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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Midshipmen, by W.H.G. Kingston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Three Midshipmen
+
+Author: W.H.G. Kingston
+
+Illustrator: Victor Prout
+
+Release Date: March 12, 2008 [EBook #24812]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE MIDSHIPMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The Three Midshipmen, by W.H.G. Kingston.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+The tale of the Three Midshipmen is carried on to the Three Lieutenants,
+the Three Commanders, and the Three Admirals.  The book starts with the
+arrival of three new boys at a boarding school for young gentlemen.  One
+boy is English, one is Scottish, and the third is Irish.  Under the
+influence of various bullies and other schoolboy adversities the three
+lads learn to stick together, and to look after each other.  They join
+the Navy, and get various postings by which from time to time they meet,
+usually under the most difficult circumstances.  Of course they each
+survive bravely, though any of the boats' crews that they have the
+honour to command are mowed down by the enemy.  In other words, some of
+it is pretty tall stuff, but it was very good fare for the nineteenth
+century and early twentieth century English schoolboy.  I can remember
+these books on our 1940s school library's shelves, very well-thumbed and
+many times repaired by one of the masters, whose hobby it was to run a
+voluntary book-binding class.  There are three parts to the book, of
+which we originally published only the first two, as we were working
+with a book that did not have the last part. In this new 2006 edition
+you will be able to read about the Midshipmen in China.  We apologise
+for the delay in making good this omission.
+
+We see no reason why you should not enjoy this book.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+THE THREE MIDSHIPMEN IN THE LEVANT, IN AFRICA AND IN CHINA, BY W.H.G.
+KINGSTON.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+EARLY DAYS.
+
+Ours was a capital school, though it was not a public one.  It was not
+far from London, so that a coach could carry us down there in little
+more than an hour from the _White Horse Cellar_, Piccadilly.  On the top
+of the posts, at each side of the gates, were two eagles; fine large
+birds I thought them.  They looked out on a green, fringed with tall
+elms, beyond which was our cricket-field.  A very magnificent red-brick
+old house rose behind the eagles, full of windows belonging to our
+sleeping-rooms.  The playground was at the back of the house, with a
+grand old tulip tree in the centre, a tectum for rainy weather on one
+side, and the large school room on the other.  Beyond was a good-sized
+garden, full of apple and pear trees, but, as we very seldom went into
+it, I do not remember its appearance.  Perhaps, were I to see the place
+again, I might find its dimensions somewhat altered.  The master was a
+first-rate schoolmaster.  What his attainments were, I cannot say; but
+he understood managing boys admirably.  He kept us all in very good
+order, had us fairly taught, fed us with wholesome, if not luxurious,
+food, and, though he used his cane freely, treated us justly.  We held
+him in awe, and yet we liked him.
+
+It was after the summer holidays, when I had just got back, I heard that
+three new boys had come.  In the afternoon they all appeared in the
+playground.  They were strangers to each other as well as to us, but
+their similarity of fate drew them together.  One was a slightly made,
+dark, and somewhat delicate-looking boy; another was a sturdy little
+fellow, with a round, ruddy countenance, and a jovial, good-natured
+expression in it, yet he did not look as if he would stand any nonsense;
+the third was rather smaller than the other two, a pleasant-looking
+fellow, and though his eyes were red with crying, he seemed to be
+cutting some joke which made his companions laugh.  He had come all the
+way from Ireland, we heard, and his elder brother had that morning left
+him and gone back home, and that made him unhappy just then.  He at once
+got the name of Paddy in the school.  He did not mind it.  His real name
+was Terence Adair, so sometimes he was called Paddy Adair.
+
+"I say, you fellow, what's your name?" asked a biggish boy of the
+stoutest of the three new-comers.
+
+"Jack Rogers," was the answer, given in a quiet tone.
+
+"I don't believe it," replied the big boy, who was known as Bully
+Pigeon; "it's such a rum name."
+
+"I'll make you believe it, and remember it too," exclaimed the
+new-comer, eyeing the other from head to foot, and walking firmly up to
+him, with his lips closed, while he moved his head slowly from side to
+side.  "I tell you my name is Jack Rogers--Now!"
+
+The bully did not say a word.  He looked as if he would have liked to
+have hit, but Paddy Adair had followed his new friend, and was evidently
+about to join in the fray if it was once begun; so the big boy thought
+better of it.  He would gain no credit for attacking a little fellow the
+first day of his coming.  There were many witnesses of the scene, and
+Jack was unanimously pronounced to be a plucky little chap.  Pigeon,
+defeated in one direction, turned his attention to the first-named boy,
+who had scarcely moved since he entered the playground, but kept looking
+round with his large black eyes on the scene before him, which was
+evidently strange to his sight.
+
+"What are you called, I should like to know?" he asked in a rude tone.
+
+"Alick Murray," was the answer, in a quiet, gentlemanly voice.
+
+"Then you come from Scotland, I suppose?" said the bully.
+
+"Yes, I do," replied the former.
+
+"Oh!  I wonder your mamma would let you go away from her," observed the
+big boy, with a sneer.
+
+"My mamma is just dead," answered Murray, in a mild tone, a tear
+springing to his eye.
+
+"Shame! shame!" shouted the voices of several boys who had come up;
+among them that of Jack Rogers was the loudest.
+
+"I didn't mean to say anything to hurt him," said the bully, sneaking
+away.  "I'll pay you off for this some day," he muttered as he passed
+Jack.
+
+Jack looked after him and laughed.
+
+"He'll have two to fight if he tries it, mind that," said Adair to his
+new friend.
+
+Jack thanked him, but said that he should soon be able to tackle him, if
+he could not just now.  He would try at all events.
+
+"That's it," cried Terence enthusiastically.  "That's just what I like.
+If you are knocked down you can but get up again and try once more."
+
+"So my papa says," observed Jack.  "He's a first-rate father, let me
+tell you.  He never would let any of us give in except to himself.  He
+used to throw us into a pond, and tell us to swim, and unless we had
+actually been drowning, nothing would have made him help us; so we all
+very soon learned, and now there isn't a chap of my size I wouldn't swim
+against.  We live down in Northamptonshire.  My papa has a place there.
+We are all very jolly.  There are a number of us, sisters and brothers.
+You must come down and see them some holidays.  You'll like them, I
+know.  There's no nonsense about them."
+
+Terence said he should like it very much, if he did not go back to
+Ireland.  He had three brothers and a sister, but they were all older
+than himself.  His papa was the Honourable Mr Adair, and he had an
+uncle, Lord Derrynane.  He did not know whether they were rich or not.
+They lived in a big house, and had a number of servants, and people were
+constantly coming and going; so he supposed they were.  The truth was,
+as I heard afterwards, they were living a great deal too fast, and
+Terence had nothing left as his share of his father's property, except,
+as he said, his debts.  That, however, was no fault of his.
+
+"I say," observed Jack, "don't let us leave that poor fellow alone any
+longer.  He seems very low-spirited about his mother.  It's natural, you
+know; though I don't like to see a fellow blubbering just because he has
+hurt himself, or lost a peg-top, or anything of that sort."
+
+So they went up to Alick Murray, and began talking to him, and Terence
+said something funny and made him laugh.
+
+"I wonder what games they have here?" asked Jack.
+
+"Coach-and-horses," said a biggish fellow, who had just entered the
+playground with some long strips of leather over his arm and a whip in
+his hand.  "Now, if you three fellows will just be harnessed, you'll
+make a very good unicorn."
+
+They all looked at each other, and as the big boy spoke in a
+good-natured tone, they agreed to do as he wished.  Jack and Alick were
+harnessed together; Terence insisted on going as unicorn.
+
+"I say, though," cried Jack, looking back; "what are you called?  I
+always like to know the name of the driver."
+
+"Ben Trotter when I'm not called Master Benjamin Trotter," was the
+answer.
+
+"Not a bad name for a coachman," observed Jack, beginning to prance and
+kick about.  He got a cut with the whip in return for his remark.
+Terence reared and neighed, and kicked about furiously all the time,
+like a high-mettled steed who wanted to be off; and at last, Trotter
+having got the ribbons adjusted to his satisfaction, away they all went
+round the playground at a great rate, looking with great disdain on
+those boys who had only got string for harness.  Thus were the three
+new-comers first yoked in fellowship.  They were very much together ever
+afterwards, though they also had their own especial friends.  Murray and
+Rogers were the most constant to each other.  Murray was a studious,
+gentle boy.  He had more talent than Jack; that is to say, he did his
+lessons a great deal better, and never got into any scrapes.  Jack never
+picked a quarrel, but he now and then got into one, and was apt in his
+lessons to give a false quantity, and sometimes a translation of his
+Caesar which put him down to the bottom of the class.  Murray was always
+ready and able to help him, but Jack was not a fellow who would consent
+to trust to the help of another.  When he really tried, he could always
+do his work, and very creditably too.  Adair, unlike his friends, was
+nearly always getting into trouble.  He would not think enough about
+consequences.  Once he and others had been letting off fireworks of
+their own manufacture in a remote corner of the playground.  Notice was
+given that an usher was coming.  They threw away their combustibles, and
+fled.  Terence, however, had a piece of lighted touch-paper, which, in
+his hurry, he shoved into his pocket.  It was already full of a similar
+preparation.  He was caught and hauled away into the schoolroom to
+receive condign punishment.  He tried to look very innocent, and
+requested to know why he was dragged along so unceremoniously.  Paddy,
+under no circumstances, ever lost his politeness.  Unhappily for him
+just as he reached the door the proofs of his guilt became apparent.
+Streams of smoke and sparks burst out of his pockets, and the master had
+to pull out the burning paper to prevent him from being seriously
+injured.  As to his lessons he very frequently was at the top of his
+class, but he never could manage to keep there many days together.  For
+some neglect or other, he soon again lost his place.  Still he was a
+general favourite.  Even the masters could not help liking him.  The
+three new boys were put into one room.  They slept there for several
+halves.  On one occasion Terence had kept away a good deal from Jack and
+Murray, and associated more than was his custom with several of the less
+nice boys.  Among them was Pigeon, the bullying fellow.  I happened to
+be awake one night, when, by the pale moonlight which streamed in at the
+windows, I saw Paddy Adair sit up in his bed and look about him.  Pigeon
+and another biggish fellow did the same.  They signed to each other, and
+slipping on their clothes, crept with their shoes in their hands out of
+the room.  I could not go to sleep, wondering what had become of them.
+Jack Rogers slept near me.  He likewise had seen what had occurred.
+They were absent about half an hour.  They returned as noiselessly as
+they had gone out, and crept into bed again, of course thinking that no
+one had observed them.  No sooner was the door closed than there was a
+strong smell of apples in the room, and presently "crunch! crunch!
+crunch!" was heard.
+
+"Those fellows have been stealing old Rowley's apples, now," thought
+Jack; "and that donkey Paddy Adair has, I'd bet, been heading the
+party."
+
+He felt as if he were a spy by not letting them know that he was awake,
+so he sat up and said, "Hillo! you fellows, what have you been about?"
+
+"Is that you awake, Jack?" answered Adair.  "Never mind, we've had great
+fun.  Have an apple, will you?"
+
+"No, thank you," said Jack, "I'd rather not;" laying considerable
+emphasis on the last words.
+
+"He doesn't deserve one as he hadn't the pluck to go and get them," said
+a voice from under the bedclothes.
+
+"Who says that?" exclaimed Jack, sitting up in bed.
+
+"Why, I say you would have been afraid to go and do what we have done,"
+answered Bully Pigeon, summoning up more courage than was his wont.
+
+"Afraid!" exclaimed Jack, springing out of bed and slipping on his
+trousers.  "Afraid of what?  Afraid of stealing?  Afraid of telling a
+lie I am; but I'm not afraid of _you, you thief_, I can tell you."
+
+Even Bully Pigeon could not stand this.  Unless he would be jeered at
+and called sneak ever afterwards by all the little boys in the school,
+he felt that he must retaliate.  He jumped up and sprang at Jack, aiming
+a blow, which, if the latter had not slipped aside, would have knocked
+him over.  Jack, notwithstanding this, sprang back, and put himself on
+his defence, not only warding off the next blow Pigeon struck, but
+planting another between his eyes, which brought fire into them with a
+vengeance.
+
+This enraged the bully, who came thundering down on Jack with all his
+might, and would have wellnigh crushed him, but Pigeon found a new
+assailant in the field whom he did not expect--one of his own party.  It
+was Paddy Adair.
+
+"I can't stand that, and I won't," he exclaimed, aiming a blow at
+Pigeon's head which sent him backwards; while Alick Murray, who had
+likewise jumped up, appeared on the other side of him.
+
+"We are thieves, I tell you; we've been stealing old Rowley's apples,
+and Jack Rogers is right," cried Terence.
+
+"A very true remark, boys," said a deep voice which all recognised full
+well.  The door opened, and old Rowley himself, habited in his
+dressing-gown, with a candle in one hand and a birch in the other,
+appeared at the entrance, followed by good kind Mrs Jones, the
+housekeeper.  Every one scuttled away to their beds as fast as they
+could go, except Alick Murray and Terence.  Murray was the first Rowley
+laid hands on, and, putting down his candle on the mantelpiece, he was
+about to make use of his birch.  Murray disdained to utter a word which
+might inculpate others, and I knew he would have received a flogging
+without complaint, but Terence cried out, "No, no, it wasn't him--I was
+one of them--flog me if you like."
+
+"Well, get into bed," answered Rowley, in a voice which did not sound as
+if he was very angry.  "You two have the spoils upon you, however;"
+saying this, he went to the beds of Bully Pigeon and the other big
+fellow, and gave them as sound a flogging as they ever had in their
+lives, while Mrs Jones retired to a little distance, though I believe
+she always came in the hopes of softening the vigour of the master's
+arm.  He went round to the other rooms, and treated the rest of the
+culprits in the same way, and we had reason to suspect that he had
+watched the whole party as they returned from their marauding
+expedition.  All the culprits were sent to Coventry the next day for a
+week, except Terence, who had however led the expedition, though he did
+not plan it.  "I have great respect for the person who is not afraid to
+call a thief a thief, or a lie by its right name," said Rowley not long
+afterwards, looking significantly at Terence.
+
+Time sped on, we were getting up in the school, new boys were coming and
+old ones were going away, when the first night after our return from the
+Christmas holidays, we all lay awake talking of our adventures.
+
+"This is my last half," said Jack; "I've made up my mind to be a sailor,
+and my father says I may; and an admiral, a friend of ours, has promised
+to get me a ship; and so it's all settled, and I'm going."
+
+"Are you, old fellow? how capital!" exclaimed Terence.  "I've been asked
+if I would go to sea, and I said yes; for there's nothing else I want to
+do that I know of, but I little thought you would be going too.  Well,
+that is good, and clenches the matter."
+
+"I am very glad to hear it," cried Murray; "it is what I have been
+longing to do for years past, almost since I could read.  The only
+profession I felt that I should ever like was the navy, but I never saw
+a chance till these holidays of being able to go into it.  I believe it
+is settled; I shall know shortly, I hope."
+
+"What, are we all three going? how capital!  What fun we will have,"
+cried Jack.  "Of course they'll let you.  Oh, hang it, you must go with
+us."  Murray seldom talked much of what he wished to do, or expressed
+his feelings, except perhaps to a trusted friend like Jack, but of the
+three companions he had probably the strongest will, and when he had set
+his mind on an object, no one could exert himself more resolutely to
+accomplish it.  He wrote and wrote to his friends, expressing his wish
+in as strong terms as he could, giving many excellent reasons for having
+formed it.  Before many weeks had passed, Murray received a letter.  The
+contents would have made Jack and Terence throw up their caps and shout,
+had they under similar circumstances received it.  He felt a choking
+sensation, and the tears sprang to his eyes.  All his long-cherished
+hopes were about to be accomplished.  He had the promise from the First
+Lord of the Admiralty of an appointment speedily to a ship.  The half
+came to an end, the school broke up, and the boys separated with all
+animosities and quarrels sunk in oblivion; and in the belief that they
+should meet each other again soon, if not at school, somewhere or other.
+Jack went home, and was then sent, by the advice of his naval friend,
+to an academy at Portsmouth, where young gentlemen were prepared for the
+navy.  Jack wanted to become a real sailor, so he set to work manfully
+to stow away all the navigation he could pick up.  He soon also made
+himself known and respected among his companions, much in the same way
+that he had done at his old school.  At last he heard that he was
+appointed to a ship, but that he was to go home before joining to take
+leave.  He was first to go to Selby the tailor, to get measured for his
+outfit.
+
+"You'll like to have your uniform at once, sir," observed Mr Selby;
+"most young gentlemen do."  Jack thought it would be very nice, as his
+best clothes were already shabby; so in an incredibly short space of
+time he found himself exactly fitted in his naval habiliments with a
+dirk by his side, and a gold-lace cap.  He did not like to wear them in
+the street, "lest he should appear conspicuous," he observed to a
+schoolfellow, so he did not put them on till he was ready to start in
+the morning by the coach up to London.  He had got leave to go down to
+Eagle House to visit his former master and old schoolfellows, and how
+grand he looked as he walked up and down the playground, handling his
+dirk.  Even Pigeon felt a great respect for him, and looked on him with
+somewhat an eye of envy, and thought he should like to go into the navy.
+Had he gone, he would have had to learn many a lesson, or would very
+soon have been kicked out of it again.  Jack dined at the master's table
+at one end of the long dining-room, and good Mrs Jones looked at him
+very proudly, for she had always thought him one of her best boys; and
+many an eye gazed wistfully at his anchor buttons and dirk and smiling
+jovial countenance, as he laughed and chatted with wonderful ease with
+old Rowley, as if he was not a bit afraid of him; and some idle fellows
+envied him his emancipation from Virgil and Horace, and other classical
+authors, for whom they had so little affection themselves.  Then he had
+to jump up and hurry off to catch the coach, in order to reach the mail,
+which was to carry him down that night to Northamptonshire.  Jack could
+obtain no certain information about Murray and Adair, but old Rowley
+told him he understood they had already been sent to sea.  Jack spent
+three very jolly days at home.  He had a big trunk filled with all sorts
+of things which he was to stow away in his chest.  Then the moment came
+for parting--the family were not much addicted to crying, not that they
+did not love each other very much.  Jack's little sister Lucy cried the
+most.  He promised to write to her, and she promised to write to him and
+tell him about everybody and everything, and the horses and dogs, and
+something very like a tear came into his eyes, and a difficulty of
+speaking to which he was not accustomed, as he gave her his last kiss.
+Just then, Admiral Triton, Jack's naval friend, drove up to the door,
+and by a mighty effort all traces of his feelings were banished--not
+that the Admiral would have thought the worse of him a bit on account of
+them.  The Admiral was of the old school.  He had one leg, the other
+being supplied by what looked remarkably like a mop-stick.  His
+appearance was somewhat rough, especially when he went out in rainy
+weather, and his countenance was not a little battered, but his heart
+was as tender and almost as simple as Jack's or even Lucy's for that
+matter.  He had insisted on taking Jack to Portsmouth and seeing him on
+board.  "It will be an advantage to the youngster perhaps, and, besides,
+it will freshen me up a bit myself," he observed to Jack's father; "so
+say no more about it, neighbour Rogers."
+
+On their arrival at Portsmouth they went to the _George_, and the
+Admiral then took Jack to try on the rest of his kit.
+
+"And I say, Mr Selby," observed the Admiral, "just shake the reefs out
+of the youngster's clothes at once, will you; why you would stop his
+growth if you were to swaddle him up in that way."
+
+"Certainly, Admiral; but young gentlemen nowadays fancy well-fitting
+trousers," observed the tailor.
+
+"And tight-pinching shoes, which will give them corns, and prevent them
+stepping out like men," observed the Admiral; "but though they are
+silly, wiser people should not humour them."
+
+Leaving Jack with the tailor, who was really a very trustworthy man,
+Admiral Triton stumped down to the well-known Point, to have a look
+about him, as he said.  While he was standing there, with his hands in
+his old pea-coat pocket, gazing out on the harbour, and thinking of
+bygone days and many an event of his youth connected with that place, a
+man-of-war's boat ran in among the wherries, and a youngster sprang out
+of her, a small portmanteau being afterwards handed to him.
