HOW WE HELD OUR HOMES There was no need to ask how the boats were heading.

All eyes were fixed anxiously on them as they came straight for the north of the Island, and just as we came up Amice Le Couteur gave the word to move on to Eperquerie.
Stragglers from the more distant houses were coming up every few minutes.
He left one to send them all on after us, and we straggled off past Belfontaine and Tintageu and the Autelets and Saignie Bay, and so into the road to the Common, and took our stand on the high ground above the Boutiques, and as we went Thomas Godfray loaded my pistols for me from his own flask.
The colours had long since faded out of the sky, and the bank of clouds in which the sun had set was creeping heavily up the west.

Both sky and sea were gray and shadowy.

The sea was flawed with dark blurrs of sudden squalls, and the waves broke harsh and white on La Grune and Bec du Nez.
The six boats came on with steady venom.

They kept well out round Bec du Nez, and we ran across the broken ground to meet them on the other side of the Island, and lay down there by the Senechal's orders.
There was always the chance that they were making straight for the French coast.