A cheer broke from the sailors lying along the shelter of the screen of bushes.
"That is good news, Baldock," Martyn said. "Come down now; another half-hour will settle it anyhow, and there will be light enough till then."
The next observation settled the question. It was certainly a square sail underneath the sharp peak of a gaff top-sail. The joy of the Greeks was extreme when they heard that the vessel that was to carry them away was in sight.
"The schooner will be in a nice mess," Martyn grumbled to Tarleton. "With what there are on board now, and all these, there will be something like six hundred of them; a nice cargo that."
"There is one thing," Horace laughed, "I expect she has carried as many before."
"Yes, I daresay she has taken six hundred slaves, but we can't pack these Greeks as they pack slaves. There will be no moving on board, and as to fighting the guns if we fall in with a Turk, it will be well-nigh impossible. Why, she will be as deep in the water as she was when we sailed out of Plymouth. What is the weight of them all, Horace, do you suppose?"
"Not very great, Captain Martyn. I don't suppose there are a dozen of the men weigh over ten stone. I suppose the women average seven, and the children, counting babies, say four. As there are as many children as there are men, that would make the average seven stone all round, but even if you said eight stone, which is a hundredweight, and they are certainly not that, or anything near it, that would make thirty tons, and it won't be over that if you throw in all the bundles. You calculated that you got fifty tons out of her hold."
"Oh, well, that is not so bad. If it comes on to blow we will make shifting ballast of them, and pack them all up to windward on both decks; that ought to make her as stiff as a church. It will be a big job getting them all on board tonight. There is one thing, I don't suppose the Turks have made her out. Of course they don't know that we are expecting a vessel, or anything about her rig. We must make a fire down on the shore as soon as it gets dark, and keep a sharp look-out for her, putting the fire out as soon as she is near enough for the light to begin to show on her sails. Then we will open fire all along the line as if we thought we heard them creeping up towards us, and that will cover the rattling of the anchor chain. I will hail Miller to muffle the oars, and in that way we may manage to get most of them on board at any rate before the Turks have an idea of what is going on. By firing an occasional shot we shall keep their attention fixed, and gradually withdraw from the line as we did from that place we held up there."