+
+"Hillo, my man! if you're inclined to gain a shilling, just carry this
+up to the _George_ for me, will you?" exclaimed the midshipman,
+addressing the rough-looking, one-legged seaman he saw before him.  The
+Admiral was so tickled with the notion, that without saying a word he
+touched his hat, and taking the portmanteau, stumped off with it,
+followed by the owner.  Two waiters were standing at the door of the
+_George_.  When they saw the Admiral they hurried forward.
+
+"Pray, Admiral, let me help you in with that thing," they exclaimed
+eagerly.  At the same moment up came Jack.  He burst into a jovial fit
+of laughter.  There before him stood Terence Adair, in midshipman's
+uniform, the very picture of dismay.
+
+"Oh, sir, I beg your pardon, I did not know you were an Admiral!" he
+exclaimed.  Just then he caught the eye of Jack, who had gone up to the
+Admiral.  Paddy's countenance brightened a little.  "How lucky!" he
+added.  "Do apologise for me, Jack."
+
+"Well, well, but I say, youngster, you are not going to do me out of my
+shilling; just hand me that, at all events," said the Admiral, laughing.
+"Another time save your money, and carry your shirt-collars yourself."
+
+Terence, fumbling in his pocket, produced the coin, which the Admiral
+bestowed on an old blind man who was passing at the moment.  Jack and
+Terence shook hands heartily.  A look from the first assured the other
+that he need not have the slightest fear of the consequences of his
+mistake.
+
+"What ship do you belong to, youngster?" asked the Admiral.
+
+"The _Racer_, sir," said Terence; "she's a fine frigate--there's not
+another like her in the service."  The Admiral looked approvingly when
+he heard the remark.
+
+"Why, she's my ship," exclaimed Jack, "though I haven't joined yet."
+
+"Yours, Jack! how capital!" cried Terence in a tone of delight; "well,
+that is fortunate."  The Admiral seemed much amused at the meeting of
+the two friends.  Terence had come on shore to see his relative Lord
+Derrynane, whom Admiral Triton knew; and they all dined together, and
+the next day the Admiral accompanied the two lads on board their ship,
+which had just gone out to Spithead.  She was a thirty-six gun frigate,
+and worthy of all the encomiums Terence had lavishly bestowed on her at
+dinner.  The Admiral stumped all over her, and examined all the new
+inventions, and went into the midshipmen's berth, which was a very natty
+one; and he sat down and talked of old times during the war, and told a
+good story or two, and made himself perfectly at home, and introduced
+Jack "as a fellow who would speak for himself by and by;" and when he
+went away he was voted a regular trump, and no small share of his lustre
+fell on Jack.  The Admiral and Jack went on deck.  The former was in no
+hurry to leave the ship.  He took a great interest in all that was going
+forward.  They walked the deck for some time.  The Admiral stopped, and
+said with more seriousness than was his wont: "Jack, I have given you
+several pieces of advice which you have taken well from an old sailor
+who has lost his leg in the service of his country, and has been pretty
+well riddled and knocked about besides.  I must give you another, the
+most important of all--never forget that you are a Christian, and never
+be ashamed of confessing it.  Your Bible tells you what that means.
+You've got one in your chest.  Read it often, and learn from it.  Nail
+your colours to the mast, and fight under them.  You'll thus keep your
+spiritual enemies at bay, as I hope you will those of your country."
+Jack grasped the Admiral's hand to show that he understood him, but for
+the life of him he could not have found words to express what he wanted
+to say.  They had stopped, and were looking over the ship's side.  Jack
+espied a boat pulling up under the frigate's quarter, with a
+midshipman's chest and a midshipman in her.
+
+"What, more youngsters!" growled out an old mate; "we've our complement,
+and more than enough already."  Jack's heart gave a jump of pleasure.
+He thought that he recognised Murray.  It was a curious coincidence, if
+such was the case, that the three schoolfellows should meet.  The boat
+came alongside, the chest was hoisted up in spite of the old mate's
+growls, the midshipman followed, and in another minute Jack Terence and
+Alick were shaking hands, and laughing heartily at their happy
+encounter.  Murray said that he had not come to join the _Racer_
+permanently, but that he had been ordered a passage to the
+Mediterranean, where the sloop of war to which he had been appointed was
+stationed.  The Admiral told Murray that he knew his father, and that he
+was glad a son of his had chosen the navy as a profession.  He then
+heartily shook hands with the three lads; and when he went on shore all
+the midshipmen of the ship manned the side ropes to show their respect
+to the fine old sailor, and gave him three cheers as he pulled away.
+Jack confessed that, somehow or other, he felt more inclined to pipe his
+eye on that occasion than on any of his other leave-takings.  Two days
+after this the _Racer_, bound for the Mediterranean, was running out at
+the Needles, whose jagged peaks and high white cliffs rose in
+picturesque beauty on the left hand.  The wind was fair, the sky blue,
+and the water smooth, and the three midshipmen looked forward with
+delight to the numerous adventures they expected to encounter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+IN THE MEDITERRANEAN.
+
+The gallant frigate, which bore the three midshipmen and their fortunes,
+was soon plunging into a heavy sea, caused by a strong breeze from the
+westward, which she encountered as she stood across the Bay of Biscay.
+"There we lay all the day, in the Bay of Biscay, oh!" sang Paddy Adair,
+as he, with other young gentlemen, sat in the berth after dinner; but,
+as he sang, there was a tremulousness in his voice ominous of a troubled
+soul within, while the "Oh!" came out with a peculiar emphasis which
+brought down upon him the laughter of the other youngsters, who, having
+been rather longer at sea, had become accustomed to such joltings and
+tumblings about.  Jack meantime, who had just come below from his watch
+on deck, was attacking, with a ferocity which made it appear as if he
+was contending with some bitter enemy, instead of a plentiful dinner,
+the boiled beef and biscuit the boy had lately placed on the table.
+When spoken to, he scarcely looked up, but continued cramming mouthful
+after mouthful down his throat, while his eyes rolled round and round;
+and more than once he gazed at the door, contemplating evidently how he
+could most quickly make his escape on deck.  Alick Murray meantime
+leaned back at the end of the berth, with a book in his hand, under the
+impression that he was reading; but his head ached; his dinner had been
+untasted, and, though his eyes may have seen the letters, they conveyed
+no impression to his brain.  The rest of the members of the mess were
+variously employed.  Some were writing up their logs; others doing their
+day's work; a few reading, and some were discussing subjects, if not
+very erudite, at all events, apparently highly amusing to themselves,
+from the peals of laughter they occasionally elicited.  Two youngsters
+were having a quiet little fight in the corner, pummelling each other's
+heads to their hearts' content, till brought to order by a couple of
+books aimed scientifically across the berth by old Hemming, the senior
+mate of the mess, who, from constant practice, was very perfect in that
+mode of projecting missiles.  There were several other passed mates in
+the berth, and two assistant-surgeons--one of them old enough to be the
+father of any of the youngsters--and a second master and a master's
+assistant, and the captain and purser's clerks, and three or four other
+midshipmen of various ages.  All of them did not belong to the frigate,
+but some were supernumeraries going out to other ships on the station.
+The fathers of some present were of high rank, and they had been
+accustomed to all the luxuries wealth can give, while others were the
+sons of poor men, officers in the army and navy, who had little beyond
+their pay on which to depend.  Altogether they formed a very
+heterogeneous mass, and a strict system of discipline was required to
+keep them in order.  Captain Lascelles, who commanded the _Racer_, was
+an officer and a gentleman in the true sense of the word, and he wished
+that all the officers under his command should deserve the same
+character.  Those belonging to the gun-room were mostly men of this
+description, but one or two scarcely came up to it.  Of these one was
+the lieutenant of marines.  He formed an exception to the general
+character won by that noble corp--for a braver and more gallant set of
+men are nowhere to be found.  Lieutenant Spry was not a favourite either
+with his superiors or with those below him.  The midshipmen especially
+disliked him, and he seemed to have a decided antipathy to them.
+
+To return to the midshipmen's berth: Jack Rogers continued to bolt his
+beef, Alick to fancy that he was reading, and Adair to try and sing,
+when, in spite of his courage, nature, or rather the _tumblification_ of
+the ship, triumphed;--springing over the table, he rushed up the
+hatchway towards the nearest port on the upper deck.  Now, as it
+happened, Lieutenant Spry was with uneasy steps endeavouring to take his
+constitutional walk along the deck at that moment, and Paddy, not seeing
+him, ran with his head directly against the lower button of the marine
+officer's waistcoat, whereon the seasick midshipman found his ears
+pinched, and received a shower of no very refined epithets.  Poor
+Terence, who, essentially the gentleman, would not have retorted if he
+could, was able only to ejaculate, "Beg pardon, sir!" when the usual
+result of seasickness followed, to the no small disfigurement of the
+marine's white trousers.  The enraged officer, on this, thundered down
+invectives on poor Paddy's head, and finished off in a most
+un-officer-like way by kicking him down the hatchway from whence he had
+just emerged.  Adair returned crestfallen and miserable, brooding over
+the injury and insults he had received.  There could have been no doubt
+that a formal complaint made to the captain would have brought down a
+severe reprimand on the head of the marine officer, but the idea of
+making a complaint never crossed the imagination of the midshipman.
+Paddy, however, told his story to his companions, and even Murray agreed
+that Mr Spry had merited punishment.  They eagerly discussed the
+subject--all the midshipmen had been insulted in the person of Adair,
+and it was not long before a bright idea was elicited from among them.
+On board the ship, belonging to the men, was a large monkey, whom they
+called Quirk, a very tame and sagacious animal, who had a peculiar
+aptitude for learning any trick which any person had perseverance enough
+to teach him.  "He'd know more nor any of the ship's boys if it weren't
+for his tail," the men used to remark after the performance of one of
+his clever tricks.
+
+"Capital!" exclaimed Jack, forgetting all about his seasickness and
+clapping his hands with delight when the idea which had been brought
+forth was propounded; "he'll do in it first-rate style--ha, ha, ha!" and
+a merry peal of laughter ran through the berth.
+
+The gale blew over, and the sea once more was bright and blue, as the
+frigate made her way towards the Rock of Gibraltar.  For several days
+the three midshipmen were wonderfully quiet below; sometimes they were
+forward, and sometimes they sat together at the farther end of their own
+berth.  They had needles and thread and scissors under weigh, and bits
+of red cloth and leather, and indeed all sorts of outfitters' materials,
+the employment on which seemed to afford them infinite satisfaction.
+Mr Spry, as in fancied dignity he paced the quarter-deck, of course did
+not remark the constant absence of so insignificant a person as a
+midshipman from it; and the recollection that he had behaved not
+altogether in a becoming way to Adair did not probably cross his mind.
+Now the lieutenant had a peculiarly pompous air, and the habit, whenever
+he wished to blow his nose, of drawing his white cambric
+pocket-handkerchief from his breast pocket with what he thought peculiar
+dignity, and of flourishing it in his hand after each operation in a
+fine theatrical style.  He had read in some advertising circular that
+the use of a fine cambric handkerchief always marks the gentleman; so he
+considered that if he purchased a set, no one would afterwards venture
+to doubt his claim to that character.  All day long, Jack, or Alick, or
+Paddy, sometimes singly and sometimes all together, were forward in the
+company of no less important a character than Quirk, the monkey.  It is
+extraordinary how perseveringly they devoted themselves to him.  Had
+they employed the same time in teaching some of their fellow-creatures,
+the ship's boys, they might have imparted a considerable amount of
+useful knowledge, notwithstanding what the men said on the subject.  At
+last they considered that the time had arrived for bringing their
+labours to a triumphant result.
+
+One fine calm morning the marines had been called out to drill.  For
+some reason Lieutenant Spry did not at once make his appearance, but a
+representative came forward instead in the person of Master Quirk, who
+sprang aft to the spot which should have been occupied by the
+lieutenant, dressed in full fig, with red coat and belt and hat, and a
+sword by his side, while his breast pocket was well stuffed out with a
+huge piece of white cotton.  "Attention!" cried out some one on deck.
+The men unconsciously obeyed, and instantly Quirk drew out his
+handkerchief, and, spluttering with a loud noise, flourished it
+vehemently in the air.  On this, even the self-possession of the marines
+gave way; and instead of being angry, they burst into uncontrollable
+fits of laughter, which were joined in by all the spectators, who were
+crowding aft to see the fun.
+
+At that moment Mr Spry rushed on deck, using his handkerchief exactly
+as Quirk had been doing.  When the whole scene burst on him, his fury
+knew no bounds.  He rushed to his station at the head of his men, which
+the monkey seemed in no way disposed to vacate, nor did he till his
+quick eye caught sight of the toe of the officer approaching him, when,
+with a loud chuckling "Quacko! quacko! quacko!" he leaped nimbly up the
+ringing.
+
+It was some time before order was restored; and even while his drill was
+going on, a merry peal of laughter reached the ears of the fuming
+lieutenant from different parts of the deck, in which he felt certain he
+could recognise the voices of Adair and his two friends.  The moment the
+drill was over, instead of acting like a wise man, and passing the
+matter over as an occurrence in no way intended to annoy him, he went
+aft and made a formal complaint to Captain Lascelles.  As every man who
+chooses to encourage a toady can have one, so even had Lieutenant Spry,
+in the person of one of his men, who had watched the proceedings of the
+midshipmen, and now came forward as a witness against them.  All three
+were summoned to the cabin, and they could not, of course, deny the
+charge.  The captain had considerable difficulty in keeping his
+countenance, as Paddy, acting as spokesman of the party, pleaded their
+cause.  He did not mend it when he confessed that the trick had been
+played in consequence of the way the lieutenant had treated him.
+
+"It is mean, and unchristian, and altogether wrong, to harbour revenge,
+young gentlemen," said the captain.  "I cannot now take cognisance of
+Mr Spry's conduct on the occasion to which you allude; and I conclude
+that he will be satisfied if you apologise to him.  As the conduct of
+which you have been guilty was public, so also must be your punishment.
+Go up, each of you, to one of the mast-heads, and remain there till I
+call you down.  Adair, do you go to the mizen-mast; Rogers, take the
+mainmast; and Murray, the foremast.  I have settled that matter, I hope,
+to your satisfaction, Mr Spry," observed the captain, with a freezing
+manner, which somewhat damped the dignity of the lieutenant.
+
+Up the rigging went the three midshipmen, each of them obtaining
+possession of a handful of biscuit and a piece of beef to stay their
+hunger, as they had a prospect of losing their dinners unless the
+captain relented sooner than could be expected.  There they all sat on
+their lofty perches, occasionally making telegraphic signals to each
+other, and not particularly unhappy with their punishment.
+
+The captain and gun-room officers were taking their for noon
+quarter-deck walk, and nearly everybody on board was on deck, when a
+loud chattering was heard, and who should be seen mounting the mizen
+rigging but Quirk, still habited in his red coat, with his hat fixed
+firmly on his head, intent, most clearly, on mischief.  No sooner did he
+get alongside Adair, than, pulling out his handkerchief, he flourished
+it vehemently in his face; and then, as if satisfied with the
+performance of his lesson, he slid down the mizen topmast stay, and in
+an instant after was up again close to Jack, before whom he performed
+the same ceremony.  Paddy and Jack almost fell from their perches with
+laughter, especially when Quirk sprang forward along another stay, and
+paid a similar visit to Murray.  Everybody on deck was looking on, and
+all abaft were amused, with the exception of Lieutenant Spry, who was in
+a towering rage, vowing that he would demand a court-martial, and get
+the midshipmen, or the monkey, or himself--nobody knew exactly which--
+dismissed the ship.  The lieutenant shouted out to somebody to catch the
+monkey, but as he did not name any one in particular, no one went, and
+he had the pleasure of observing his own peculiarity exhibited backwards
+and forwards, from mast-head to mast-head, several times in succession.
+A joke must have an end; and the captain, seeing that the best way of
+bringing this to a conclusion (it being somewhat subversive of
+discipline) was to call the midshipmen down, they were allowed to return
+once more on deck, while Quirk's new red coat and accoutrements were
+seized and hove overboard, to appease the rage of the marine officer.
+However, Quirk, having been carefully instructed, lost no opportunity of
+exhibiting his talents; and whenever the marines were drawn up, or the
+seamen were at divisions, if he happened to be loose, he invariably
+appeared in front of them flourishing a piece of canvas, or a bit
+of paper, or anything he could lay paws on to represent a
+pocket-handkerchief.
+
+At length that classic sea, whose shores have been the scene of the most
+interesting events of the world's history--that sea which leads to
+Italy, to Greece, to the Holy Land, to Egypt, with its wondrous Nile and
+grand old mysterious ruins--the Mediterranean, was sighted; and the
+frigate dropped her anchor below the high rock of Gibraltar, also
+celebrated, somewhat in later times, for the way in which it was
+captured by Sir George Rooke, and has been kept ever since by the
+obstinate English.  The midshipmen had just time to run through the
+galleries perforated in the rock, to climb to its highest peak, and to
+get a look at the frolicsome monkeys which dwell in undisturbed liberty
+on its south-eastern side, before the ship again sailed.  They heard
+that the _Firefly_, the sloop of war to which Murray was appointed, had
+gone to Greece, so they had the prospect of remaining some time longer
+together.  At Malta the _Racer_ remained only a few days, when she was
+ordered off to the Ionian Islands.
+
+The first place at which she brought up was in the harbour of Corfu.  It
+is a lovely spot.  The picturesque hills of the island are seen on one
+side, and the lofty mountains of Albania on the other, of the strait
+which divides it from the mainland.  Here Murray was separated from his
+two old schoolfellows.  The _Firefly_ came in, and he had to join her.
+The three midshipmen had made good use of their time, and had picked up
+a fair amount of seamanship.  They had now some practice in boating, an
+amusement which the captain always encouraged; for, as he observed,
+almost as many lives were lost from ignorance of how to manage a boat
+properly, as in any other way.  This sort of work Jack and Adair
+especially liked.  The frigate had put to sea to visit some of the
+neighbouring islands, and had more than once returned into port; when
+one forenoon Captain Lascelles summoned Hemming into the cabin.
+
+"I have a despatch to send to Janina, Mr Hemming," said he.  "You will
+take the cutter and two of the midshipmen with you--Adair and Rogers.
+Send them back as soon as you land.  You will take horses and travel
+across the country, and the frigate will call for you in the course of a
+few days."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" answered Hemming, who never spoke a work more than was
+necessary in the presence of his superiors.
+
+Jack and Paddy were delighted when they found that they were to go on
+the expedition; for, though old Hemming kept somewhat a taut hand over
+them, they had a just regard for his good qualities.  They secretly also
+resolved to indemnify themselves on their return passage by having as
+much fun as they could.  The cutter was a fine boat; and as they had a
+fair breeze they made rapid progress towards their destination.  They
+sat very demurely, one on either side of old Hemming, eating their bread
+and cheese, and taking the half wineglassful of grog, which he handed to
+them each time that he helped himself to a full tumbler.
+
+"That is quite enough for such little chaps as you," said he.  "If you
+were to begin now, and to take two or three tumblersful as I do, by the
+time you are my age, you would have drunk fifty hogsheads of rum, and I
+don't know how many tons of water."
+
+Perhaps Hemming's calculations were not exactly correct, but the advice
+was, at all events, good.  He took care that it should be followed by
+leaving them only half a bottle of rum for their return--putting the
+remainder of the bottles into the saddle-bags he had brought for his
+journey.  Jack and Terence watched him trotting off on a Greek Rosinante
+with the said well-filled saddle-bags behind him, a thick stick in his
+hand, and a brace of ship's pistols in his holsters, till he was out of
+sight.
+
+"Terence," said Jack, "we ought to return to the boat, and get under
+weigh."
+
+"Yes; but I vote we do something in the catering line first," was the
+answer.
+
+So they found their way to the market, where by dint of signs and a few
+words of _lingua franca_, they laid in a store of fruit and fowls, and
+fish and vegetables of various sorts, with two or three bottles of what
+they understood was first-rate Samian wine.  With this provision for the
+inner man they returned to the boat, and made sail for Corfu.  The wind
+was light, and they made but slow progress.  However, they were very
+happy, and in no hurry to get back to the ship.  It happened that they
+had been lately reading James's _Naval History_, and Paddy especially
+had been much struck by some of the exploits performed by single boat's
+crews.
+
+"Jack," said he, "I don't think we ought to go back to the ship without
+doing something."
+
+"We are doing a good deal," answered Jack, who was very matter of fact.
+"We are eating a jolly good dinner."  He held up the leg of a chicken.
+"This is the last of a fowl I've had to my share."
+
+"Ay, but I mean something to be talked about--something glorious,"
+answered Paddy.  "Let's take a prize."
