But this was not all. Through the cleft in the hill-side I could see the waters on the other side of the island. And in this narrow space, framed by the walls of the cliff, I saw a vessel just coming about into the wind. Another instant and she was gone, hidden by the dark mass of land. But so firmly impressed was this quick vision upon my mind that I can see it to this day, as firmly fixed as were it a painting that I had studied in its every detail.
As I reached the deck the brig gave another lurch, and our bulwarks were almost in the water.
"The cargo all adrift, Captain Hurdiss," shouted the carpenter, coming up the ladder. "And we must have a bad leak in our top sides. The old thing is rotten to her heart," he added.
The men, without orders, were tumbling into the boats, and even with my small experience I could see that nothing could save the _Duchess_ from sinking where she lay. I looked toward the shore, and saw the prisoners in a body running up the beach toward the north. Just as I caught sight of them, they rounded a point of rock and disappeared.
But a strange shifting motion in the brig warned me to hasten. What impelled me, I do not know, but seeing the glass wedged in the shrouds where I had planted it, I made for it, and picking it up, jumped into the boat.
[Illustration: SHE WENT DOWN LIKE A LITTLE "ROYAL GEORGE."]
We had rowed but a few dozen strokes when, with a lurch, and a dull explosion as the forward deck blew out from the pressure of air, down went the _Duchess of Sutherland_, like a little _Royal George_. But the only living things she took with her were a few half-drowned chickens in a coop near the galley.
Even the carpenter now showed signs of despondency, and what I told him about the vessel that looked like a great lugger with one mast, that I had seen on the other side of the land, did not cheer him.
"We're in for it now," he grumbled. "There's no prize-money in this affair. She's one of their revenue-cutters, and she'll scoop us surely."
"That's what the prisoners were scampering for," spoke up Dugan, who was pulling stroke oar. "They've gone around to fetch her."
"Well, that's all they'll find," said Chips, pointing over the stern of the boat.