Crossing to the island under cover of night, they would take
the Spaniards by surprise and attempt to overpower them before they
could shift their guns to meet the onslaught.
With the exception of Wolverstone, who was by temperament the kind
of man who favours desperate chances, those officers received the
proposal coldly. Hagthorpe incontinently opposed it.
"It's a harebrained scheme, Peter," he said gravely, shaking his
handsome head. "Consider now that we cannot depend upon approaching
unperceived to a distance whence we might storm the fort before the
cannon could be moved. But even if we could, we can take no cannon
ourselves; we must depend entirely upon our small arms, and how
shall we, a bare three hundred" (for this was the number to which
Cahusac's defection had reduced them), "cross the open to attack
more than twice that number under cover?"
The others - Dyke, Ogle, Yberville, and even Pitt, whom loyalty to
Blood may have made reluctant - loudly approved him. When they had
done, "I have considered all," said Captain Blood.
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