+
+"A prize!  Where is one to be found?" asked Jack, in no way disinclined
+to do something.
+
+"Oh! we'll fall in with her before long," replied Paddy.  "One of these
+Greek chaps.  They are all pirates, you know, and would cut our throats
+if they dared."
+
+Paddy was jumping rather too fast at conclusions; but Jack, who also
+thought it would be a very fine thing to take a prize, although some
+doubts crossed his mind as to the propriety of so doing, did not attempt
+to dissuade him from his intentions.  It never occurred to the young
+aspirants for naval renown that they should have made the men get out
+their oars and pull, as there was a perfect calm.  The boat floated
+quietly on all night.  Soon after daylight they espied a long, low,
+lateen-rigged craft stealing along close in with the land--her white
+canvas dimly seen through the morning mist.
+
+"That shall be our prize," exclaimed Paddy, standing up in the
+stern-sheets; whereon he made the crew a speech, and talked a great deal
+about honour, glory, and renown, and treading in the steps of the old
+heroes of Great Britain, and prize-money, and several other themes.  The
+last-mentioned his auditors understood somewhat better than the first.
+It was all the same to them whether England was at war or not with the
+nation to which the craft in view belonged.  Their officers must know
+all about the matter, so there was no dissentient voice; and now,
+getting out their oars fast enough, they pulled away with a hearty cheer
+towards the craft in sight.  The vessel was undoubtedly a Greek.  Her
+crew probably could not conceive why they were chased.  The wind was too
+light to enable them to make much way with their sails; and though they
+had oars, they were unable to urge on their craft fast enough to escape
+the English boat.  From the gestures of their pursuers the Greeks saw
+that they were about to be attacked, and as the cutter ran alongside
+they attempted to defend themselves; but although the seamen had only
+the boat's stretchers, and Paddy and Jack alone had pistols, which
+fortunately would not go off, the Greeks very speedily gave way and
+tumbled down below.
+
+"What are we to do now?" asked Jack, who, having joined the ship later,
+was under Adair's command.
+
+"Carry our prize in triumph into Corfu," answered Paddy, taking a turn
+with a dignified air on the deck.  "I should like, to see what that prig
+Spry will say to us now."
+
+As the Greeks could not speak a word of English, nor the English a word
+of Greek, no explanations could be made.  The Greeks shrugged their
+shoulders, and having been accustomed to be knocked about a good deal by
+the Turks, and to untoward events in general, took things very
+philosophically.  A breeze sprang up, and with the cutter in tow, the
+midshipmen shaped a course, as well as they could calculate, for Corfu.
+The Greek crew were far more numerous than the English; so Jack advised
+that a guard should be set over them lest they might attempt to retake
+the vessel--an occurrence, he had read, which had often happened when
+proper precautions were neglected.
+
+"I hope it's all right," observed Jack, "but what we have done seems
+somewhat funny."
+
+"Who fears?" answered Paddy.  "What else have we to do but to fight our
+enemies?"
+
+As Jack had not a ready answer to this question, the subject dropped.
+Their attention was soon occupied by seeing a vessel standing up the
+channel, so as directly to cross their course.
+
+"She's the _Firefly_," exclaimed Jack; "is she not, Thomson?" he asked
+of the boatswain of the boat.
+
+"No doubt about it, sir," was the answer; and in a lower voice, "And
+now, my wigs, won't the youngsters catch it!"
+
+When the sloop of war drew near, she fired a gun as a signal to the
+Greek vessel to heave-to.  As the midshipmen knew what that meant, they
+at once obeyed, and in a short time a boat was seen pulling towards
+them; a lieutenant and a midshipman were in her.  The latter was no
+other than Alick Murray.  They cordially greeted him; and Terence had
+begun to boast of their achievement when the lieutenant, Mr Gale,
+exclaimed, "What does all this mean, youngsters?  What have you been
+about?"
+
+Terence tried to explain, but everything he said only made matters
+worse.  Happily, Mr Gale was a very kind, judicious man, and soon
+comprehended that the midshipmen had acted through ignorance and
+thoughtlessness.
+
+"Had you reached Corfu with your so-called prize, you might have been
+brought into serious trouble," he remarked.  "As no great harm has
+hitherto taken place, perhaps we may induce the Greek master and his
+crew not to make any complaint.  I will see what can be done."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," exclaimed Alick Murray; "if we can bribe him off I shall
+be glad to pay any sum you think necessary.  Fortunately, I have the
+means at my disposal;" and he put a purse into Mr Gale's hand.  "Don't
+say a word about it, my dear fellows," he added, as Terence and Jack
+were expostulating with him for spending so much money on their account.
+"As we have done the harm, we must stand the blame, you know," they
+said.
+
+Mr Gale had long been accustomed to the Greeks, and spoke their
+language fluently; and having first frightened the master by proving to
+him that his detention was his own fault, because he had not explained
+that he was an honest trader, in order to show the good feeling of the
+English, he promised forthwith to liberate him.  The Greek was profuse
+in his thanks, especially when the lieutenant, to exhibit the
+magnanimity of his captors, presented him with a bottle of rum and a few
+piastres.
+
+Perfectly satisfied with this turn in the state of affairs, the Greeks
+were voluble in their expression of gratitude, and waving their hands,
+pressed them to their hearts, as the two boats pulled away for the
+corvette.  Captain Hartland, her commander, soon after they came on
+board, gave the two midshipmen a severe lecture for their behaviour, and
+telling them to make the best of their way back to Corfu, advised them
+not to boast too loudly of their exploit.  Alick, who was decidedly a
+favourite, had, they found in the meantime, contrived to plead their
+cause.  They followed Captain Hartland's advice, but they felt very
+crestfallen and sheepish for some days after they got back to their own
+ship.  The story, however, leaked out in time, and Terence and Jack had,
+of course, to stand a good deal of quizzing on the subject.  At last, a
+Paddy's Prize became a cant saying on board, when anybody had taken
+anything to which he had no right.
+
+Several months passed away--the winter came on.  The _Racer_ met with a
+severe gale, in which she was partially dismasted, and received so much
+damage that she had to put into Valetta harbour to repair.  She found
+the _Firefly_ there, and as Captain Hartland had the character of being
+very attentive to the instruction of his midshipmen in seamanship,
+Captain Lascelles got him to take Terence and Jack with him for a cruise
+while the frigate was refitting.  Nothing loath, they transferred
+themselves, with their chests, on board the corvette, and once more the
+three schoolfellows were together.  They found the life on board the
+corvette very different to that of the frigate.  Their hands were
+constantly in the tar-bucket and paint-pot.  They were for ever employed
+in knotting and splicing, and in rigging and unrigging a model ship,
+which had been made on purpose to instruct them.  All the midshipmen of
+the brig were compelled to man the mizen-mast, and to take it completely
+under their charge.  This system very much increased the knowledge of
+the practical details of seamanship, which it is important every officer
+should know.  A good officer is thoroughly acquainted in the most minute
+particular with everything men are required to know, and a great deal
+more.  This remark refers not only to the Navy, but to the Army, and to
+every other calling in life.  The _Firefly_ was a very happy ship; for
+though no one was allowed to be idle, the captain was kind and just, and
+took care that each person should do his duty; so that the work to be
+done was equally divided among all hands.
+
+On quitting Malta she sailed for the eastward, and was for some time
+kept cruising among the Ionian Islands, and on the coast of Greece,
+carrying despatches from place to place.  The wind had been from the
+northward, and the ship had been kept somewhat close in with the Greek
+coast, to shorten the distance to be run from one spot to another, when
+one of those severe gales, which in the winter season in the
+Mediterranean sometimes spring up suddenly, came on to blow.  The
+corvette was caught on a lee shore and embayed.  It was night.  All
+hands were called.  The fury of the gale increased.  Sail was taken off
+the ship, but still it was necessary to carry far more than would have
+been set under other circumstances, that she might, if possible, beat
+out of the bay.  She was pressed down till the hammock-nettings were
+almost under water.  Still her masts stood, but no one could predict how
+long they could bear the terrific strain put upon them.  Darker and
+darker grew the night; the vivid flashes of lightning very now and then
+revealing the countenances of the officers and crew, as they strained
+their eyes in their endeavours to discover through the darkness how far
+off was the much-dreaded shore.  The three midshipmen stood together,
+holding on to the weather bulwarks with some of the gun-room officers.
+Others were at their stations in different parts of the ship.  The
+lightning showed that the cheeks of the oldest were pale.  They full
+well knew the terrific danger in which the ship was placed.  The captain
+stood calm and collected, conning the ship, and ready to take advantage
+of any shift of wind which might enable her to get a point off the
+shore.  No one moved--no one spoke--the howling of the gale and the
+dashing of the waters were the only sounds heard.  Suddenly all were
+aroused into activity by the deep full tones of the captain's voice.
+"About ship!"  "Down with the helm!"  "Helm's a-lee!"  "Maintopsail
+haul!"  "Haul-of-all!" were the orders given in slow succession.  Round
+came the ship in noble style, but it was soon clear that she had gained
+nothing by the change.  Her course did not point more off shore on her
+present tack than it had done on the former one.  No land could be seen,
+but men were stationed in the chains with the lead to give notice of
+their approach to it.  It was soon evident that the ship was drifting
+nearer and nearer to the shore, the rocky and dangerous character of
+which every one on board full well knew, yet each was prepared to
+struggle to the last to do his duty, whatever might befall them.
+
+"What's going to happen?" asked Paddy.  "People don't seem to like this
+fun."
+
+"We shall have to swim for it, I suspect," remarked Jack.
+
+"We must be prepared for the worst," observed Alick Murray.  "Rogers,
+Adair, has it ever struck you that we maybe summoned at any moment to
+stand in the presence of the Judge of all men?  What shall we have to
+say for ourselves?  The thought should not make us cowards, but we
+should not drive it away--I know that."
+
+While Murray was speaking there was a terrific report.  The foresail was
+blown out of the bolt-ropes.  At the same moment a more than usually
+bright flash of lightning, which darted across the whole northern sky,
+revealed the frowning rocks of the coast under their lee.  "Prepare to
+anchor ship!" cried the captain.  It was a last resource.  The remaining
+canvas was furled.  The best bower was let go; the topmasts were struck;
+and it was hoped that the ship might hold on till the gale abated.  No
+one went below.  This work performed, all hands returned to their
+stations.  Once more the gale came down on them with increased fury.
+The ship plunged into the foaming seas which rolled up around her.  The
+best bower parted.  Another anchor was let go, and the full length of
+the cable veered out.  An hour more passed by in anxious suspense;
+death, in its most ferocious aspect, threatening all on board.  The
+cable parted.  The sheet anchor was let go, and alone now kept the brig
+from destruction.  Still the gale did not abate.  The night wore on.
+The officers forward reported that the ship was dragging the anchor--her
+last hope of safety.
+
+"It must be done," said the captain with a sigh, to the first
+lieutenant.  "Order the carpenter to cut away the foremast."
+
+The carpenter and his crew were prepared for what they had suspected was
+inevitable.  Their axes gleamed as the lightning flashed vividly around
+them.  The crew stood by to cut away the rigging with axes and knives.
+Down came the mast with crash to port, and floated quickly by towards
+the shore.  The next few minutes were passed with intense anxiety by
+every one on board.
+
+"Does she hold on, Mr Gale?" the captain asked of the first lieutenant.
+
+"She still drags, sir," was the ominous reply.
+
+"The other masts must go," cried the captain.
+
+The order was quickly executed.  The mainmast fell to starboard,
+followed by the mizen-mast, and the late gallant-looking ship floated a
+dismantled hulk amid the foaming waves.  But the sacrifice was in vain;
+scarcely had the masts gone than the last cable parted, and the gallant
+ship drifted onwards towards the threatening shore.  Still Captain
+Hartland was not a man to yield while a possibility remained of saving
+his ship and the lives of those entrusted to him.  The corvette carried
+aft two heavy guns for throwing shells.  Some spare hempen cables were
+got up from below, and made fast to them; when hove overboard they
+checked her way.  Daylight at length came, and revealed her terrific
+position.  High cliffs, and dark, rugged, wild rocks, over which the sea
+broke in masses of foam, appeared on every side.  Pale and anxious the
+crew stood at their stations.  The wind roared, the cold was bitter.  A
+startling terror-inspiring cry was heard.  "The last cable has parted!"
+The three midshipmen shook hands; they believed that they were soon to
+be separated, never to meet again in this world.  On--on, with heavy
+plunges, amid the foaming waters, the doomed ship hurried to meet her
+fate.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+AMONGST THE GREEKS.
+
+Onward drove the sloop of war with the three midshipmen on board to
+certain destruction.  "Heave the guns overboard!" cried Captain
+Hartland, on the discovery that the last cable had parted.  Severe
+indeed was the pang it caused him to give the order.  As the ship
+rolled, first the starboard, and then the guns on the other side, were
+cut loose and allowed to run through the ports.  With sullen plunges
+they disappeared in the foaming seas.
+
+"There go all our teeth," cried Paddy Adair, who even at that awful
+moment could not refrain from a joke.  Even Murray smiled.
+
+"I wish that I were like you, Paddy," said Jack; "I couldn't have said
+that sort of thing just now."
+
+"Well, but I'm sure that I can't help feeling as if every tooth in my
+mouth had been hauled out with a huge wrench," observed Adair.  "There!
+there goes the last."
+
+"We must lighten the ship aft as much as possible, Mr Gale, and make
+sail on the stump of the foremast, so as to force her up on the beach,"
+observed the captain.  "If we can find the beach," he added in a lower
+voice.
+
+These orders were promptly obeyed.  Every man worked with a will.  There
+was no hurry, no confusion, though all were engaged in the most active
+exertion.  No one seemed to be conscious, while thus at work, that in a
+few short minutes their fate might be sealed.  Meantime, sail being set
+forward, while the ship headed on towards the shore, Captain Hartland
+and the master were engaged in looking out, in the hopes of discovering
+some sandy beach between the rocks, on which they might run the ship.
+Still they scarcely expected to find what they were seeking for; yet no
+one on board would have guessed from their looks what very slight hopes
+they entertained of success.  The work was done; the ship hurried
+through the raging surf.  Still the most perfect discipline prevailed;
+not a man quitted his station.  Here and there a few might be seen
+loosing their shoe-ties, or getting ready to cast off their flushing
+coats; but no other sign was observable that an awful struggle for life
+and death was about to commence.
+
+"Where are we driving to, Jack?" asked Adair; "I cannot make out through
+all this spray."
+
+"I thought I caught a glimpse of a white patch not much bigger than my
+hand when we were at the top of the last sea," answered Rogers.  "I hope
+it may be sand."
+
+"Starboard, starboard!" shouted the captain.  Three hands were at the
+helm.  The spokes flew quickly round.  A little sandy bay appeared; it
+seemed under the ship's bowsprit; then she was enveloped in a thick
+cloud of foam; the terrific roar of the surf became deafening.  On flew
+the corvette; a concussion which sent all who had not a secure hold flat
+on the deck was felt, and the seas came rolling up with tremendous
+force, heaving her broadside to the beach, and about twenty fathoms from
+it.  Still they did not at first break completely over her; a rock,
+inside of which she had been judiciously steered, somewhat broke their
+force.
+
+"We are ashore--we are ashore!" was the cry, but still every man waited
+for the captain's orders.  He stood calm and collected, with his
+officers round him.  His glass was in his hand; he was constantly
+looking through it watching the shore.
+
+"Some people are collecting on the heights, and will soon be down on the
+beach," he exclaimed.  "Hold on till they come, my lads, and we may be
+able to send a line on shore."  This exhortation was not unnecessary,
+for the seas rolling in constantly struck the vessel with such terrific
+force, that it appeared she could not possibly hold together, while two
+or three men, who had incautiously relaxed their hold, were washed
+overboard and drowned.  A beaker or small cask was in the meantime got
+ready with a line secured to it.  The most important object was to form
+a communication with the shore.  It was evident that if a hawser could
+once be carried between the ship and the beach, the crew might be
+dragged along it and be saved.  As soon as the people began to collect
+on the beach, the cask with the line attached to it was hove overboard.
+All watched its progress with intense anxiety, for all felt that no time
+was to be lost in getting the hawser on shore.  The cask neared the
+shore, then the wave rolled on, but again coming thundering down the
+beach, carried it back almost as far as the ship.  Again and again the
+attempt was made, and each time the cask, almost getting within the
+grasp of the people on shore, was hurled back once more out of their
+reach.
+
+"I think, sir, I could manage to put the jolly-boat on shore, if you
+will allow me," said Mr Wenham, the second lieutenant, addressing the
+captain.
+
+"The risk is very great, Wenham," said the captain, shaking him by the
+hand; "but go if you think fit."
+
+"Volunteers for the jolly-boat!" sang out the second lieutenant.
+Several men sprang forward; he selected four.  The boat was launched
+into the raging sea, and they leaped into her, carrying a line.  With a
+cheer from their shipmates they shoved off.  Rapidly the boat approached
+the beach, borne onward with a huge wave.  Intense was the anxiety of
+all who watched her.  She reached the spot where the sea curled backward
+in a mass of raging foam.  Down it came upon her.  A cry was heard
+uttered by the Greeks on shore, as well as by the seamen on board.  Over
+went the boat, and all her hapless crew were engulfed.  Rolled over and
+over among the seaweed and masses of the tangled rigging and pieces of
+the wreck, they struggled in vain to gain the shore.  One after the
+other they were swept out to sea and lost.  It was evident that none of
+the other boats would serve to carry the line on shore.  Again the
+experiment was tried with a cask, but failed.
+
+"I say, Murray--Adair," exclaimed Jack, earnestly, "do you know, I think
+that I could do it.  I was always a first-rate swimmer, you know, for my
+size.  I'll ask the captain's leave to try."
+
+"No one in the berth is better able to do it than you are," replied both
+his companions.
+
+"Oh Jack, I wish that I could go with you," cried Murray, as he wrung
+his hand.
+
+"So do I," added Adair; "but I know that I could never swim through that
+surf."
+
+No time was to be lost, so Jack Rogers worked his way up to Captain
+Hartland, and offered to swim on shore with the line.  The captain
+looked very much astonished, and replied that he thought the risk was
+too great.
+
+"Do let me try, sir," urged Jack.  "I'm like a fish in the water, I am
+indeed, sir; and if I don't reach the beach I can but be hauled back
+again, you know.  I've a notion that I could swim through all that foam.
+I've done something like it before now."
+
+"You are a brave fellow, Rogers," exclaimed Captain Hartland; "I will
+not prevent you."  Jack, delighted, began to throw off his clothes,
+which he handed to Adair and Murray, to prepare for his swim.
+
+"Mr Gale, tend the line carefully, and haul him in if he seems
+distressed," said the captain to the first lieutenant.  Jack had a belt
+secured round his body, so that it could not slip off or cut him, and he
+had the line made fast to it.  Watching his opportunity as a wave rolled
+in, he boldly sprang out on the top of it, and was borne onwards towards
+the shore with little or no exertion to himself.  He wisely reserved all
+his strength for the last struggle at the end of the trip.  Every one
+watched him with intense interest.  Not a word was spoken, but a hundred
+hands were eagerly held out to him from the shore, to show him the
+welcome he would receive on landing.  Some of the strongest men among
+the Greeks joined hands and formed a line into the sea, that the outer
+man might clutch the bold young swimmer if he could get within his
+reach.  Meantime a boat's oar and some line had been cast on shore.
+Some of the Greeks, more thoughtful than the rest, had secured the oar
+to the line, and stood ready to let it float out as Jack approached.  He
+saw the aid prepared, and made towards it.  He waited outside the place
+where the sea which took him in broke into foam, and then, when another
+sea rolled in, exerting all his strength he dashed forward; but in spite
+of all his efforts, the undertow was carrying him out again; still he
+bravely struggled on.  He saw the men on shore holding out their hands
+to him; could he but make head for a distance of two or three more
+fathoms he would succeed.  Another sea rolled in.  "Hurrah, hurrah!"
