At the water side lay a queer-rigged brigantine, rocking to
the swell of the tide. Here, then, was cause of that firing heard across
the marsh on the lower river.
"'Tis the pirate ship we saw on the high sea," muttered Godefroy, rubbing
his eyes.
"She flies no flag! She has no license to trade! She's a poacher! She
will make a prize worth the taking," added M. Radisson sharply. Then, as
if to justify that intent--"As _we_ have no license, we must either take
or be taken!"
The river mist gradually lifted, and there emerged from the fog a
stockaded fort with two bastions facing the river and guns protruding
from loopholes.
"Not so easy to take that fort," growled Godefroy, who was ever a
hanger-back.
"All the better," retorted M. de Radisson. "Easy taking makes soft men!
'Twill test your mettle!"
"Test our mettle!" sulked the trader, a key higher in his obstinacy.
"All very well to talk, sir, but how can we take a fort mounted with
twenty cannon----"
"I'll tell you _the how_ when it's done," interrupted M. de Radisson.
But Godefroy was one of those obstinates who would be silent only when
stunned.
"I'd like to know, sir, what we're to do," he began.
"Godefroy, 'twould be waste time to knock sense in your pate! There is
only one thing to do always--only one, _the right thing_! Do it, fool!
An I hear more clack from you till it's done, I'll have your tongue out
with the nippers!"
Godefroy cowered sulkily back, and M.
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