"Yes, that would be awkward. However, if they do, we must keep the men
below, and in the meantime you had better get your carpenter to cut up
some spars and make a lot of plugs in readiness to stop up any holes they
make near the water-line. I don't think they are likely to make very
ragged holes, the wood is so rotten the shot would go through the side as
if it were brown paper; still, you might get a lot of squares of canvas
ready, with hammers and nails."

The strange craft were already heading towards the _Sea-horse.__ No time
was lost in setting every stitch of canvas that she could carry; the wind
was light now, but the vessel was rolling heavily in a long swell. The
major examined the guns closely and found that they were even worse than
he had anticipated, the rust holes eaten in the iron having been filled up
with putty, and the whole painted. He was turning away, with an
exclamation of disgust, when Terence, who was standing near, said to him:

"I beg your pardon, Major, but don't you think that if we were to wind
some thin rope very tightly round them three or four inches thick, they
might stand a charge or two of grape to give them at close quarters; we
needn't put in a very heavy charge of powder. Even if they did burst, I
should think that the rope would prevent the splinters from flying about."

"The idea is not a bad one at all, Terence. I will see if the captain has
got a coil or two of thin rope on board."

Fortunately the ship was fairly well supplied in this respect, and a few
of the sailors who were accustomed to serving rope, with a dozen soldiers
to help them, were told off to the work. The rope was wound round as
tightly as the strength of a dozen men could pull it, the process being