+resounded from all sides; "he has grasped the oar."  He was almost
+exhausted, still he clutched it with all his might.  Cautiously they
+drew him onward.  He could not have held on many moments longer, but the
+men who had formed the chain into the water seized him by the collar,
+and he and the end of the line he had so gallantly conveyed through the
+raging surf were carried up in safety on the beach.  Murray and Adair
+had watched his progress with an interest such as none but true old
+friends can feel.  Tears of gratitude sprang into Murray's eyes, and his
+heart bounded with joy as he saw that Jack was in safety.  Adair did not
+feel less satisfaction, but he expressed it differently, by joining
+heartily in the shout given by the rest of the ship's company.  A hawser
+was immediately attached to the line, by which it was drawn on shore,
+and one end being made fast round the stump of the foremast over the
+topgallant forecastle, the other was secured round the rocks.  A
+traveller with a line and slings being now fitted to the hawser, the men
+were told off to be conveyed on shore, the boys and those of lowest
+rating, being, as is customary, sent first.  The traveller being hauled
+backwards and forwards, one after the other the men were conveyed to the
+beach.  The operation, however, was a slow one, and not without danger,
+as part of the hawser was completely at times submerged by the breakers.
+Meantime the sea had made a breach over the afterpart of the ship,
+carrying away portions of the bulwarks.  A piece of the planking, as it
+washed by, struck Adair on the leg, and knocking him down, the sea would
+have swept him overboard had not Murray seized him by the arm, when Mr
+Gale coming to his assistance they carried him forward.  He was too much
+hurt to move, and they were afraid his leg was broken.  Murray sat with
+him on the deck, holding on by a ring-bolt and supporting him in his
+lap.  Notwithstanding the accident, they both of them had held fast to
+Jack's clothes.  What was their surprise not ten minutes afterwards to
+see Jack himself make his appearance on board.
+
+"Why, Rogers!--why have you come back, my dear lad?" exclaimed Captain
+Hartland.
+
+"To look after my clothes, sir," answered Jack; "and besides, sir, I
+didn't like to be going on shore out of my turn; none of the officers
+have gone yet."  The captain must have been puzzled what reply to make
+to this reason, for he said nothing.  Night was now coming on; still
+many people remained on board.
+
+"Come, bear a hand, my hearties; let us be getting on shore out of
+this," cried some of those left on board to their shipmates.  All who
+had gone before had been landed safely, but it was necessary to be very
+careful during the transit in keeping a tight hold of the slings,
+especially in passing through the surf.  One man, a fine young topman,
+grasped hold of the traveller, and with a wave of his hat gave the sign
+to haul away.  He went on well for a few seconds, apparently thinking it
+a good joke, till a roller overtook him.  In an instant the poor fellow
+was torn from his hold, and the raging waters rushing down again carried
+him far away beyond human help.
+
+"Now, Murray, it is your turn," said Mr Gale; "we will see by and by
+how we can get Adair on shore."
+
+"No, sir, thank you," said Murray calmly; "I would rather stay by Adair.
+If he cannot be landed now, he will require some one to look after
+him."
+
+"Go, Alick, go," said Adair faintly.  "Don't mind me."
+
+"Come, Rogers, you must be off then," exclaimed the first lieutenant, in
+a hurried tone.  "See, the men are waiting to haul you on shore."
+
+"Please, sir, Paddy Adair is an old schoolfellow of mine, and now he is
+a messmate; and while he is in that state and unable to help himself I
+cannot desert him, indeed I cannot, sir," said Jack very quietly.  "I'm
+very hardy; the cold and wet won't hurt me.  I'd much rather Murray
+went."
+
+"No; I agreed to stay first," said Murray; "I cannot go."
+
+"Then we'll both stay," said Jack.  "That's settled, sir, isn't it?"
+
+Mr Gale had not seen exactly how the seaman had been lost; and
+believing that there was nearly as much risk in making the passage in
+the dark as in staying, agreed to allow the youngsters to do as they
+wished, resolving at the same time to remain by them himself.  The
+captain had gone forward; and before he was aware of it, believing that
+everybody had left the ship, he was hurried by those in charge of the
+hawser into the slings.
+
+"We are coming sharp after you, sir," they exclaimed, anxious to secure
+the life of their captain.
+
+Such acts of devotion are too common in the navy, where the men have
+officers they esteem, to be thought much of by them.
+
+The three midshipmen, meantime, remained together, sheltered as much as
+possible by the topgallant forecastle, but still the sea was continually
+breaking over them.  The night was very dark, and the wind bitterly
+cold; the lightning too at times flashed vividly, revealing the horrors
+with which they were surrounded.  Mr Gale had seen the last of the
+people off, they thinking that he was going to follow; but two other
+unfortunate men demanded his care.  One was a marine, whose arm had been
+broken; the other the assistant-surgeon.  The latter, never strong, had
+become exhausted with the exertions he had gone through; and, when urged
+to go on shore, he had declared his inability to venture on the rope.
+He felt, poor fellow, that if he did, he should be washed off and
+drowned.  It was sad to hear the groans of the poor marine, as he lay
+secured to the deck near them.  Jack felt that he could have borne the
+trial much better, had he and his friends been alone on the wreck.  The
+surgeon made no complaint, beyond the utterance now and then of a faint
+moan.  The horrors of death were encircling him around.  Fortunately Mr
+Gale had secured a flask of brandy, a few drops of which he occasionally
+administered to the sufferers.  He also succeeded in fishing out from
+forward some of the men's clothing, which he distributed among the
+party; and then, having done all that a man could do, he sat himself
+down, almost overcome, to wait till the morning, when he might hope to
+get the survivors on shore.  Adair's leg gave him excruciating pain.
+Rogers sat on one side of him, Murray on the other, supporting him in
+their arms, and endeavouring, by every means they could think of, to
+alleviate his suffering, by gently rubbing his legs, frequently changing
+his position, and tightly grasping his hands.
+
+"Thank you, Alick; thank you, Jack," said he faintly; "I'm better.  I'd
+not die this time, if it were not so bitter, bitter cold; but I wish you
+two fellows were safe on shore.  I should never forgive myself if any
+harm was to come to you."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Adair, don't think about us.  We are all very well, and
+shall be very well, no fear," was the answer; but Jack spoke in a voice
+very different to his usual tone.  The exertions he had gone through had
+been almost too much even for his well-knit frame; a sort of stupor was
+stealing over him, and his senses began to wander.  Murray discovered
+his condition with great alarm.  He called to him to arouse himself.
+
+"Oh, Jack, don't give way," he exclaimed.  "If you fall asleep, the cold
+may overpower you."
+
+Mr Gale, hearing Murray's exclamation, gave Jack a few drops of brandy,
+which revived him.  Murray gladly took a few drops.  At the moment of
+trial he was not found wanting.  In spite of his more delicate frame, he
+bore up as well as the strongest.  Thus the night drew slowly on.  How
+earnestly did all on the wreck long for the blessed light of day.  Three
+of them had the consciousness that they had remained both from a high
+sense of duty and from the call of friendship, and this undoubtedly
+contributed to support them.  They too well knew in whose right arm they
+had to trust to save them.  Jack had not forgotten the lessons he had
+received at home, nor the counsel given him by Admiral Triton.  But Jack
+on no subject was much of a talker; he was a _doer_, however, which is
+more important.  The nearer a matter was to his heart, the less he
+allowed it to come out on his tongue, except at the proper moment.  By
+some of his shipmates, who did not understand him, he was considered
+rather a close fellow.  The same might be said of Murray, even in a
+greater degree.  Few indeed guessed, when they saw his slight frame and
+delicate features, how much he would both dare and do.  The power of
+passive endurance of all three was most fully tried during that awful
+night.  None of them flinched.  Murray alone, however, never allowed
+himself for a moment to lose his consciousness.  The rain and sleet came
+down with pitiless force; the bleak wind howled round them, the sea beat
+over them, the ceaseless breakers roared in their ears all the night
+through.  Murray felt as if it would never come to an end.  Every moment
+too the ship seemed as if she was about to break up, when he knew that
+death must be the lot of all remaining on board.  How thankfully he saw
+the first faint gleam of dawn breaking in the east, to him a sign, as he
+afterwards said, that the moment of their preservation was at hand.  He
+shook Jack, and pointed it out to him.
+
+"All right, old fellow," answered Jack; "I'm ready for a swim."  But
+Rogers did not know what he was saying, for he nodded off again.  Adair
+was with difficulty aroused to consciousness.  He was utterly unable to
+help himself or to move.  Had he been left alone he must have perished.
+Murray called loudly on Mr Gale.  He sprang up; though, when he moved,
+he found his limbs very stiff.  They went to examine into the state of
+their other companions.  Both the poor fellows were dead.  The survivors
+felt that they had still greater reason for gratitude that they had been
+spared while others had been taken.
+
+When daylight increased sufficiently to enable them to discover objects
+on shore, they found Captain Hartland and several of the men, with a
+number of the Greeks, assembled on the beach to help them.  Another pair
+of slings on a second traveller was now fitted, and Adair being placed
+in it, Mr Gale accompanied him on shore, helping him along through the
+surf.  Murray and Jack followed, several of the men, with ropes round
+their waists, rushing out into the surf to help them, for no men more
+than sailors know how to appreciate the act of devotion the two lads had
+that night performed.  The captain met them as they came dripping out of
+the surf, and shook them heartily by the hand.  He was one of those
+doing men who do not expend many words in expressing their feelings.
+The words he did speak were very gratifying to the young midshipmen.  He
+would not allow them, however, to remain on the beach, but had them all
+carried up to the nearest house, and put to bed, when the doctor soon
+arrived to attend to poor Adair's leg.  The house where they were lodged
+was of some size.  It belonged to a Greek nobleman, who was absent at
+the time of their arrival, but an old woman, a sort of housekeeper, and
+her two daughters had charge of it, and took very good care of them.
+Their attendants did not come very near the classic models they had read
+about at school, but they were good-natured and kind, and evidently
+anxious to please them.  The three midshipmen did their best to talk
+Greek, but though they summoned up all the choicest phrases they had
+learned at school, they signally failed at first in making themselves
+understood.  At last they bethought them of putting all their previous
+knowledge of the Hellenic tongue out of the question, and of pointing to
+things and asking their names.  Frequently they found a great similarity
+between the modern and ancient Greek, which assisted them very much in
+recollecting the names of the things they learned.  They thus in their
+turn rather surprised the natives by the rapidity with which they
+acquired their language.
+
+"I used to think it a great bore to have to learn Greek when I was
+coming to sea," observed Jack; "but now I find that there is use for it
+even here, besides helping one on wonderfully with one's own language."
+
+The midshipmen were not left alone all this time to the care of their
+Greek friends.  The doctor and their shipmates used now and then to look
+in on them.  They found that an attempt was being made to get the ship
+off, and of course all hands were engaged in the work.  Jack wanted to
+get up and help, but the doctor would not let him, thinking he would be
+much better employed in helping Murray to look after Adair.  They all
+heard, however, with great interest of the progress of the undertaking.
+But one night it came on to blow again harder than ever; a tremendous
+sea rolled in, and the poor sloop was irretrievably bilged, and in a few
+days broke up altogether.  The three midshipmen were very sorry for
+this, but they got over the loss of the ship with philosophical
+resignation, as other midshipmen have under like circumstances done
+before them; and with the rest of their shipmates amused themselves very
+well in shooting snipe and red-legged partridges, in wandering about, in
+trying to talk Greek, and in doing nothing, till a brig of war arrived
+and carried them all back to Malta.  Captain Hartland and his officers
+were tried for the loss of his sloop, and honourably acquitted; and
+Adair and Rogers rejoined the _Racer_, to which, to their great
+satisfaction, a short time afterwards Murray was appointed.  The
+_Racer_, after a cruise to the westward, came back, and was ordered to
+proceed to the Greek Islands to assist in repressing piracy, an
+occupation to which the descendants of the heroes whose deeds were sung
+by Homer of old have of late years been somewhat addicted.
+
+"I wonder whether you will take another prize, Paddy," said Murray with
+a quiet smile, in which he frequently indulged; but Jack and Terence
+begged that the subject might not be alluded to.
+
+The _Racer_, before long, fell in with an English merchant brig having a
+flag of distress flying.  The man-of-war hove-to, and the brig sent a
+boat on board.  The poor master who came in her was in a sad plight.
+
+"I have been tricked, robbed, and cruelly treated, sir on the high
+seas!" he exclaimed, as he appeared on the quarter-deck.
+
+"What has happened?  Tell me your story, and I will see what can be done
+for you," answered Captain Lascelles.
+
+"Why, sir, I was bound out of Liverpool with a cargo of manufactured
+goods for Smyrna, when yesterday, as I was standing on my course with a
+light wind, I fell in with a polacre brig with a signal of distress
+flying.  I hove-to, when her boat came alongside me with a dozen
+cut-throat looking fellows in her, in red caps, and one very fine
+gentleman with pistols in his belt, and a sword by his side.  He was
+very polite, and said that he was hard up for several things, but would
+only trouble me for some biscuit and water.  I was very glad to get off
+so cheap, for I guessed what sort of a calling his was, so I gave him as
+much as he wanted.  He spoke a _lingua franca_, which he found I
+understood.  He said that he had known very unjust complaints being made
+by merchantmen against his poor countrymen, and that, if I would be so
+obliging, he would be very thankful if I would give him a certificate
+that he had treated me and my people kindly, and had only taken a little
+bread and water.  Of course I was very willing, and thought him the
+mildest and best-mannered of pirates; so I gave it to him at once.
+Immediately he got it he put it in his pocket, and, turning to his
+people, told them to knock down every one of my men who made any
+resistance, and clapping a pistol to my head ordered me to hand out all
+my cash.  Meantime the polacre ran alongside, thirty or forty cut-throat
+fellows jumped on board, and very quickly transferred the cargo of the
+_Pretty Polly_ on board their vessel.  When they had completely gutted
+my brig, the pirate captain made me a polite bow, and thanking me for
+the certificate, which, he said, he had no doubt would be useful to him,
+wished me good-day, and returned on board his vessel, leaving all my
+people with their hands lashed behind them.  His followers had amused
+themselves by painting my poor fellows' faces, and otherwise
+ill-treating them.  One had a tar-brush jammed into his mouth, another a
+towel stuffed down his throat; and my mate they had almost beaten to
+death because he had ventured to show fight."
+
+"Which way did the polacre stand after she left you?" asked Captain
+Lascelles.
+
+"To the eastward, sir."
+
+"You would know her again?"
+
+"That I should, among a hundred like craft."
+
+"Can you come with us?"
+
+"No, sir, but I can let my mate go," answered the master to Captain
+Lascelles' last query; "he knows every bale of the cargo too, and he'll
+not forget our friend or his craft."
+
+The mate of the merchantman, Mr Dobbin, came on board, and the frigate
+continued her course.  From the account given of him, Captain Lascelles
+had little doubt that the pirate was the very man he was in search of,
+and whose stronghold he had been directed to attack.  Among the numerous
+isles of Greece there are several of small size, with but little room on
+their summits for cultivation, which have for ages past, from their
+inaccessible character, afforded a secure retreat to the somewhat
+piratically disposed inhabitants.  The _Racer_ was now in search of one
+of these respectable little strongholds of piracy.
+
+"Will the Greeks show fight, I wonder?" said Jack.  "I should like just
+to have a sniff of gunpowder."
+
+"It may blacken your face more than you expect, youngster," answered old
+Hemming, who sat at the end of the berth; "however, we have not yet
+found out where the fellows are hid."
+
+"I hear that the captain has discovered their retreat, and that, if the
+breeze holds, we are likely to be not far off them this very evening,"
+said Murray, who had just come below.  "It is said we are to attack them
+in the boats."
+
+"Hurrah! that will be fun!" exclaimed Adair.  "I suppose the captain
+will let some of us go."
+
+"Be sure of that, youngsters; the expedition would never succeed without
+you," said old Hemming in a sarcastic tone.
+
+Murray's information proved to be right.  The frigate stood on for an
+hour after dark, and then dropped her anchors in a bay to leeward of a
+rocky island, at no great distance from the one to be attacked.  Captain
+Lascelles' object was to take the pirates by surprise.  The boats had,
+therefore, a long way to pull.  They were to proceed in two divisions.
+One was to land a body of bluejackets and marines, so as to attack the
+fort in the rear; the other was to approach it on the sea side, and to
+endeavour to scale the heights.  The second lieutenant and old Hemming
+had charge of the two divisions; they had each a midshipman with them,
+and a mate and a midshipman went into each of the other boats.  Adair
+was with the land party.  The division to which Jack and Murray belonged
+was to attack the fort in front.  The men gave a suppressed cheer as
+they shoved off, and then away they pulled as eagerly as if they were
+going on a party of pleasure.  They had a long pull; but many a joke was
+cut, and many a suppressed laugh was indulged in, till they got so near
+the spot that silence was imposed on every one.  Hemming's party landed
+at the back of the island.  They were to lie concealed as near as they
+could get to the fort, till the other division threw up a rocket as a
+signal that they were attacking, and were discovered by the enemy.  Jack
+and Murray were in boats close together.  The night was very dark.  They
+could just see that high, rugged, black cliffs towered up above them,
+and that they were entering a little cove or harbour, through a narrow
+entrance which put them in mind of a huge mouse-trap.  The boats had
+muffled oars; not a sound was heard; but had any one been on the
+lookout, the phosphorescent flashes as the blades touched the water
+would have betrayed them.  The boats reached some black slippery rocks.
+The crews, led by their officers, leaped out, leaving two boat-keepers
+in each; and, holding their cutlasses in their teeth, away they
+scrambled up the steep and rugged cliffs.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+ALAS, POOR PADDY!
+
+The night was very dark: Jack and Murray and their companions, in
+perfect silence, climbed up the rugged precipice which formed the
+outworks of the island fortress.  They knocked their knees and cut their
+shins against the sharp points of the rocks, and scratched their hands
+and faces with the thorny plants which grew out of the crevices; but,
+undeterred by these obstacles, they boldly scrambled on till they saw
+some figures moving above them, and a shower of stones came rattling
+down on their heads.
+
+"Powder is scarce among the pirates, I suppose, that they treat us in
+this way," remarked Jack, as he was nearly knocked over by a stone
+striking his shoulder.
+
+"Yes; these Greek heroes are defending their stronghold as the Tyrolese
+defended their Alpine homes," answered Murray; "but come along, we shall
+soon have them at close quarters."
+
+"Hurrah! the enemy have found us out.  Fire the rocket down there
+below!" shouted the lieutenant in command.  The order was quickly
+conveyed to the boat, and up flew a rocket with a loud hiss through the
+darkness, its bright stream of light forming a beautiful curve over the
+fortress.  All necessity for silence was now over, the men shouted and
+cheered and cut many a joke at each other's mishaps as they clambered on
+up the height, some of them slipping half the way down again, as,
+indifferent to danger, they too carelessly attempted to scale unscalable
+rocks.  Still the whole body, by no small exertion, foot by foot, worked
+their upward way till they reached the summit.  What was next going to
+happen?  The enemy, it was evident, had a due respect for British
+courage, for they had fled from the ramparts and undoubtedly had taken
+up a stronger position in the interior of the fortress.  Perhaps they
+had formed a mine ready to spring, and the idea that such might be the
+case created a few very uncomfortable sensations in the breasts of some
+of the assailants.  To feel the ground shaking under the feet during an
+earthquake is far from agreeable, but it is a mere pleasant excitement
+compared to the feelings a person experiences, when he knows that at any
+moment he may be lifted off his legs and blown up into the sky in
+company with some dozen wagon-loads of stones and earth, and bricks and
+mortar, and beams and rubbish of all descriptions.  I do not know that
+Jack allowed such an idea to trouble him much, and if Murray thought
+about the matter it did not make him hang back at all events; for on he
+and all the rest pushed to meet the enemy.  Had they made any
+calculations on the subject, they would have found that it is better to
+move quickly across dangerous ground just as it is to skate rapidly over
+thin ice.  The shouts and cheers of the seamen, it appeared, had struck
+terror into the hearts of the pirates, for they did not come forth from
+their places of concealment.  The storming-party passed by some low
+huts, but no one was within, and then they came to an open space.  Just
+then, through the gloom, they caught sight of a band emerging from
+behind some buildings opposite, and advancing boldly to defend the
+place.  They themselves, apparently being hidden by the dark shade of
+the huts, were not seen.  So, waiting a little, out they rushed,
+clearing the open space at full speed to meet the pirates.  Pistols were
+flashing, cutlasses were clashing in an instant of time, and all parties
+were engaged to their hearts' content in a desperate struggle.  Jack
+descried a young pirate, as his size showed him to be, on the right of
+the party, and they at once, as if by mutual consent, singled each other
+out, and were instantly hot at work like the rest, slashing away with
+their cutlasses most desperately.  "Yield, you young pirate, yield!"
