The boats were drawn up alongside, and everything put in readiness for instant debarkation, and then the party waited for the appearance of the Genoese galleys.
"They will be along in less than an hour," the captain said.

"It is light enough now for the watch to have discovered that the Lido is missing, and it will not be many minutes before they are under way.
They will calculate that we can have but five or six hours' start at the utmost, and that three hours' rowing will bring them up to us." "I have no fear whatever of their discovering us as they go along," Francis said.

"The only fear is that, after rowing for three or four hours and seeing no sign of us, they will guess that we are hidden somewhere under the cliffs, and will come back along the shore, searching every bay." "There is a chance of that," the captain agreed, "but I should think only a chance.

When the party who come this way find they do not overtake us, they will suppose that we have sailed to the west, and that on their return they will find us in the hands of their comrades; and when these also come back empty handed they will conclude that we have sailed straight out to sea.

Of course they may have sent a galley southward also, but will conclude that that has somehow missed us when it returns without news.