"I cannot quite reach you, without risking your lives and endangering the success of your rescue. When you receive this, wait two minutes, then creep out of the hut one by one, turn to your left sharply, and creep cautiously down the cliff; keep to the left all the time, till you reach the first rock, which you see jutting far out to sea--behind it in the creek the boat is on the look-out for you--give a long, sharp whistle--she will come up--get into her--my men will row you to the schooner, and thence to England and safety--once on board the DAY DREAM send the boat back for me, tell my men that I shall be at the creek, which is in a direct line opposite the `Chat Gris' near Calais. They know it. I shall be there as soon as possible--they must wait for me at a safe distance out at sea, till they hear the usual signal. Do not delay--and obey these instructions implicitly.""Then there is the signature, citoyen," added the sergeant, as he handed the paper back to Chauvelin.
But the latter had not waited an instant. One phrase of the momentous scrawl had caught his ear. "I shall be at the creek which is in a direct line opposite the `Chat Gris' near Calais": that phrase might yet mean victory for him.