+sang out Jack, finding that he could gain no advantage over his
+opponent.
+
+"Pirate!  I'm no more pirate than you are," was the reply, in a voice
+which Jack instantly recognised as that of Paddy Adair, whose skull he
+had been endeavouring so hard to split.
+
+"Oh!  Paddy, is that you?" cried Jack.  "Well, I'm so glad that I didn't
+hurt you.  But I say, old fellow, if you are not a pirate, where are the
+rascals?  Let's go and find them out."
+
+"Hillo! what's all this about?" sang out Mr Thorn.  "Why, Hemming, is
+that you?  I thought you were pirates."
+
+"I paid you the same compliment, sir," answered the old mate, with a
+slight touch of irony in his tone, for Mr Thorn had just shot off the
+rim of his cap.  "You very nearly spoilt my beauty by mistake."
+
+"I am very sorry for that, Hemming," answered the lieutenant coolly;
+"but I wonder where the fellows have got to.  We must rout them out."
+
+Fortunately, the most serious injury inflicted was to Hemming's cap,
+and, as Paddy afterwards declared (not very correctly, as they had found
+no one to conquer), the victorious party hurried off in search of fresh
+enemies.  They soon came to the door of a large building; it was bolted
+and barred.  "The pirates are inside here, my lads, there can be no
+doubt of it," shouted Mr Thorn.  They soon found a spar, a brig's
+topmast.  The heel made a capital battering-ram, and with a cheery "Yeo,
+ho, ho!" the seamen gave many a heavy blow against the oaken door.  It
+cracked and cracked and groaned, and at length, with a loud bang, burst
+open.  "Stand by, my lads, to cut down the fellows as they rush out,"
+cried Lieutenant Thorn; but as the pirates did not come out, the
+sailors, following their officers, cutlass in hand, rushed in.  They
+found themselves in a large hall; they looked about for the ferocious
+pirates armed to the teeth, and resolved with the last drop of their
+blood to defend their hearths and homes.  Loud shrieks and cries,
+however, assailed the ears of the seamen, and by the glare of a brazier
+of burning coals in the middle of the apartment they beheld three old
+women.  Their appearance was not attractive; they were very thin and
+parchment-like, and dark; but they might have been very good old bodies
+for all that.  They had, distaff in hand, been sitting, spinning, and
+talking over affairs in general, if not those of their neighbours, when
+they had been aroused by the unwelcome sounds of the battering-ram.
+While the door resisted its efforts they had prudently kept quiet, but
+when it gave way, they expressed their very natural fears by the sounds
+which had reached the seamen's ears.  As the storming-party advanced,
+they shrieked louder and louder, but did not run away, because
+apparently there was no where to run to.
+
+"Don't be frightened, missis," exclaimed Hemming, taking one of them by
+the arm.  "Tell us where the men are, whose heads we have come to break.
+We won't hurt you."
+
+The old ladies, however, made no reply to this assurance; but only
+screamed on, probably because they did not understand English.  As no
+one of the party spoke a word of Greek, there was little chance of any
+information being obtained from the ancient dames.  Perhaps they had an
+object in screaming, to cover the retreat of their friends; so thought
+Lieutenant Thorn, because if the pirates were not in the fort, who else
+could have pitched down the stones on their heads as they scrambled up?
+Certainly not the three old women; that would have been a disgrace.
+They would not have had time even to have hobbled away and retreated to
+the place where they were found.  Many of the men declared vehemently
+that they had seen the heads of the pirates, long-bearded fellows,
+looking over the ramparts, and that they could not be, even then, very
+far off.  Accordingly, leaving Murray with a couple of sailors to look
+after the three old women, the two parties of seamen, under their
+respective officers, once more divided to go in search of the outlaws.
+
+"I say, Jack, don't you take me for a pirate again, if you please," said
+Terence, as they separated.  They wandered about in all directions,
+putting their noses into huts, and their cutlasses into heaps of straw
+and litter of all sorts; but the whole place seemed deserted.  They
+found nothing.  Perhaps this was because they had no torch, and the
+night was very dark.  Already a few faint streaks of daylight were
+appearing in the sky, when, as Terence was standing near Hemming, a
+trampling of feet was heard, and loud shouts in the distance.
+
+"Hurrah! here come the Greeks, they have been routed out at last," cried
+Paddy.  They could just make out a body of men stooping down, they
+thought, and hurrying towards them, not seeing that their enemies were
+ready to intercept them.
+
+"Cut them down, if they don't yield themselves prisoners," sang out
+Hemming, leading on his men.  Paddy sprang on boldly, in his eagerness
+to meet the foe, and instantly afterwards was knocked head over heels by
+one of his opponents.  He felt as if he had been run through by a
+bayonet or a pike, or something of that sort, though he could not make
+out exactly where he had been wounded.  There was a terrific shouting in
+the rear of the enemy, and he had no difficulty in recognising the
+voices of his shipmates, especially those of Jack and Murray.  The
+shouts came nearer and nearer.  He picked himself up to see what had
+become of the enemy, but they were nowhere to be found.  Instead of
+them, a flock of goats, chased by Mr Thorn's party, and frightened by
+their shouts, were butting away with heroic valour at anybody and
+everybody who came in their way, while daylight revealed the laughing
+countenances of his friends, who had seen his overthrow and the enemy
+which caused it.  Paddy did not much mind, however.  He rubbed himself
+over, and finding that he had no bones broken, or any puncture in his
+body, burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"I shouldn't be surprised but that those are the very fellows with the
+long beards we saw standing at the top of the ramparts, and whom
+everybody took for pirates," he exclaimed.  "As they turned round to
+scamper away, they kicked the stones down over us.  We are all in one
+box, that's a comfort.  No one can laugh at the other."  Thus Adair very
+adroitly turned the laugh from himself.  Every one acknowledged the
+probable correctness of his surmises, but still Mr Thorn thought it
+right to continue his search for the outlaws.  No information could be
+obtained from their fair captives, as Paddy called them.  There could be
+little doubt that there must have been very lately a number of men in
+the fort, for it could not be supposed that three old women would be
+left as the regular garrison of a pretty strong fortification.  They
+were still continuing their search, when daylight revealed to them a
+couple of boats under all sail, standing away to the northward, and by
+the course they were steering looking as if they must but a short time
+before have left the island.  Mr Thorn ordering Hemming to take charge
+of the place, leaving him Rogers and a few more men, hurried down the
+height, to go in pursuit of the flying enemy.
+
+"Remember the captain's orders were, that we were to attack and make
+prisoners of the men alone, but that goods of every description and all
+private property is to be strictly respected."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Hemming, meaning that he understood the orders
+received.
+
+Hunting about they discovered a very steep winding path down to the
+harbour.  By it Mr Thorn and his followers descended to their boats,
+and away they went in hot pursuit of the pirates.  The wind was light,
+but as they could both pull as well as sail, they made tolerable way
+after the chase.  Meantime the party in charge of the fort became very
+hungry, and as they had left their provisions in the boats, it was
+necessary to send for them.  Adair accordingly, with a couple of men,
+was despatched on this duty.  He had no great difficulty in finding his
+way, as he could see from one end of the island to the other, and he
+soon reached the top of the cliff, below which the boats had been left;
+he looked over the edge of the cliff, but he could discover no boats.
+He hallooed to the boat-keepers, but there was no answer.
+
+"They must be asleep, Mr Adair," observed one of the men.
+
+"So I might think if I saw any boats," answered Terence.  "But the boats
+are not there, I am sure."
+
+To ascertain the fact, however, more certainly, they descended to the
+beach.  No boats were to be seen.  They looked behind the points of rock
+on either side, but no boats were visible.  They shouted at the top of
+their voices, but the only sound in reply was the shriek of some
+sea-fowl, startled from their resting-places in the cliffs.
+
+"Have we got to the right spot, do you think?" suggested Terence, hope
+springing up in his breast that they had made a mistake.
+
+"No doubt about it, sir," was the answer; "I remember climbing up
+through this very gap; there are the marks of our feet plain enough."
+
+"And the marks of a good many other feet too," observed Terence,
+examining the ground.  "I am very much afraid that the boats have been
+run away with by the pirates; but what can have become of our poor
+shipmates, I cannot think."
+
+His men agreed with him in the opinion that the pirates must have made
+off with the boats; and, after searching about in every direction for
+the poor fellows who had been left in charge of them, they returned to
+the fort with the unsatisfactory news.  All hands had, in the meantime,
+grown ravenously hungry.  The old women could not, or would not, give
+them any food.  At all events, they turned a deaf ear to all their hints
+and signs that it would be acceptable.  Some very black dry bread was
+discovered, and also some fowls, but no eggs were to be seen; and fowls,
+Mr Hemming was afraid, would be looked upon as private property.  What
+was to be done?  The provisions from the boats would soon arrive, and
+then they might lawfully satisfy their appetites.  I forgot to say that
+Mr Dobbin, the mate of the merchantman which had been plundered, had
+come to try and identify the stolen property.  While storming the fort,
+he had been as active as any one, and showed that had there been work to
+be done he was the fellow to do it.  To employ the time till they could
+get some breakfast, Hemming determined to commence a systematic search
+for the stolen property.  They hunted and hunted about with great zeal,
+examining every hut and every heap of rubbish.
+
+"I wonder, after all, if this is the place the pirates are accustomed to
+hide in," observed Jack.  "It would be a sell if we had made a mistake
+altogether."
+
+"What could have put that into your head, Rogers?" exclaimed Hemming,
+feeling rather queer.  "Oh, no! there's no doubt about it."
+
+Still, as he got more and more hungry, and searched still farther in
+vain, his spirits began to sink to zero, and he could lot help believing
+that Jack might be right.  Just then here was a shout from some of the
+party.  They were standing before a dilapidated hut, the door of which
+they had broken open.  Presently the mate of the merchantman appeared
+dragging out a bale of goods.
+
+"Hurrah! we have not searched for nothing!" he exclaimed.  "There seems
+to be a good bit of the ship's cargo in here."
+
+A number of valuable bales of cotton and cloth, and some silk, were
+hauled forth, all of which the mate identified as having formed part of
+the cargo of his ship.  Still there was a very large part of the missing
+property not forthcoming.  Nothing else was found for some time, till
+one of the men, of an inquisitive turn of mind, happened to poke his
+head into one of the pigsties, where, in the farthest corner, his eye
+fell on several bales piled up one above the other to the roof.  The
+clue to the sort of place in which the well-known ingenuity of the
+Greeks had taught them to conceal their booty once being discovered, a
+considerable amount more was brought to light.  Still much was missing.
+Just then Adair and his men were seen returning.
+
+"Hurrah I now we'll have breakfast," cried Jack, who declared that he
+could eat a porcupine or a crocodile, outside and all, he was so hungry.
+What was his dismay, and that of all the party, when they found that no
+food was forthcoming, and that the boats were not to be found.  Just
+then their hunger was most pressing, and they left the subject of what
+had become of the boats for after consideration.  The brown bread by
+itself was very uninviting.  Jack looked at a fat pig in the sty with
+the eye of an ogre.
+
+"Is it possible that the pirates could have stuffed some of the silks
+and laces inside that huge porker, Hemming?" asked Jack, "I've heard of
+some Flanders mares coming across the Channel stuffed up to the mouth
+with lace," observed Adair.
+
+"If it were possible, I think we should be right to search that pig,"
+said Hemming, looking very hard at the unconscious object under
+discussion, who went grunting on, asking somewhat loudly for food.
+
+"There's no doubt about it," cried the mate of the merchantman.  "She'll
+make prime pork chops too."
+
+The men had been meantime collecting sticks and lighting a fire: perhaps
+they shrewdly guessed how the discussion might end.
+
+"Here, butcher, you'll understand how to cut that pig up better than any
+of us, so as to see what is in her inside," said Hemming.  In a very
+short time the fat pig was converted into pork, and some prime chops
+were frizzling and hissing away before the fire.  No laces or satins
+were found inside, but instead some very delicious pig's fry, which,
+under the circumstances, was perhaps more acceptable, especially as the
+laces would, I think, have been spoilt had they been stuffed down the
+pig's throat.  The old women made a great lamentation when they saw
+their pig being killed, but they were pacified by having some of the
+chops presented to them, and then they produced some salt, and some
+better bread, and some lemons, and plates, and knives, and forks, which
+latter were of silver.  Their female hearts evidently softened when they
+found that no harm was done to them, and that killing the pig was a case
+of necessity; and though they were not communicative, simply from want
+of language to express themselves, they chattered away to each other
+most vehemently.  They spread a table in the hall where they had been
+first seen, and seemed to wish to do their best to serve their uninvited
+guests.  The seamen made very merry over their feast of pig, though they
+were rather in want of something to wash it down.  Poor fellows! they
+had neither tea nor coffee.  At length the old ladies produced a jar of
+arrack--very vile stuff it was, but the seamen would have drunk it
+without stint had Mr Hemming allowed them.  He, however, interposed,
+and insisted on serving out only a little at a time to a few of the men.
+The effect was such as to make him jump up and kick over the jar, by
+which all the liquor was spilt, very much to the disappointment of those
+who had not had any.
+
+"I don't mean to say that these respectable old ladies put anything into
+the spirits, but somebody did, and you would have been very sorry for
+yourselves if you had taken much of it," he observed, as he reseated
+himself.
+
+This little incident rather astonished the old ladies, but not
+understanding what was said, they took it to be the effect of pure
+accident, and continued as attentive as before.
+
+"When the boats come back, you shall have your grog, my lads," said
+Hemming; "in the meantime, if any of you are thirsty, there's a well of
+cool water.  The pirates will scarcely have thought of poisoning that."
+
+By the time the feast was concluded, very little of the pig remained;
+the seamen declared that they had never eaten better pork in their
+lives.  The rest of the day was spent in searching for stolen property,
+though only a few bales of merchandise were discovered, stowed away here
+and there, in the oddest places imaginable.  Meantime Hemming and Jack
+began to be somewhat anxious about Mr Thorn and the boats.  Evening was
+coming on, and they ought long before to have returned.  In vain the old
+mate and the midshipman scanned the horizon.  Not a sail was to be seen
+approaching the island.  Two or three vessels only passed far away in
+the offing.  Many other rocky isles were rising out of the ocean like
+blue mounds, some of them faint and misty from the distance they were
+off.  Towards one of them the boats had directed their course.  It was
+well-known that many of them were, and had been for ages, the haunts of
+pirates.
+
+"I say, Hemming, suppose Mr Thorn has been entrapped by some of those
+piratical fellows out there; what will become of them, I wonder?" said
+Jack.
+
+"We shall have to go and hunt them out," was the answer.  "The pirates
+will scarcely venture to hurt them."
+
+The evening drew on and darkness returned, and still no boats made their
+appearance.  Mr Hemming, who was really a very good officer, especially
+when in command, and when he felt the responsibility of his position,
+had a strict watch kept all night, for he thought it probable that some
+of the pirates might be hid in the island, and, when they found how few
+were left in charge of the fort, might attempt a surprise to recover the
+booty.  The night, however, passed away quietly, and in the morning Jack
+was despatched in the cutter to carry information of what had occurred
+to the frigate.  Jack had a long pull, for the wind was contrary.  He
+kept his eyes about him all the way, looking into every nook and corner,
+for he could not tell in which a pirate-boat might have taken shelter,
+and he thought it more than likely that one might suddenly pounce out
+and try to capture him.  None appeared.  This, however, did not make him
+less cautious for the future.  One of the many pieces of advice given
+him by Admiral Triton was never to despise an enemy, and always to take
+every precaution against surprise.  A soldier or sailor in war time
+should always sleep with one eye open, and his arms in his hands, the
+Admiral used to say, speaking somewhat metaphorically.  The foolhardy
+folly which had made many officers neglect proper precautions, has
+caused the destruction of many brave men, as well as the failure of many
+important enterprises.  At last Jack reached the frigate.  Captain
+Lascelles was very much vexed at hearing of the loss of the boats.  He
+instantly ordered the _Racer_ to be got under weigh to go in search of
+them.  It was very intricate navigation among those isles and islets and
+rocks, especially at night, but the wind was fair, and there was a moon
+to shed her pale light over the ocean.  The lead was kept constantly
+going, and hands were stationed aloft as lookouts.  The _Racer_ had got
+just off the island of which Hemming was left in charge, when a lookout
+forward announced a boat on the starboard bow.  The boat was pulling
+towards them, and the frigate being hove-to, she came alongside, and
+Alick Murray appeared on board.  He reported that they had overtaken the
+pirates who were in possession of the boats close to a rocky island, and
+were on the point of capturing them when half a dozen boats started out
+and completely turned the fortunes of the day.  On this, Mr Thorn,
+seeing that they must inevitably be overpowered, ordered him to
+endeavour to make his escape, and to give notice of what had occurred.
+This, though pursued, he had been able to do.  Jack having reported the
+starving state of the garrison, a boat was sent with provisions and men
+to ascertain also how Hemming and his party were getting on.  She
+returned in half a hour with a favourable report, bringing off Mr
+Dobbin, the mate of the merchantman, and the frigate then continued her
+course for the second piratical stronghold.  She did not come off it
+till near noon the next day, and then had to sail twice round it before
+a landing-place could be discovered.  Some little anxiety was felt for
+the fate of Mr Thorn and his men, for the pirates were not supposed to
+be gentlemen who stood on ceremony as to the treatment of their
+prisoners.
+
+"If they dare to injure our people, the Greeks well know that we would
+sweep every one of them off their rock into the sea," said Captain
+Lascelles.  "Clemency on such an occasion is cruelty to others."
+
+Scarcely had the frigate hove-to off what appeared to be a little
+harbour, than a boat with a white flag was seen coming out of it.  In
+ten minutes a splendidly dressed Greek came up the side armed with a
+handsomely chased sword and pistols, and a red cap set jauntily on one
+side.
+
+"Can any one speak Italian?" he asked, in a soft tone, in that beautiful
+language.
+
+"Yes, I can," answered Captain Lascelles.
+
+"Then, sir, I have to make great complaints of ill-treatment from your
+people," replied the Greek; and he made out a long story to the effect
+that he, a quiet, respectable landowner, whose sole aim was to cultivate
+in peace a few acres of land descended to him from a long line of
+illustrious ancestors, that he had been insulted, attacked by an aimed
+force, suspected of robbery, of which he was incapable; that some of his
+poor peasants, in their horror and alarm, finding some boats, had jumped
+into them and induced their crews to assist in pulling them to a
+neighbouring island, hoping there to be safe; that they had been
+pursued, and that then, and not till then, had they been compelled to
+resort to some gentle force for their own protection.  While the Greek
+was speaking, Mr Dobbin came up behind him, and made signs that he was
+the very man who had plundered their brig.
+
+"Why, sir, the master of an English merchantman complains that you
+ill-treated his people and robbed his vessel."
+
+"_O Signori, impossibile_; that I should be guilty of such an act!" and
+the Greek smiled sweetly and put his hand on his heart.
+
+For a moment he was, however, a little taken aback when Mr Dobbin,
+stepping forward and confronting him, said, "Do you know me?"
+
+"_Ah si, adesso me ricordo_!  Ah yes, now I recollect," said the Greek,
+with a bland smile.  "But you shall judge, sir, how unjustly I am
+accused.  I did lately take charge of a brig for a friend.  I was
+suffering from want of water and bread.  See the deceitfulness of the
+world; I asked it humbly, they gave it willingly, and at the same time
+this certificate," and he produced the paper signed by the master of the
+brig.  The impudence of the Greek almost overcame the captain's
+composure.
+
+"Notwithstanding that paper, I must detain you," he observed.
+
+"What!  Detain an independent chieftain, who comes on board your ship
+under the sacred protection of a flag of truce, a thing unheard of by
+all civilised nations," exclaimed the Greek in a tone of indignation and
+astonishment; "no, no, you will not do that."
+
+The Greek was right; Captain Lascelles would not do a wrong even to
+obtain an undoubted right.  The Greek knew that he had outwitted us.
