"The two natives stayed aboard all night, an' were set ashore less than half an hour before you turned out. Of course I don't know what orders our captain gave them; but I'll wager a doughnut against a dollar that they'll be here again, bringin' the Britisher with 'em, if it so be he's yet alive, before sunset." "What will the men say to being thus careful of a man who admits having made a business of trapping Yankee sailors in order that he may sell them like so many slaves?" Phil asked indignantly. "I ain't overly certain as to what they'll say; but you can set it down as a fact that never a mother's son of 'em will so much as open his mouth where there's a chance his words may be repeated aft. Captain Porter ain't the kind of a seaman that a crew can afford to monkey with. He'll do as he believes right, no matter what them as sail under him may say." This conversation was interrupted by a command which surprised even the oldest shellbacks among us. Word was passed that a party of forty men were to take four 6-pounders from the _Greenwich_, and put them in position on a small hill overlooking the harbor and our encampment ashore. Another force was called off to carry empty water-casks to the same place, and Master Hackett muttered sufficiently loud for me to hear the words:-- "I reckon we're to make a naval station of this 'ere island; an' if it so be we show our heels to the Britishers who've been sent out to sink us, this will be a likely property to hold in the name of the United States." Phil and I knew full well that we had no right to linger on board the _Essex_, for we had been assigned to duty ashore; and, therefore, while the working parties I have spoken of were being made up, we clambered into the first boat that put off for the land. Then, as a matter of course, we took up our tasks as cooks' assistants once more, although it would have pleased us better had we been allowed to take part in the work of building the fort; for that, as we soon came to understand, was the purpose for which our men had been called off from the labor of refitting. We two lads had ample time, however, in which to observe all that was being done, for, as I have already set down, we were allowed many a spare hour between meals. The empty water-casks were filled with earth and sunk a couple of feet into the summit of the hill in such manner as to form a circle. Then sand was shovelled against the outside of these, and an excavation made inside, until we had a breastwork not to be despised even as a protection against musket balls. The guns were mounted so that they would cover the harbor and camp, and a flag-staff, on which was hoisted the stars and stripes, set up in the middle of the enclosure, the whole presenting the appearance of a regular fort.