Sitting close thereafter they talked in whispers for an hour or more,
and all the while those dulled wits of Pitt's were sharpening
themselves anew upon this precious whetstone of hope. They would
need to recruit others into their enterprise, a half-dozen at least,
a half-score if possible, but no more than that. They must pick
the best out of that score of survivors of the Monmouth men that
Colonel Bishop had acquired. Men who understood the sea were
desirable. But of these there were only two in that unfortunate
gang, and their knowledge was none too full. They were Hagthorpe,
a gentleman who had served in the Royal Navy, and Nicholas Dyke, who
had been a petty officer in the late king's time, and there was
another who had been a gunner, a man named Ogle.

It was agreed before they parted that Pitt should begin with these
three and then proceed to recruit some six or eight others. He was
to move with the utmost caution, sounding his men very carefully
before making anything in the nature of a disclosure, and even then
avoid rendering that disclosure so full that its betrayal might
frustrate the plans which as yet had to be worked out in detail.
Labouring with them in the plantations, Pitt would not want for
opportunities of broaching the matter to his fellow-slaves.

"Caution above everything," was Blood's last recommendation to him
at parting. "Who goes slowly, goes safely, as the Italians have it.
And remember that if you betray yourself, you ruin all, for you are
the only navigator amongst us, and without you there is no escaping."

Pitt reassured him, and slunk off back to his own hut and the straw
that served him for a bed.