+The result was that he undertook to send the boats and their crews on
+board the frigate unharmed, on condition that the island was not
+attacked by an armed force.  To these terms Captain Lascelles was
+obliged to consent.  Mr Thorn and Murray soon came back, very well, but
+very much vexed at what had occurred.  The island was afterwards
+searched, but nothing was found, and the _Racer_, having taken on board
+all the recovered booty, conveyed it to Corfu, where the merchantman was
+waiting to receive it.  After a month or so, when the frigate got back
+to Malta, Captain Lascelles found that the independent Greek chieftain
+had lodged a complaint to the effect that his cattle and poultry had
+been wantonly destroyed.  On inquiry, the matter resolved itself into
+the slaughter of the pig.  It came out that Jack and Adair had proposed
+the crime.  The Admiral at the time thought it better to take no notice
+of the affair.  However, he soon after invited the two midshipmen to
+dine with him, and both of them found themselves served with rather a
+large helping of roast pork.
+
+"You are fond of pig, young gentlemen, are you not?" said the Admiral,
+with a laugh in his eye.
+
+"Yes, sir, very, especially when I have to kill one in the line of duty,
+and am ravenously hungry into the bargain," answered Paddy, with all the
+simplicity of an Irishman.  The Admiral laughed, and as he was fond of a
+joke, and knew both Lord Derrynane and Admiral Triton, he often asked
+the two youngsters for the sake of passing it off and telling the story
+about the pig and the pirates.
+
+Soon after this Jack and Terence met with a severe trial.  For the first
+time since they came to sea they were separated, and Adair was appointed
+to a ten-gun brig, the _Onyx_.  Happily that class of vessels no longer
+exists in the navy.  They obtained the unattractive title of
+sea-coffins, from the number of them which had been lost with all hands.
+They carried a heavy weight of metal on deck, had but little beam, but
+were rigged with taut masts and very square yards.  Still these
+circumstances did not trouble Adair half as much as parting from Jack
+and Murray.
+
+The frigate and the brig were sent to cruise in different directions,
+and for several months did not meet.
+
+"A brig of war is in sight," said Jack, entering the captain's cabin,
+sent by the officer of the watch; "she has made her number the _Onyx_."
+
+"Signalise her to heave-to when she nears us," said Captain Lascelles.
+"I will be on deck presently."  In a short time another signal was run
+up.  It was to invite the captain and officers of the brig to dine on
+board the frigate.  It was very readily accepted, and in a short time
+the tall frigate and her little companion might have been seen quietly
+floating near each other, their sails scarcely filled by the light
+breeze, and their rigging and hulls reflected vividly in the calm water.
+The midshipmen had a great deal to talk about, and numerous adventures
+to describe more interesting to themselves than to anybody else.  They
+had a very merry party also in the midshipmen's berth, and all were
+sorry to find that it was time for the officers of the brig to return on
+board.  When Captain Lascelles and his party came on deck he cast his
+eye round the horizon.
+
+"I do not like the look of the sky out there," he remarked, pointing
+with his hand to the eastward.  "Captain Sims, I must advise you to get
+on board as soon as possible and shorten sail, or your brig will be
+caught in a squall before you are ready."  Captain Sims was not a man
+fond of rapid movement, but on this occasion he saw that no time was to
+be lost.
+
+"Good-bye, Paddy," said Jack; "take care of yourself aboard the little
+hooker there, and we'll have many a jovial day together before long."
+
+"Good-bye, Rogers; good-bye, Murray; good-bye, old fellows," answered
+Terence.
+
+"The brig is a jolly little craft, in spite of what they call her."
+
+"What's that?" asked Murray.
+
+"The sea-coffin," answered Terence, as they shoved off.  The two boats
+which had brought the captain and his officers made the best of their
+way to the brig.  They were soon close to her.  The white cloud had
+meantime been growing larger and larger, and yet there was scarcely a
+breath of wind.  Many on board the frigate did not believe even that a
+squall was brewing.  Suddenly the clouds, as if impelled by some mighty
+impulse, came rushing on, not in a direct line, but with a circular
+motion, towards the spot where lay the two ships of war.
+
+"All hands shorten sail," cried the first lieutenant.  "Man the fore and
+main clew-garnets, spanker brails--topsail-halyards--clew up--haul down,
+let fly of all."  These and sundry other orders followed in rapid
+succession.  The squall, seeming to gain rapidity as it advanced, struck
+the frigate before it was expected.  Jack and Murray had hurried with
+others to their stations aloft, and were endeavouring as rapidly as they
+could to get those orders they received executed, but the exertions of
+all were insufficient to take the canvas off the ship in time.  Over
+heeled the frigate on her beam end, the water rushing in at her lee
+ports--some of the sails were split to ribbons, sheets and halyards were
+flying loose, and a scene of confusion prevailed such as she had never
+before been in.  The whole surface of the ocean was a mass of white
+foam, surrounded by which the ship lay an almost helpless wreck.  The
+helm was put up but she would not answer it.
+
+"We shall have to cut away the mizen-mast," observed the captain.  "But
+we'll try and make head sail on her first."  This was done.  A
+suppressed shout of satisfaction showed that she felt its power, and
+away she flew like a sea-bird before the squall, the darkness of night
+coming on to bide all surrounding objects from their view.  Then, and
+not till then, had any one time to turn a glance towards the _Onyx_.
+Not a glimpse of her was to be seen.  Jack and Murray had watched the
+boats get alongside, and they were on the point of being hoisted in when
+the squall struck the frigate.  Both of them had a sad apprehension that
+they had seen the masts of the brig bending down before the squall, but
+so great at the moment was the uproar and confusion that it appeared
+more like the vision of a dream than a reality.  The instant the squall
+blew over, the frigate beat back towards the spot where, as far as it
+could be calculated, the brig had last been seen.  Had she bore up she
+must have been passed.  In vain every eye on board was engaged in
+looking out for her.  All night long the frigate tacked backwards and
+forwards.  Not a trace of her could be discovered.  Daylight returned;
+the sun arose; his glorious beams played joyfully over the blue surface
+of the ocean just rippled by a summer's breeze, but it was too evident
+that all those they sought and the gay little craft they manned lay
+engulfed beneath its treacherous bosom.
+
+"There's one of us gone," said Jack, as he bent his head down over the
+table of the berth to hide his face.  "Poor Paddy!"
+
+Murray said nothing, but his countenance was very sad.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+ROASTING THE BULLY.
+
+The midshipmen were aroused by the cry of "All hands shorten sail!"  The
+boatswain's whistle had not ceased sounding along the decks before Jack
+and Murray were on their way aloft, the first to the fore, the other to
+the maintop, where they were stationed.  A heavy squall had struck the
+frigate, and she was heeling over with her main-deck ports almost in the
+water.  Up they flew with the topmen to their respective stations, while
+the officer of the watch was shouting through his speaking-trumpet.
+"Let go topgallant-halyards.  Clew up, haul down."  Then came, "Let fly
+topsail-halyards.  Clew up.  Round in the weather braces."  Down came
+the yards on the caps.  The sails were now bulging out and shaking in
+the wind.  Out flew the active topmen to the yard-arms.  Jack, as he had
+often before done, ran out to get hold of the weather earing.  He was
+hauling away on it while the men hauled the reef over to him.  He had
+already taken two outer turns with it, when, as he leaned back, he felt
+himself suddenly thrown from his hold.  In vain he tried to clutch the
+earing; it slipped through his fingers.  Headlong he came down, striking
+the leech of the sail.  Mechanically he clutched at that.  Probably it
+broke his fall.  In another moment he was among the foaming waters, with
+the ship flying fast away from him.  Murray had meantime been watching
+to see which mast would have its sails first reefed, and as he looked
+forward he saw Jack fall from aloft.  He guessed that he must have
+struck his head when falling, and that he would be senseless when he
+reached the water.  In a moment his jacket and shoes were off, and down
+he slid like lightning by the topmast weather backstay, and, leaping
+into the water, swam towards the spot where Jack had fallen.  Captain
+Lascelles had seen the accident.  He was on the poop.  Stepping back, he
+himself let go the life-buoy, noting exactly the spot where the accident
+had occurred.  But not an order did he give.  Perfectly cool, he stood
+waiting till the sails were reefed.  Murray meantime caught sight of
+Jack, who lay senseless on the water, to the surface of which he had
+just risen, after having once gone down from the force with which he had
+fallen into the sea.  Murray dreaded lest he should again see him sink.
+He exerted all his strength to get up to him.  The life-buoy was not far
+off.  Had there been time he would have first towed it up to Jack, but
+he was afraid if he did that he would in the meantime sink.  Murray swam
+bravely on.  The foam, as the wind swept it off the surface of the sea,
+dashed wildly in his face, but he kept his eye fixed steadily on Jack's
+head, that should he go down again, he might know exactly where to dive
+after him.  Murray, under Jack's instruction, had been constantly
+practising swimming, and he now very nearly equalled his master in the
+art.  His courage was as high, and what he wanted in muscular strength
+he made up by his undaunted spirit.  He longed to know what had become
+of the frigate, but he would not turn his head to look.  His first
+object was to get hold of Jack, and to keep his face out of the water,
+that, when animation returned, he might not be suffocated.  With steady
+strokes he swam on, admirably retaining his presence of mind.  Every
+stroke was measured.  There was no hurry, no bustle, with Murray; he
+knew that such would only bring worse speed.  What an excellent example
+did he set of the way to attain an important object!  Calmly eyeing it,
+and though clearly comprehending all the difficulties and dangers which
+surrounded him, with unswerving courage pushing towards his point.
+"Keep up! keep up, Jack!" he sang out, but Jack did not hear him.  The
+seas, every moment increasing, came roaring towards him, while the foam
+dashed over his head.  He surmounted them all.  "I am here.  Jack!  I am
+here!" he repeated, as he grasped Jack by the collar and turned him over
+on his back, so that his face might be uppermost.  A faint moan was all
+the reply Rogers gave.  It was satisfactory, as it assured Murray that
+he was alive.  Now he looked round anxiously for the life-buoy.  It had
+drifted away before the gale.  But then he also had the wind in his
+favour, and he did not despair of overtaking it.  With one hand
+supporting his shipmate, and with the other striking out, he swam
+steadily on as before towards the life-buoy.  Evening was coming on.
+Darkness he knew would soon overspread the sea.  He knew that.  He knew
+the difficulty there might be in finding him and his companion.  A far
+more practical swimmer than he might have despaired, but he did not.
+Murray did not trust to his own right arm to save him.  He looked to
+help from above.  He knew if it was right it would be afforded him.  If
+not, he was prepared to meet his fate.
+
+Meantime away flew the frigate.  The moment the sails were reefed, the
+captain issued the orders he had been anxious to give.  "About ship,"
+"helm's a-lee."  Never did the crew more strenuously exert themselves to
+box round the yards.  They knew who was overboard, and the two
+midshipmen were favourites with all hands: Murray for the calm,
+gentlemanly, officer-like way in which he spoke to the men, and for the
+thorough knowledge of his duty he always displayed; Jack for his dash
+and bravery, and good spirits and humour with which he carried out any
+work allotted to him.  They now saw that neither was Murray wanting in
+dash and courage.  As the frigate was standing back towards the spot
+where the accident had occurred, preparations were made for lowering a
+boat.  There was no hurry or confusion in this case.  Her proper crew
+were called away.  The second lieutenant took charge of her.  Some
+people called Captain Lascelles a very strict officer.  It is true he
+never overlooked a breach of discipline or carelessness of duty.  He
+used to say that a breach of discipline, however trifling, if allowed to
+pass, was like a small leak, which, if permitted to continue, will go on
+increasing till the ship founders.  Thus, among other good arrangements,
+every boat on board was kept in readiness to be lowered at a moment's
+notice, and everybody knew exactly what to do when a boat was to be
+lowered.
+
+Captain Lascelles did not allow his feelings to appear; but he was
+intensely anxious about the fate of his two midshipmen.  He would have
+given all the worldly wealth of which he was possessed to be assured
+that they would be saved.  The thick clouds brought up by the gale
+increased the gathering gloom.  Neither they nor the life-buoy could be
+seen.  He had carefully noted the exact course on which the frigate had
+run since they went overboard, so that he was able to calculate how to
+keep her, so as to fetch back to the same spot.  There were also many
+sharp eyes on the lookout forward, endeavouring with all their might to
+discover the lost ones.  In those southern latitudes darkness comes on
+with a rapidity unknown in lands blessed by a long twilight.  Thus,
+before the frigate got up to the spot where the accident had occurred,
+the night had come down completely on the world of waters.
+
+"I am afraid that the poor lads must be lost," said the second to the
+first lieutenant.  "We ought to hear them or see something of them by
+this time."
+
+"Don't say that, Thorn," answered the first lieutenant.  "Rogers is the
+midshipman who took the fine on shore when the _Firefly_ was wrecked;
+and Murray, though so quiet, is a very gallant fellow.  They will do all
+that can be done to save themselves.  I should indeed be deeply grieved
+if they were lost."
+
+There was a good deal of sea at the time running, but not enough to make
+the lowering of a boat a matter of danger if carefully performed.
+
+"Well heave the ship to, and lower a couple of boats to go in search of
+the lads," observed the captain.
+
+The first lieutenant issued the necessary orders, and the ship was
+brought up to the wind and hove-to.  Mr Thorn eagerly went to lower one
+of the boats.  Hemming took charge of the other.  Their respective crews
+sprang into them.  The falls were properly tended and unhooked at the
+right moment, and, getting clear of the ship, they lay ready to pull in
+whatever direction might be indicated.  Here was the difficulty.
+
+"Silence fore and aft," sang out the captain.  "Does any one hear them?"
+
+In an instant there was a dead silence.  No one would have supposed that
+many hundred human beings were at that moment alive and awake on board
+the ship.  Every one listened intently, but no sound was borne to their
+ears.  Even Captain Lascelles began to give up all hope.
+
+"The poor widowed mother, how will she bear it?" he muttered; "and that
+honest country gentleman--it will be sad news I shall have to send him
+of his son."
+
+Scarcely had the captain thus given expression to his feelings, when a
+bright light burst forth amid the darkness some way to leeward.  A shout
+spontaneously arose from all on board.  "They must have got hold of the
+life-buoy, they must have got hold of the life-buoy," was the cry.
+"Hurrah! hurrah!"  The two boats dashed away, with eager strokes, in the
+direction of the light.
+
+Meantime Murray had towed Jack steadily on towards the buoy.  He began
+to feel very weary though, and sometimes he thought that his strength
+would fail him.  He looked at the buoy; it seemed a very long way off.
+He felt at last that he should never be able to reach it.  "I'll not
+give in while life remains," he said to himself.  Just then his hand
+struck against something.  He grasped it.  It was a large piece of
+Spanish cork-wood.  He shoved it under Jack's back, and rested his own
+left arm on it.  He immediately found an immense advantage from the
+support it afforded.  "Who sent that piece of cork-wood to my aid?" he
+thought; "it did not come by chance."  The assurance that he was not
+deserted gave him additional confidence.  Jack also gave further signs
+of returning animation.
+
+"Where am I?" he at length asked, in a tone of voice which showed that
+his senses were still confused.
+
+"In the middle of the Mediterranean; but there's a life-buoy close at
+hand, and when we get hold of it we shall be all to rights," answered
+Murray.
+
+"What! is that you, Alick?" asked jack.  "I remember now feeling that I
+was going overboard; but how came you here?  Has the ship gone down?"
+
+"No, no; all right; she'll be here to pick us up directly, I hope."
+
+"Then you jumped overboard to save me!" exclaimed Jack.  "Just like you,
+Alick; I knew you would do it."
+
+Jack lay perfectly still all the time he was talking.  It did not seem
+to occur to him that he could swim as well as his companion.
+
+"Here we are!" cried Murray; "Heaven be praised--I was afraid that I
+should scarcely be able to make out the life-buoy, it is getting so
+dark."  He placed Jack's hand on one of the beckets, and took another
+himself, and together they climbed up, and sat on the life-buoy.  Murray
+drew the piece of cork up alongside, observing, "I do not like to desert
+the friend which has been of so much service in our utmost need, and to
+kick it away without an acknowledgment."
+
+Jack laughed.  He had now completely come to his senses.  "I'm very much
+obliged to you, Friend Cork," said he.  "I know, Murray, what you are
+going to say; I am, indeed, thankful to Heaven for having thus far
+preserved me, and to you too, my dear fellow.  But, I say, can you make
+out the ship?"
+
+"Not a shred of her.  I scarcely know in what quarter to look for her."
+
+"Well, then, all we shall have to do is to hang on here till daylight.
+The weather is warm, so we shall not come to much harm if the wind goes
+down again, and I am very certain the captain will come and look for
+us."
+
+"It may be a question whether he can find us, though," said Murray.
+"By-the-bye, I do not think that the buoy was fired.  If we can find the
+trigger we will let it off, and that will quickly show our whereabouts."
+
+"A bright idea," answered jack.  "Hurrah!  I've found it.  Now blaze
+away, old boy."  Jack pulled the trigger as he spoke, and immediately an
+intensely bright bluish light burst forth above their heads, exhibiting
+their countenances to each other, with their hair streaming, lank and
+long, over their faces, giving them at the same time a very cadaverous
+and unearthly appearance.  Jack, in spite of their critical position,
+burst into a fit of laughter.  "Certainly, we do look as unlike two
+natty quarter-deck midshipmen as could well be," he exclaimed.  "Never
+mind, we have not many spectators."
+
+Jack and Murray's coolness arose from the perfect confidence they felt
+that they would not be deserted while the slightest hope remained of
+their being found; and now that they had set off the port-fire they were
+almost as happy as if they were already safe on board.  They had not
+much longer to wait.  Presently a hail reached them; they shouted in
+return, and soon afterwards they saw a couple of boats emerging from the
+darkness.  One took them on board--the other towed the life-buoy; and in
+half an hour more their wet clothes were off them, and they were being
+stowed away between the blankets in the sick-bay, each of them sipping a
+pretty strong glass of brandy and water.  Of course, when the excitement
+was over, a very considerable reaction took place, and several days
+passed before they were allowed to return to their duty.  Captain
+Lascelles then sent for Jack, and inquired how he came to tumble
+overboard?  Jack had to confess that in his zeal he had gone beyond his
+duty, and that, instead of remaining at his station in the top, he had
+been attempting to do work which ought to have been performed by one of
+the topmen.
+
+"You were wrong, as you will see, Rogers," remarked Captain Lascelles.
+"Remember that there is a strict line of duty, and that going beyond, as
+you call it, may be quite as injurious to the service as neglecting any
+portion of it.  Your business was to see that the men were properly
+reefing the topsail.  By going out on the yard-arm you could not do
+this, and were thus neglecting your duty--not going beyond it.  I have
+no intention of punishing you, on condition that you will recollect what
+I have said."
+
+Jack promised that he would, and thanked the captain for his lecture.
+Murray got, as he deserved, a great deal of credit for his gallantry;
+and he was not a little delighted to receive the gold medal, some time
+afterwards, from the Humane Society.  Soon after this occurrence, the
+frigate was sent to Gibraltar.  She there took on board several
+passengers for Malta.  One was a bear, which was sent as a present to
+the captain of a line-of-battle ship on the station, from some consul in
+Africa, who knew that he was fond of pets; another was a young gentleman
+going to travel in the East.  The captain had given him a passage, as he
+was a relation of some brother officer who could not take him himself.
+He had been offered, and accepted, a berth in the gun-room.  Neither
+Jack nor Murray had seen him, nor had they heard his name before they
+sailed.  The next morning, after they had lost sight of the rock, when
+they went on deck, who should they see walking up and down, with an air
+of no little consequence, and having a pair of lilac kid gloves on his
+hands, but Bully Pigeon.  Jack and Murray forgot all his bad qualities,
+and only thought of him as an old schoolfellow.  So they went up to him,
+and cordially put out their hands.
+
+"Why, Pigeon, how are you, old fellow?  Who'd have thought of seeing you
+here?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+Pigeon drew himself up.  "You must have made a mistake; I--I don't
+remember you," he answered.
+
+"Oh! but we do you, very well, at Eagle House.  I'm Jack Rogers, here's
+Murray.  We two came together.  You didn't leave, either, before us,"
+said Jack.  "Oh! you must remember all about it."
+
+"Ah! now I think I do," replied Pigeon, extending the tips of his
+fingers.  "There was another fellow went to sea at the same time.  Paddy
+something--Oh! ye-es, I remember."
+
+"Ah!  Paddy Adair, you mean.  Poor fellow, he was lost in the _Onyx_,"
+answered Jack, in a sad tone.
+
+"Oh!  I remember--he was always a harum-scarum vagabond," said Pigeon,
+in a sneering way.
+
+"He was as true a fellow as ever stepped!" exclaimed Jack indignantly.
