veered around and made down the coast, passing the little bay where
the canoe had landed. So occupied with the distressing problem of
Hugh's disappearance had her crew been,---for not one of the party
could believe him drowned,---and so busy in trying to keep the sloop
from being pounded to pieces by the waves while stranded, that no one
aboard had noticed the canoe on its return trip across the strait.

When sailing order had been restored and Captain Vinton had ceased
to rage and swear at the mischance, his one idea was to return to
the waters where he knew the _Petrel_ was cruising. Strange to say,
he was the only one who guessed that Hugh had fallen into the hands
of "coast-prowlers" as he called them,---with adjectives too lurid to
mention!---and was, being held captive lest he betray their plans.
With this idea in mind, he was determined to bring the revenue cutter
to Hugh's rescue; he knew the _Petrel_ could cope with the situation.

By an unlooked-for stroke of fortune, he had not gone very far down
the coast before he sighted the cutter, and soon he brought the
_Arrow_ within hailing distance. He communicated the news to the
officers on board, and a sort of council of war took place
immediately. Together, they were not long in forming a plan of
reprisal.

It was decided that they should proceed forthwith to a small fortress
a few miles southward, where a squad of regulars was stationed. The
place was called Fort Leigh, but it scarcely deserved the name, being
in reality only a temporary camp located on the site of an old
fortification which had been a military headquarters during the
Seminole wars. Its nearness to the vicinity in which, according to
the _Petrel's_ reliable information, the smugglers were operating was