She leaves Goa always on a certain day; but she takes many weeks on her voyage, even if the wind be favorable She might have been here a week since.

She may not be here for another fortnight.

But unless something unforeseen has occurred, she should be here by that time; for the winds are steady in these regions, and the rate of sailing regular." "The one chance appears to me," Ned said, after thinking for some time, "is to give them warning of what is happening here." "But how is that to be done ?" asked the governor.
"The only possible plan," Ned said, "would be for one of us--and I should be ready to accept the duty, knowing more perhaps of the ways of natives than the others--to steal forth from the castle, to make for the shore, and to lie concealed among the woods until the vessel is in sight.

If then I could find a canoe, to seize it and paddle off to the ship; if not, to swim." The other lads eagerly volunteered to undertake the work; but Ned insisted that he was better suited to it, not only from his knowledge of the natives, but from his superior powers in swimming.
"I may have," he said, "to keep myself up in the water for a long time, and perhaps to swim for my life, if the natives see me.

It is even desirable, above all things, that whosoever undertakes the work should be a good swimmer; and although you have long ago given up calling me The Otter, I do not suppose that my powers in the water have diminished." After long consultation, it was agreed that this plan offered more chances of success than any other.
"It would be most desirable," Gerald said, "that we should have some notice, here, of the ship being in sight; in order that we might sally out, and lend a hand to our friends on their arrival.