+"If he were here, Pigeon, you would not speak so of him."  The bully, as
+usual, was silenced.  It was not Jack's way to cut anybody, but neither
+he nor Murray felt inclined to have any intimate conversation with their
+old schoolfellow.  Still they could not help asking him about the
+school, and the various changes which had taken place since they left.
+
+"Well, I'm glad it prospers," exclaimed Jack.  "It was a first-rate,
+jolly good school; there was no humbug about it.  I spent many happy
+days there."
+
+Murray echoed these sentiments.  Pigeon of course sneered, and observed
+that, "though there were a good many noblemen, and sons of gentlemen,
+there were a number of sons of merchants and city people."
+
+"Ah! that is just what there should be," said Jack.  "It is the very
+thing that keeps England so well together.  When the gentle born you
+speak of find that the sons of city men are as gentlemanly, as clever,
+and as honourable as themselves, and can play cricket or leapfrog, or
+anything of that sort, perhaps better than they do, they learn to
+respect them, and treat them as their equals ever afterwards.  That is
+one of the very things that made our school so good.  We used to think
+of fellows not for what they were but for what they did--except,
+perhaps, a few miserable sneaks, who `carnied' up to a fellow because he
+had a handle to his name."
+
+Pigeon did not respond to this sentiment, because he had been noted far
+doing the very thing that Jack reprobated.
+
+Jack could not help describing Pigeon in the berth, and the general
+opinion was that he deserved to be well roasted while he remained on
+board--in other words, that he should be made the common butt, at which
+the shafts of their wits should be aimed.
+
+They had plenty of opportunities of shooting the said shafts, for Pigeon
+exhibited an almost incredible amount of simplicity in all things
+connected with the sea.  I do not mean to say, for one moment, that they
+were right in playing off their jokes on Pigeon.  I have an especial
+dislike to practical jokes; and those I have generally seen carried out
+have been decidedly wrong, and very senseless and stupid, without a
+particle of wit.
+
+They had not been long at sea when one night Pigeon was encountered
+walking the deck, and every now and then stopping and looking eagerly
+over the side.
+
+"What do you see there?" asked Jack.  "Anything out of the common way?"
+
+"All those sparkles, what can they be?" exclaimed Pigeon, pointing to
+the flashes of phosphorescent light which played among the foam dashed
+off from the sides, and which were seen in the wake of the vessel.
+
+Hemming came by at the moment.  He had taken an especial dislike to the
+bully.  "Those sparkles! don't you know what they are?  I thought
+everybody did," he observed, in a tone of contempt.  "Well, there's a
+Russian fleet just gone up through the Straits, and every man, woman,
+and child aboard them smokes, from the admiral to the admiral's baby,
+and those are the ashes out of their pipes and off the ends of their
+cigars.  Why, that's nothing to what you sometimes see.  If we were
+close in their wake, there would be light enough for us to see to steer
+by."
+
+"Law, you don't say so!" exclaimed Pigeon.  "I should have thought the
+water would have put them out."
+
+"Not down in these latitudes.  It's too warm for that," answered Hemming
+gravely.
+
+Pigeon was seen, when he went into the gun-room, entering the remark in
+his notebook.
+
+A few days after this Pigeon was walking the deck in solitary grandeur,
+when, as he passed the marine-sentry at the gangway, of course no notice
+was taken of him.  Now he had observed that, on certain occasions, the
+sentry presented arms to the officers.  This he had taken into his head
+was in consequence, not of their rank, but of their being gentlemen.  He
+therefore thought that the same respect ought to be shown to him.
+Instead of complaining to the officers or to the captain, when he would
+have been well laughed at, he thought fit to take the law into his own
+hands, and, walking up to the sentry, soundly rated him for his want of
+respect.
+
+"And who bees you?" asked the sentry, cocking his eye--he was a wag in
+his way; "do you belong to the horse-marines, sir?"
+
+"No, I do not; I am Mr Theophilus Pigeon, and you must treat me
+properly, or I shall report you."
+
+"I thought as how you had drunk many a pint of Pigeon's milk when you
+was a baby," observed the marine, with perfect gravity.
+
+Pigeon's measure had already been very accurately taken on board by the
+crew.
+
+"Fellow, you are an impertinent scoundrel," exclaimed Pigeon.  "What's
+your name?"
+
+"Mum's the word," answered the marine, with perfect gravity.
+
+"Ah! you think I am not up to you, do you?" cried Pigeon, glancing at
+the marine's musket.  "I see it where you forgot that it was, ha! ha!"
+
+It was some time before Pigeon could find the first lieutenant to make
+his report.  In the meantime the sentries had been changed.
+
+"I am sorry, Mr Pigeon, that you should have received any impertinence
+from any of the people on board," said the first lieutenant kindly.
+"Can you describe the man!"
+
+"Why, he had a red coat and white belt," etcetera, etcetera.
+
+"I am afraid that won't help us," said the first lieutenant, laughing.
+
+"Ah! he thought himself very clever; but I know his name, I saw it on
+his musket.  It was Tower!" exclaimed Pigeon triumphantly.
+
+A general laugh followed this announcement, for Tower is the name
+engraved on all Government arms issued from the stores in that ancient
+fortress of London.
+
+He used to find his way into the midshipmen's berth and to make himself
+quite at home, occupying the space which, as Hemming observed, a better
+man might fill.  Various devices were made to get clear of him.  One of
+the officers had a horn with which he now and then startled the silence
+of the decks--a practice, by-the-bye, rather subversive of discipline.
+One day, while Pigeon was in the berth, the horn was heard to sound.
+
+"What's that?" he asked.
+
+"Hurrah! the mail coach come in from Sicily," exclaimed Jack, starting
+up and rushing out.  "Come along, it's a sight worth seeing.  You'll
+have letters by it to a certainty, Pigeon."
+
+Away rushed Pigeon up on deck, while Jack, amid the laughter of the rest
+of the occupants, returned to the berth.  The captain and several of the
+gun-room officers were on deck, when Pigeon made his hasty appearance,
+and hurried eagerly to the side.
+
+"What is the matter, Mr Pigeon?" asked Captain Lascelles.
+
+"The mail from Sicily! the mail from Sicily!" ejaculated Pigeon.  "Has
+it gone?  Am I too late to see it?"
+
+Even the captain could not help joining in the laugh which was raised
+against the once dictatorial bully of little boys at school.
+
+"Oh, you have not missed it," said Mr Thorn.  "Go down to the berth
+again, and say that we will call you when it heaves in sight."
+
+More mystified than ever, Pigeon returned to the berth, when he was
+welcomed with shouts still more vehement than those which had received
+him on deck.  The place he had left was occupied, and no one offered to
+make room for him, or asked him to sit down--a pretty strong proof that
+he was not wanted.  Such is the deserved fate of school bullies when
+they get into the world, and have their measures properly taken.  Still
+the midshipmen had not done with him.  Quirk, the monkey, had remained,
+on his good behaviour, part and parcel of the crew.  For the sake of the
+men, with whom he was a decided favourite, any slight misdemeanours
+which they could not contrive to hide were generally overlooked.  Quirk
+occasionally paid a visit to the midshipmen's berth, where he sat up at
+table cracking nuts, "evidently under the impression," as Jack observed,
+"that he is one of us."  Quirk had soon struck up a friendship with the
+bear, who was a very tame beast, and could play almost as many antics as
+he could, only in a more sedate way.  Wherever Quirk went, Bruin would
+endeavour to follow; and one day, while the midshipmen were at dinner,
+the latter, led by the monkey, was seen approaching the berth.  Nuts and
+biscuits were held out.  They were easily tempted in.  Room was made for
+them, and they were regaled to their hearts' content on all the
+delicacies of the season which the men could produce.
+
+"We'll have them again, and we'll have a friend to meet them," exclaimed
+Jack.
+
+"A bright idea!"
+
+"Who?" was asked.
+
+"Pigeon," said Jack; and so it was settled.
+
+That afternoon Mr Pigeon received a note written on pink scented paper,
+to the following effect:--
+
+"The gentlemen of the midshipmen's berth request the pleasure of Mr
+Pigeon's company at dinner, to meet two distinguished foreigners, in
+every way worthy of his acquaintance and friendship."
+
+Pigeon asked the gun-room officers whether he ought to accept the
+invitation.
+
+"Certainly, it will be an insult if you don't," was the answer.
+
+They might possibly have suspected that a joke was brewing, but they
+said nothing.  The dinner-hour on the next day arrived.  The berth was
+kept as dark as possible, and when Pigeon presented himself at the door
+he was ushered in in due form, and with unusual politeness handed to the
+upper end of the berth.
+
+"Dinner!" cried the caterer.  "Bear a hand, boy."
+
+The midshipman's boy, who had been standing against the door, grinning
+from ear to ear, had to decamp.
+
+"Before the soup comes, Mr Pigeon, let me introduce our other guests--
+Senor Don Bruno, who is on your right side, and Monsieur de Querkerie,
+whom you will find on your left.  Manners makes the man, and as their
+manners are unexceptionable, I hope that you will consider them as men,
+and treat them, as men should men, with due civility."
+
+The screens by the side of the berth were at this instant withdrawn,
+when Pigeon beheld a bear sitting on one side of him, and a monkey on
+the other, both dressed with huge shirt-collars, large ties, and broad
+ribbons across their breasts.  Astonishment, rage, and fear struggled
+within for the mastery.
+
+"Don't be alarmed at their looks, my dear sir," said Hemming.  "There
+are no better behaved gentlemen on board.  Allow me to help you to soup.
+Rogers, you take care of Monsieur de Querkerie; Thompson, see to Don
+Bruno."
+
+This was a necessary caution, for the monkey gave signs that he was
+about to thrust his paw into Pigeon's plate, which act would have belied
+the assertion just made in his favour, and would certainly not have been
+pleasant to the human guest.  Bruin, who had a handful of hard biscuit
+before him to munch, was behaving himself very well.  Hemming kept
+serving out the soup with the greatest gravity amid roars of laughter,
+not a little increased by Pigeon's perplexed countenance.  What to do he
+could not decide.  He felt that a joke was being played off on him, but
+he was too much afraid to resent it, or show his indignation, and
+therefore he did the very best thing he could have done under the
+circumstances, he went on eating his soup without speaking.  All might
+have ended well had not Quirk, not understanding fully the proprieties
+of the dinner-table, darted out his paw and seized a lump of potato from
+the soup-plate.  Pigeon could not stand this, but shoving the denied
+plate from him, he made a dash with his spoon at Quirk's face, almost
+knocking some of his teeth down his throat.  The monkey retaliated, and
+not without Jack's utmost exertions could quiet be restored; I will not
+say peace or harmony, because that was out of the question.
+
+"I beg pardon, Mr Pigeon, we thought you might like the companionship
+of our foreign guests, as you are supposed to have some qualities in
+common," said Hemming, in a grave tone.  "But as you do not appear to
+admire their society, pray remove to the other side of the berth, where
+you will be more at your ease."
+
+Pigeon was glad enough of an excuse to get away, but he was puzzled to
+settle whether it was safer to pass the bear or the monkey.  At length
+he decided to get behind the former.  At that moment Bruin took it into
+his head to lift up his huge back, and catching poor Pigeon between the
+legs, he sent him right into the middle of the table, with his head into
+the soup-dish, while Quirk, delighted at the opportunity, caught hold of
+his heels, and getting a kick, sprang in revenge on the part of his body
+most exposed to attack, which he bit till the wretched victim roared
+with pain, and Jack had by main force hauled him off.  Hemming and
+Murray, with others, as soon as their laughter would allow them, dragged
+Pigeon off the table, apologising with tears in their eyes for the
+mishap which had occurred.  Pigeon's first impulse was to roar out for a
+basin and towel to wash off the soup from his face; and when his
+features were made clean, though earnestly pressed to come back, nothing
+could persuade him to take his seat till Bruin and Quirk were removed
+from the berth.  In truth the mess were not sorry to get rid of them,
+for to more than one sense they were somewhat unpleasant companions.
+All things considered, it was voted that Pigeon had really behaved very
+well, and the lesson he had received did him a great deal of good, and
+while he remained on board he seemed to think very much less of himself.
+I cannot defend the conduct of Hemming or Jack, or any one concerned in
+the affair, but my belief is, that had Pigeon not spoken disparagingly
+of Adair, whose memory Jack and Murray so fondly cherished, the trick
+would not have been played.  Malta was visited, so were the Ionian
+Islands, and the frigate clove through the waters of the Levant.
+
+"A sail in sight to leeward, sir," said Jack, entering the cabin, cap in
+hand, one afternoon, while the captain was at dinner.
+
+"What does she look like?" asked Captain Lascelles, applying his
+table-napkin to his mouth, and finishing his glass of wine as a man does
+when he has to move in a hurry, while he fumbles in his waistcoat-pocket
+for his toothpick case.
+
+"The first lieutenant thinks her a heavy frigate, or a line-of-battle
+ship," answered Jack, "and she is not English."
+
+In a moment the captain was on deck, and taking an earnest look at the
+stranger through his telescope.  At that period all captains of English
+men-of-war had received orders to be very circumspect with regard to
+their conduct towards French ships, for there was no doubt that France
+was seeking cause by which she might pick a quarrel with England.  The
+_Racer_ had now been cruising for some time, and Captain Lascelles could
+not tell whether the stranger in sight might or might not prove an enemy
+with whom he might speedily be engaged in deadly strife.  The wind was
+from the north, and the African coast, a thin blue line, was rising to
+sight in the horizon.  The helm was instantly put up, and all sail made
+in chase.
+
+"Hurrah!" exclaimed Jack, rushing into the berth, and throwing up his
+cap; "there's a chance of a brush this time and no mistake.  The
+gun-room officers say that the French are certain to be at war with us
+by this time.  They are going to help Mehemet Ali, so if the stranger is
+not a Frenchman, she is pretty certain to be an Egyptian, and either one
+or the other will do."
+
+The information was received in the berth with general satisfaction.
+Only one person heard it with dismay.  That was Pigeon.  He turned very
+pale.
+
+"What shall I do?  Where shall I go?" he exclaimed.  "I didn't come here
+to fight.  Couldn't I be put on shore?"
+
+"No, but you can keep below and help the doctor, where you may be of use
+and out of harm's way, if we don't go down, or blow up during the
+action," said Murray, with no little disdain in the tone of his voice.
+
+"Oh! oh!" groaned Pigeon.  "Go down, or blow up!  Oh, dear!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+PADDY ADAIR, HURRAH!
+
+The beautiful frigate looked like a vast cloud of snowy whiteness, as,
+with studding-sails alow and aloft, she swept proudly along over the
+blue waters of the Mediterranean in chase of the stranger.  The latter
+had been standing to the eastward; but seeing herself pursued, she also
+altered her course, and ran off before the wind towards the land.  Night
+was coming on, and it was very important to get up with her, near enough
+to ascertain her character, to prevent her escaping, should such be her
+design, in the dark.  Every one was on deck or in the tops, looking out
+at the stranger, and those considered themselves fortunate who could
+command the use of a spyglass.  One person--bully Pigeon--was below, and
+he sat quaking on a chest in the orlop deck, where he had been told that
+he would be least likely to have his head shot away.
+
+"I am a non-combatant, you know.  It would be very wrong in me to expose
+my life," he observed with a trembling lip.  "If I was one of you, of
+course I would do my duty as bravely as anybody; but as I am a civilian,
+and am come aboard for my health, I think it is my duty to take care of
+myself."
+
+"Oh! of course," was the reply; "so precious a person should run no risk
+of losing his valuable life."
+
+"Oh, I wish poor Adair were with us," exclaimed Jack.  "He did so wish
+to see a real fight; and to have to go out of the world without having
+been in one was very trying."  Jack spoke just as his feelings for the
+moment prompted him, without much consideration, I suspect.
+
+"Do you know, Rogers, that since we escaped in so wonderful a way from
+drowning, I have more than once thought that perhaps some of the people
+of the _Onyx_ may have been saved," observed Murray.  "I do not say that
+I have any great hopes on the subject, but still I cannot help thinking
+that it is possible."
+
+"I'm afraid not, though; we should have heard of them before now,"
+replied Jack.  "But if anybody escaped, I would rather it were Paddy
+Adair than any one else."
+
+Their conversation was cut short by that rolling sound of a drum which
+makes the heart of every true man-of-war's man leap with joy.  It
+followed the captain's order to the first lieutenant, "Beat to
+quarters."  What magic was there in the sound of those words!  In an
+instant every one, from the first lieutenant to the smallest
+powder-monkey, was in full activity.  Bulkheads were knocked away,
+firescreens were put up, the gallery fire was extinguished, the
+magazines were opened, powder and shot were handed up, the small-arms
+were served out, the men buckled on their cutlasses, and stuck their
+pistols in their belts.
+
+Although Captain Lascelles fully believed that he should gain the
+victory, he was too good an officer and too wise a man not to take every
+possible means to secure it.  It was soon evident that the _Racer_ was
+coming up hand-over-hand with the chase, and before long it was clearly
+made out that she was, at least, a fifty-gun ship.  She showed no
+colours, and as to her nationality opinions were divided.  Some thought
+she was French; but then in opposition to this conjecture, it was
+asserted that a French fifty-gun ship was not likely to run away from a
+frigate, whereas a Turk or an Egyptian was very likely indeed to do so.
+The officers on board them were generally very inefficient, while a
+total want of discipline prevailed.
+
+"That craft ahead must have a very bad conscience, or she would not be
+in such a hurry to get out of our way," observed Jack; "she's a Turk, or
+I am a Dutchman."
+
+"So the captain thinks, which is fortunate, or you might have to turn
+into a Dutchman, or else break your word," observed Murray.
+
+"I wish that he were a Frenchman.  I should so like to have a tussle
+with him," said Jack.  "Let people talk as they will about liberty,
+equality, and fraternity, I agree with my father, that the French never
+will like the English till they have taught us to eat frogs, and have
+thrashed us on a second field of Waterloo, and I hope that time may
+never come."
+
+"I hope not either," said Murray.  "But I have no wish to go to war with
+France or Frenchmen.  If they are bad friends, they are worse enemies,
+and not to be despised, depend on that; no people could have fought
+better than they did during the last war."
+
+"That is the reason I should like to fight them again," exclaimed Jack.
+"What is the use of fighting with people who can't fight?"
+
+Murray laughed at Jack's style of reasoning.  He had not arrived at the
+conclusion which an older man might have reached, that fighting under
+any circumstances is a dreadful business, and that the person who gives
+the cause for the fight does a very wicked thing, utterly hateful in the
+sight of God.  Never let that truth be forgotten.
+
+Darkness was now rapidly coming on.  The stranger could just be seen
+looming through it.  Captain Lascelles felt pretty confident, however,
+that he should come up with her before she could make her escape.  Night
+at last settled completely down over the ocean; still she could be seen,
+though very indistinctly.  On the two ships flew before the breeze.  At
+length the master, who had been examining the chart in his cabin, came
+up to the captain.
+
+"We are drawing in very near to the coast, sir," said he.  "It will be
+safer to keep the lead going."
+
+"But where the ship ahead can float so can we," observed Captain
+Lascelles.
+
+"She may manage to run in between reefs on which we may strike.  Never
+let us trust to the leading of an enemy, sir," was the answer.
+
+"You are right, master, you are right!" exclaimed Captain Lascelles, in
+a tone of warm approval.  "Send a hand with the lead into each of the
+chains.  We'll run no risk of casting the ship away."
+
+Soon the voices of the leadsmen were heard through the still silence of
+night, as the gallant frigate clove her way through the calm waters.
+
+"By the deep nine," sang out one on the starboard side.
+
+"By the mark seven," was soon afterwards heard from the man in the port
+chains.
+
+"Quarter less six," was the next shouted out.
+
+"We are shoaling our water rapidly," observed Captain Lascelles to the
+first lieutenant.  "Stand by to go about."
+
+All eyes had been fixed on the dark mass ahead.  Onward it seemed to
+glide through the darkness.  Every one felt certain that their eyes did
+not deceive them.  There still appeared, they all believed, the sails of
+the stranger, a huge towering pinnacle reaching to the sky.  Yet so near
+the ground were they that it was dangerous for the frigate, though of
+course drawing much less water, to stand on.
+
+"Was she a ship of mortal fabric?" some of the more superstitious among
+the seamen began to ask.
+
+As they looked, the tall pyramid seemed to rock, and then suddenly to
+dissolve into the air.  A sound, at the same time, came from the
+southward, as if of breakers dashing on a rocky shore.
