"It's an awful fix altogether," Jack said. "And anyhow, we shall lose
our ship and get into a frightful row, and, if somebody won't pay our
ransom, I suppose they will knock us on the head finally. The best
thing, you know, will be for us to make our escape."

"But how on earth are we to do that?" Hawtry said. "There are ten of
them, and I see a lot of guns piled there."

"Oh, I daresay we shall see some chance," Jack said cheerfully. "We
must think it over. Jack Easy, Peter Simple, and all those fellows
used to get into worse scrapes than this, and they always managed to
get out of them somehow; so why shouldn't we? The best thing is, just
to think what one of them would have done if he had been in our place.
I wish to goodness that we had Mesty prowling about somewhere; he
would get us out in no time."

Hawtry answered with a grunt, and devoted himself to his kid.
Presently Jack spoke again.

"Look here, Hawtry, I vote that to begin with we both pretend to be in
an awful funk. If they think that we are only two frightened boys,
they won't keep as sharp a watch over us as if they thought we were
determined fellows, likely to attempt our escape. There is the sea
down there in front of us, and there are sure to be villages on the
coast. Therefore we shall know which way to go if we once manage to
escape, and, if we can get down there, we can either claim the
protection of the head man in the village, or we can take a boat and
make off to sea."