“Cliff and Jack and the colored men will stop them I hope,” said the commander as they slowed and drew near to the submerged danger.
“They will, if they can do it,” Brownie said. He dropped over the bow and discovered that his commander had foreseen exactly what had been done; the _Libertad’s_ anchor had been cut loose, and, with some spare engine parts, had been flung from the white boat’s stern into the channel with the hope that the cutter would run onto them and be entirely disabled, before they were noticed.
While the damage was averted, it took time to lift the heavy metal under the water, and to displace it.
Meanwhile Cliff sat on the slanting deck of the _Senorita_, with Jack and Sam, while Jim hung close above them on the top of the cabin, his eyes fixed on the distances of the channel.
“What will you do if they come in daylight?” Cliff looked up at him to ask.
“Shoot at the waterline and let the water in,” said Jack.
“But they’ll shoot back,” objected Cliff.
“That’s the chance we have to take,” Jack answered.
“We might load up the signal cannon with some slugs, or something,” suggested Jim. He had begged Cliff’s pardon for his part in the tying-up and other maltreatment aboard the _Senorita_; Jim was not a bad being at heart; he had been employed by Senor Ortiga and Mr. Coleson and had only done their bidding, with no animosity or cruelty in his actions. Cliff had readily forgiven him. Jim, thus made happy, was just as determined to help the side of right and justice as he had been, before, to earn his pay honestly, as he saw honesty and his duty to his employers.
“The cannon wouldn’t carry the slugs any distance,” said Sam.
“But they’d have to pass within three feet of us,” said Jim.
He pointed overside to the channel, where the deep water was at the side of the wrecked vessel. “This boat ran onto coral because her tiller rope broke, remember! There’s plenty of water, and they can pass us, but they’ll have to steer close.”
“If you fellows won’t think I’m bossy,” he said, modestly, “and if Jack won’t be mad and think I want to be the leader, I’d like to say something.”
“Go ahead,” said Jack. “Always open to good ideas, buddy!”
Cliff expounded a plan: his first idea was that to fire at the vessel, if she ever came, would bring about firing in response. If they could in some way lure some of the hi-jackers onto the _Senorita_, without their own numbers being endangered, several of them might board the other boat and destroy her steering gear, or even capture her.