"Pencroft," said Cyrus Harding, "do as you think best, we will leave it to you."
"Don't make your mind uneasy, captain," replied the sailor, "I shall not expose myself needlessly! I would rather a knife were run into my ribs than a sharp rock into those of my Bonadventure!"
What Pencroft called ribs was the part of his vessel under water, which he valued more than his own skin.
"What o'clock is it?" asked Pencroft.
"Ten o'clock," replied Gideon Spilett.
"And what distance is it to the Cape, captain?"
"About fifteen miles," replied the engineer.
"That's a matter of two hours and a half," said the sailor, "and we shall be off the Cape between twelve and one o'clock. Unluckily, the tide will be turning at that moment, and will be ebbing out of the gulf. I am afraid that it will be very difficult to get in, having both wind and tide against us."
"And the more so that it is a full moon to-day," remarked Herbert, "and these April tides are very strong."
"Well, Pencroft," asked Cyrus Harding, can you not anchor off the Cape?"
"Anchor near land, with bad weather coming on!" exclaimed the sailor. "What are you thinking of, captain? We should run aground to a certainty!"
"What will you do then?"
"I shall try to keep in the offing until the flood, that is to say, till about seven in the evening, and if there is still light enough I will try to enter the gulf; if not, we must stand off and on during the night, and we will enter tomorrow at sunrise."
"As I told you, Pencroft, we will leave it to you," answered Harding.
"Ah!" said Pencroft, "if there was only a light-house on the coast, it would be much more convenient."
"Yes," replied Herbert, "and this time we shall have no obliging engineer to light a fire to guide us."
"Why, indeed, my dear Cyrus," said Spilett, "we have never thanked you for it; but frankly, without that fire we should never have been able to reach———"
"A fire?" asked Harding, much astonished.
"We mean, captain," answered Pencroft, "that on board
