There was a warship at this time stationed in
the Firth, the Seahorse, Captain Palliser. It chanced she was
cruising in the month of September, plying between Fife and
Lothian, and sounding for sunk dangers. Early one fine morning she
was seen about two miles to east of us, where she lowered a boat,
and seemed to examine the Wildfire Rocks and Satan's Bush, famous
dangers of that coast. And presently after having got her boat
again, she came before the wind and was headed directly for the
Base. This was very troublesome to Andie and the Highlanders; the
whole business of my sequestration was designed for privacy, and
here, with a navy captain perhaps blundering ashore, it looked to
become public enough, if it were nothing worse. I was in a
minority of one, I am no Alan to fall upon so many, and I was far
from sure that a warship was the least likely to improve my
condition. All which considered, I gave Andie my parole of good
behaviour and obedience, and was had briskly to the summit of the
rock, where we all lay down, at the cliff's edge, in different
places of observation and concealment.
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