is little likely that any will stumble on the ship in our absence, it is a matter of only common prudence⁴³ that we post a guard ere we go."
 
"Yea, a guard!" cried Paul Craig. "I, now, am a very watchful⁴⁴ man."
 
"Nay, but think, Paul, how great a meal thou can'st eat when thou hast climbed up hill and down with thy gun, and how much thou can'st drink. 'Twould be no kindness to leave thee. We must leave some lithe⁴⁵, supple⁴⁶ lad who hath no need for the tramp." And the Old One chuckled⁴⁷. "Come, Paul and Martin, you shall lead our van."
 
Harry Malcolm met his eye, and he nodded.
 
"I name to guard our ship," said he, "the cook and Joe Kirk and Will Canty. Do you, lads, load the swivel guns and keep always at hand two loaded muskets apiece. Fire not unless the ............