"All right," said the lad. Leading the way he perched himself astride upon the bowsprit and signified that his companion should follow his example; and there they sat, with the loose jib-sail flapping gently to and fro and forming an awning half the time. "Now then," said Poole, "what is it? You look as if you had found something, or heard some news. Is the gunboat going away?" "I wish it were," was the reply. "I wanted to tell you that I had last night such a dream." "Had you? Well, are you going to tell it to me?" "No; impossible, for I can't recollect it all myself, only the stupid and muddled part of it. But I have been trying to puzzle it out this morning, and that set me thinking about other things as well, till at last, all of a sudden, I got the very idea we want." "You have! What is it?" cried Poole excitedly. "Tell me gently, for perhaps I could not bear it all at once." "It's the way to disable the gunboat." "Do you mean it?" "Yes." "A good sensible, possible way, that could be done?" "Yes, and by one person too, if he had the pluck." CHAPTER FORTY FIVE. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. It was rather a queer position occupied by the two lads, seated astride the bowsprit like children playing at horses--sea- or river-horses, in this case, for the swift current was running beneath them. Poole looked hard at Fitz, his sharp eyes seeming to plunge into those of his companion as if he read his very thoughts, while as Fitz returned the gaze his look became timid and shrinking; a curious feeling of nervousness and regret attacked him, and the next minute he was wishing that instead of planning out a suggestion by which he would help these filibusters, he had kept silence and not begun a proposal which he felt to be beneath his dignity as a young officer of the Queen. "Well," said Poole at last, in a tone of voice which added to Fitz's chill; "what is it?" Fitz remained silent. "Well, out with it! What's the scheme?" Still Fitz did not speak, and Poole went on--"It ought to be something good to make you so cocksure. I have gone over it all again and again, turned it upside down and downside up, and I can't get at anything one-half so good as old Chips's cock-and-bull notions. I suppose you are cleverer than I am, and if you are, so much the better, for it's horrible to be shut up like this, and I feel as if I'd rather wait for a good wind, clap on all sail, and make a dash for it, going right ahead for the gunboat as if you meant to run her down, and when we got very close, give the wheel a spin and shoot by her. They'd think we were coming right on to her, and it might scare the crew so that they wouldn't be able to shoot straight till we got right by. And then--" "Yes," said Fitz; "and then perhaps when they had got over the scare they'd shoot straight enough. And suppose they did before they were frightened. What about the first big shell that came aboard?"