+
+"Hands about ship," shouted the captain, with startling energy.
+
+The cry was repeated by the first lieutenant, and quick almost as the
+answer of an electric message, the boatswain's whistle uttered the
+well-known call along the decks.  Round came the ship, and when the eyes
+of those on board were turned to the south, not an indication could be
+discovered of the ship which had thus far led them in the chase.
+
+"We'll keep her off and on during the night," said the captain to the
+first lieutenant.
+
+"At daylight we will stand in, and see what has become of her.  There is
+little doubt, however, that she has gone on shore.  I trust, as there is
+not much sea on, that the people will contrive to save themselves."
+
+At this time the Sultan of Turkey was running a great risk of losing the
+greater part if not the whole of his dominions.  Mehemet Ali was one of
+the most remarkable men who have appeared in the East during this
+century.  Although of the lowest origin and unable to read, having
+become a soldier, he raised himself by his talents and intrigues to the
+highest rank in the Turkish army.  Being sent to Egypt, he deposed the
+ruler of that province, and became pacha in his stead.  He even showed
+that he allowed no sentimental scruples to prevent him from
+accomplishing any object on which he had set his heart.  Believing that
+the Mamelukes might be as troublesome to him as they had often proved to
+the Sultan, he invited 500 of them to a feast, and then had all of them
+murdered with the exception of one, who escaped by leaping his horse
+over a high wall.  The idea was simple and very oriental.  He might have
+made them his friends, but he thought that might be too difficult a
+task, so he chose the other alternative.  Now Mehemet Ali thought that
+it would be much pleasanter to be an independent sovereign than a
+tributary to the Porte, so he threw off the Turkish yoke.  Then he
+thought that he might as well rule over Syria also, and he accordingly
+marched his army there and took possession of the country.  His ambition
+increased with his conquests, and at last he resolved, if he could, to
+mount the throne of the caliphs.  He was backed up in all his
+proceedings by the French, who knew that if he succeeded they might
+easily take possession of Egypt on some excuse or other; while the
+Russians were well pleased to let him play his game, because they knew
+that the Sultan might call them in to his assistance, and thus they
+might get hold of Constantinople.  The Egyptian army in Syria was
+commanded by Ibrahim Pacha, the adopted son of Mehemet Ali.  He advanced
+his victorious standard to within a short distance of Constantinople;
+but then, instead of pushing on and occupying the city, he delayed till
+the Russians had reached the shores of the Bosphorus.  He in consequence
+thought it wiser to enter into a treaty by which he secured the Pachalic
+of Syria and Adana as well as that of Egypt for himself and his father.
+At first the tribes inhabiting Syria welcomed him as their deliverer,
+but they soon found that they had not changed rulers for the better, and
+that he fleeced them as much as had the pachas appointed by the Sultan.
+They therefore entreated the Sultan to take them under his protection.
+He accordingly sent an army to their relief.  It was now that England
+and Austria thought it time to interfere.  Neither of them wished the
+Egyptians to succeed, because the Russians would have had an excuse for
+interfering.  The Russians did not want anybody but themselves to
+interfere, but when the English, Austrians, and Prussians came forward,
+they were compelled to put a finger into the pie, to counteract the
+efforts of the French.  The French would gladly have aided the Egyptians
+for the sake of gaining a footing in the country, but as they were not
+ready for war they thought it wiser to refrain from all open acts of
+hostility.  The Turkish army advancing sustained a defeat from the
+Egyptians, while their fleet, which had been sent to the Dardanelles,
+sailed for Alexandria, and joined that of Mehemet Ali.
+
+The four powers accordingly entered into an agreement to make him
+withdraw his army from Syria, and offering him the ultimatum of the
+hereditary sovereignty of Egypt and the possession during his life of
+Saint Jean d'Acre.  If he refused, he was to have only the government of
+Egypt, and the four powers were to compel him by force to accept this
+arrangement.  The sturdy old pacha, however, backed by France, resolved
+to hold out.  A British squadron was therefore sent to blockade the
+ports of Egypt and Syria, with a few Austrian and Turkish ships, Russia
+undertaking not to take possession of Constantinople.  The French had
+not been consulted in the matter, and had they felt themselves
+sufficiently strong, there is little doubt that they would have
+supported Mehemet Ali, at the expense of a war with England.  Thus much
+was at the time known to Captain Lascelles.  Much circumspection was
+therefore required, for it was difficult to understand who were friends
+and who foes.  The French commanders might have received secret orders
+to attack the English after a certain day; the Egyptians might at any
+moment do so, if they felt themselves strong enough to be assured of
+victory; while it was more than probable that any Turkish ships might
+have gone over to the Egyptians, and have thus become enemies.  Few of
+the officers turned in that night; they were all anxious to ascertain
+who the stranger was, and what could possibly have become of him.
+Captain Lascelles took the frigate in as close as he could venture, and
+though each time every eye on board was turned eagerly towards the
+shore, not a sign of a ship could be discovered.  At length daylight
+dawned, and a white sandy shore was seen, with bare dark rocky heights
+rising behind it.  "There she is! there she is!" broke from many voices
+as all the glasses on board were directed towards the shore.  There lay
+stranded the huge black hull of a ship, her masts gone by the board, and
+her rigging hanging down in confused masses on either side, while the
+white surf dashed up around her.  What had become of the people it was
+impossible at that distance to say.  Captain Lascelles, who was on deck,
+ordered the ship to be hove-to.
+
+"I wonder what is next to be done," said Jack to Murray; "I hope if the
+boats are ordered away you and I will have to go in them."  Very soon
+the order was given.  "Barge and first and second cutters away!"  Jack
+and Alick belonged to the two latter.  They hurried to get them ready.
+The crews were armed, and a three-pounder was placed in the bow of each
+boat.  Mr Thorn had charge of the expedition.  It was not expected that
+there would be any fighting, but as a precautionary measure it was
+necessary to be armed.  No one now supposed that the stranger was
+French.  There could be little doubt she was either Turkish or Egyptian,
+but why she had run on shore it was difficult to say.  The idea was that
+she had been purposely lost.  In high glee at the thoughts of an
+adventure, the party shoved off from the frigate.  Mr Thorn was
+directed to ascertain the character of the ship, and to render
+assistance if it was required.  A light breeze from the westward enabled
+them to stand in under sail towards the shore.  As they drew towards the
+wreck, they looked anxiously to ascertain her condition.  She was on
+shore about a quarter of a mile from the beach.  All the masts were
+gone, some of the guns had been hove overboard, others had their muzzles
+still appearing through the ports.  Many of the crew were on board, but
+a considerable number had made their escape to the shore, their red caps
+and petticoat trousers showing that they were either Turks or Egyptians.
+As the boats got close up to the ship, the people on board began to
+gesticulate furiously, and it seemed with no very friendly intentions.
+Of this they gave proof, for they got some smaller guns on the
+quarter-deck slewed round, and began firing away at the boats.
+Fortunately their gunnery was very bad, or they might have cut them to
+pieces.  On seeing this, Mr Thorn made a white pocket-handkerchief fast
+to a boat-hook, and waved it towards them, but the barbarians seemed to
+hold a flag of truce in very little respect, as they continued firing as
+before.  Just then, Rogers and Murray observed a young officer; he
+seemed to rush up from below, and furiously attack the men with his
+sword, driving them from the gun.  He then leaped upon the taffrail and
+waved his hand to them and shouted, but they were too far off to hear
+his voice.
+
+"Murray, Murray, who do you think that is?" shouted Jack.
+
+"I know who it is like," answered Murray.  "It is like--"
+
+Just at that moment a terrific roar was heard.  The entire vast mass of
+the wreck seemed to be lifted up bodily into the air.  Up, up it went.
+Lurid flames and dense volumes of smoke burst forth, and then down came
+the huge mass shattered into a thousand fragments; beams, and guns, and
+planks, and human bodies, and the various contents of the ship all
+mingled together.  A cry of horror escaped from the boats' crews when
+they saw what had occurred.
+
+"Pull for your lives, my lads," shouted Mr Thorn.  "Give way now."
+
+The men, recovering from their amazement, required no second order, but
+pulled away as hard as they could from the burning wreck.  Happily they
+were no nearer, for in an instant afterwards down came burning fragments
+of the wreck, covering the sea far and wide, the terrific shower almost
+swamping the boats.  Although several pieces struck them, no one was
+materially injured.  The whole occurrence occupied not a minute of time.
+The ship, however, continued burning furiously, and the guns in the
+forepart of her, which appeared not to have been blown up, as the flames
+reached them went rapidly off, one after other, sending their shot
+whizzing away on either side.
+
+"Some of the poor fellows may have escaped with their lives, and may be
+struggling in the water.  Can't we go back and try to pick them up?"
+said Jack to Hemming, who commanded his boat.
+
+"A right notion--that we ought, Rogers," answered Hemming, who was too
+high-minded even to refuse to take a suggestion offered by a junior.
+Hemming made the proposal to Mr Thorn, and back dashed the boats, not a
+man in them recollecting even for a moment that the people they were now
+so eager to save, had but a few minutes before been most unwarrantably
+firing away at them.  Jack too had a strange feeling that he knew the
+appearance of the young officer who had interposed in their favour, but
+still it was too vague to allow him to ground any strong hopes on it.
+Murray had, however, conceived the same idea.  With what eagerness they
+pulled about looking out for their struggling fellow-creatures!  First
+they hauled on board a stout Turk, who did not appear to be much the
+worse for his flight and ducking, except that he was, not unnaturally,
+in a dreadful fright.  If he had conceived the idea that he had already
+entered Paradise, the big-whiskered jolly tars, instead of the houris he
+might have expected to welcome him, must quickly have shown him his
+mistake.  He looked up with a stare of astonishment as he was placed at
+the bottom of the boat.  Another poor fellow had had his leg almost
+blown off, but still he clung on to a piece of plank.  Hemming quickly
+formed a tourniquet with a handkerchief to stop the bleeding, while a
+savage-looking fellow was being hauled in, who even then cast a scowl of
+defiance and hatred at his preservers.
+
+"You might as well have said thank you, instead of looking so glum, old
+boy," observed one of the men as he placed him alongside his companions.
+
+"There's a young Turk hanging on to a spar away there, and waving to
+us," cried Jack, putting the boat's head in the direction he indicated.
+"Give way, my lads."
+
+Murray's boat was pulling in the same direction.  Jack got up first to
+the young Turk, as he called him, and almost tumbled headlong into the
+water in helping him on board.
+
+"It is, it is," he shouted; "it is himself!  I thought so."
+
+"Who? who?" asked Murray eagerly.
+
+"Paddy Adair?" cried Jack, almost bursting into tears.  "It's Paddy
+himself."
+
+"Paddy Adair, hurrah! hurrah!" was echoed from all the boats.
+
+"Paddy, my dear boy, where have you come from?" asked Hemming, with
+unwonted gentleness in his tone.  Jack had got Terence's hand, and would
+not let it go.
+
+"The last place I came from was the poop of that Turkish ship which is
+burning away there; then I went up into the air, I believe; and lastly,
+you have hauled me out of the water; the remainder of my adventures
+would take some time to tell, so you had better try and pick up any more
+of my shipmates who may still be alive.  There were a good lot of us
+altogether turned into sky-rockets."
+
+Paddy had not forgotten his habit of joking.  The boats altogether
+picked up some fifteen or twenty Turks, whom they landed on the beach,
+with the exception of those who had been injured, whom in mercy they
+conveyed on board the frigate.  A considerable number had been drowned
+from leaping off the forecastle when the ship was in flames, and being
+unable to swim.  Altogether a very large number of the crew must have
+been lost.
+
+"But, Paddy," said Jack, looking earnestly up in Adair's face, while he
+still held his hand, "you haven't really turned into a Turk, have you?"
+
+"Give me a boiled leg of pork, and some pease pudding, and prove me,"
+answered Terence, laughing.  "No, indeed; these wide nether garments and
+this red cap are the chief Turkish things about me, and the latter I
+thus gladly cast from me, and as soon as I can get a pair to supply
+their place, I'll gladly throw the others after the cap."  Paddy as he
+spoke hove the fez into the sea with a look of intense satisfaction.
+"If you knew what I have gone through, you would not be surprised at my
+pleasure of getting rid of everything to remind me of it," he observed.
+
+The boats made the best of their way out to the frigate, to report what
+had occurred.
+
+"What have you been about? what has happened?" were the questions
+eagerly asked, as they got alongside and handed up the wounded Turks.
+
+"Why, we have been and found Paddy Adair," shouted Jack, unable any
+longer to restrain his feelings.
+
+The eager faces of several midshipmen were seen at the gangway, looking
+out to ascertain the fact by ocular demonstration.
+
+"It's quite true, Paddy Adair is found, Paddy Adair is found," exclaimed
+a dozen voices in joyful tones.  The words were taken up, and echoed
+along the deck, "Paddy Adair is found; hurrah for Paddy Adair!"
+Especially vociferous were his own messmates, who were delighted to get
+him back again, and happy at the same time to have an excuse for using
+their lungs.  The boats were hoisted up, and Paddy, having changed his
+wet Turkish costume for a dry midshipman's uniform, was sent for into
+the cabin to give an account of his adventures to Captain Lascelles.
+He, however, reserved a still more detailed account to give to his
+messmates in full conclave assembled in the midshipmen's berth.  The
+only person on board who had not heard of Adair's arrival was Pigeon.
+He had laid down after breakfast on a sofa in the first lieutenant's
+cabin, and gone fast asleep.  About luncheon-time he awoke, and rubbing
+his eyes sat up, and feeling hungry after all the excitement and fright
+he had gone through, arose and went into the gun-room.  Finding no one
+there, he bethought him that he would go and honour the midshipmen with
+a visit, and talk of what he would have done if the ship had gone into
+action, and his services had actually been required.  He was, somewhat
+to his surprise, welcomed with a cordiality to which he was not much
+accustomed.  In a short time the conversation turned to the loss of the
+_Onyx_, and to the character of Paddy Adair.  One said one thing of him,
+and one or two hazarded slightly disparaging observations.  The bait
+took.
+
+"Oh, he was, I remember, always a foolish dunder-headed Irishman,"
+observed Pigeon; "I could thrash a dozen such fellows as he was.  No one
+thought anything of him at school, I remember."
+
+"Oh, bully Pigeon, oh, bully Pigeon, that you know right well wasn't the
+case," exclaimed Paddy, popping his head in at the door of the berth.
+
+Pigeon looked up at hearing the voice, and turning very pale, while his
+countenance exhibited a look of intense horror, fell back in a fainting
+fit, which afforded an excellent excuse to several of the youngsters for
+throwing half a dozen tumblers of water over him.  Some of the water was
+cold, and some was rather hot, but the effect was the same.  He got a
+thorough ducking, and after spluttering not a little, and coughing as
+the water dashed into his mouth, he quickly recovered his senses.  It
+was some little time, however, before he could be convinced that Paddy
+Adair in _propria persona_ sat before him.  Harmony was soon restored,
+and Paddy assured him that he did not intend to frighten him so much,
+and that he hoped he would forgive him.  Never was a happier party
+assembled in the berth at dinner than on that occasion.  Paddy's health
+was drunk, and he was warmly congratulated on his escape and return on
+board, even by the seniors of the mess.
+
+"And now, Adair, let us hear all about it," said Hemming, when the cloth
+had been removed and the young gentlemen were discussing their walnuts
+and wine.
+
+"Why, it is not a very long story," observed Paddy, "for do you see most
+of the events took place in a somewhat rapid way, my last skylark
+especially.  However, you shall hear.  We had just got on board the
+_Onyx_, and the commander had ordered the boats to be hoisted up, when,
+as the men were engaged in the operation, the squall struck her, and
+over she went in a moment--not a rope parted, nor a sail, I believe--
+just like a nine-pin knocked over by a ball.  I was still in the
+captain's gig on the weather side.  Feeling her going, or rather gone, I
+believe it was more from fright or instinct than from any exercise of my
+reasoning powers, I seized a couple of oars under my arms, slid
+overboard down her bottom, and struck out with all my might away from
+the sinking hull.  I never struck out so hard in my life, for I felt
+that I was swimming for my life.  I believe that I gave myself a shove
+off with the oars, which helped me rapidly to increase my distance from
+the brig.  Suddenly I felt myself drawn back, and I thought that I was
+going to be sucked under water--so I was for a short time; but I held a
+tight grasp of the oars, and once more quickly rose to the surface.
+When I looked round there was not a sign of a brig.  I shouted, no one
+answered.  I could see no one floating alive on the spot where the trim
+craft had lately glided in all her pride and beauty.  I was alone on the
+dark troubled sea.  The foam dashed in my face, and the waves tumbled me
+about terribly, and I thought more than once that I should have to let
+go and sink with the rest.  I felt very miserable and very sorry that so
+many fine fellows had lost their lives, for I was too certain that I
+alone had escaped, and then I began to think how grateful I ought to be
+that I had been so mercifully preserved.  I can't talk about that; but I
+wish you fellows to know that I do not think or feel lightly on the
+subject, that is all.  Night was rapidly coming on, my prospects were
+far from pleasant, and somewhat limited too, as I could only just make
+out the tumbling seas on either side of me.  I felt pretty certain that
+the frigate would come back to look after the brig; but scarcely hoped
+that such a speck as I was would be seen.  Still I determined to keep up
+my spirits, and to hang on to the oars as long as I could.  Sometimes I
+put my legs up over them, and thus I both changed my position and
+floated very comfortably.  Perhaps an hour had passed after the brig had
+gone down--it appeared as if several had elapsed--when I felt a sort of
+drowsiness come over me.  Suddenly there appeared right over me a big
+dark object.  I guessed that it was the bow of a vessel.  I sang out
+with all my might.  She was very nearly running me down.  As she did not
+quite run over me, it was fortunate that she came so close.  A rope was
+hanging over her side; I found my hands grasping it.  It must literally
+have been towed over me; I clutched it with all my might, and found
+myself hauled up on the deck of a low latine-rigged craft running under
+her foresail before the squall.  The crew had red caps on, and loose
+trousers, and talked a language I could not understand, so I concluded
+that they were Turks or Moors, or Egyptians; they were very good-natured
+though.  They took me below and gave me some arrack, which was very
+nasty, and they took off my wet things, and rigged me out in one of
+their own suits.  When I explained that my ship had gone down, they
+understood me perfectly.  Next they made me eat some lumps of meat off a
+skewer, with some rice and biscuit, and then signified that I might lie
+down on a mat in the cabin and go to sleep.  I did not awake till
+morning.  I wanted to put on my own uniform again, but they would not
+give it to me, and I began to fear that they were going really to turn
+me into a Turk.
+
+"For several days we sailed on.  Where we were going to I could not make
+out, for they would never let me see their compass.  At last we made the
+land somewhere on the coast of Syria, I am pretty certain; and, running
+in, we found a fifty-gun ship, brought up in a roadstead a couple of
+miles off the shore.  The _Mistico_ went alongside and stores of all
+sorts and provisions were hoisted up out of her, and then without my
+leave being asked I found myself transferred, like the rest of the bales
+of goods, to her deck.  I had not had a particularly pleasant time of it
+among the very dirty crew of the _Mistico_, so I thought that I might
+have changed for the better.  I was much obliged to them, however, for
+saving my life; so we parted very good friends, and when the little
+craft shoved off, I waved them an affectionate farewell.  I soon found
+that I had not much improved my condition.  The larger the ship, the
+greater was the amount of dirt and disorder.  No one knew their duty, at
+all events no one did it.  How they managed to exist a day without being
+blown up or foundering, I do not know.  They were constantly smoking
+with the doors of the magazine open and ammunition scattered about, and
+night and day with every prospect of a squall, the lower deck ports were
+ever left open.  I got hold of some of the officers, and tried to show
+them the danger they were running; so they rubbed their caps about their
+heads and opened their eyes and tried to look very wise, and followed my
+suggestions.  But the next day things were as bad as ever.  However,
+when they found out that I was up to a thing or two, they insisted on
+making me an officer.  What rank I held I never could tell.  I only knew
+that everybody obeyed me, and that none of the officers interfered with
+my commands.  This complaisant conduct did not arise so much from
+respect for me, as that they might save themselves trouble.  I never met
+with men who seemed to hate it so much, from the captain to the youngest
+powder-monkey.  My great difficulty arose from no one understanding a
+word I said, nor could I understand anybody.  Still, we got on very well
+under ordinary circumstances by signs.  At last I happened to go forward
+and to utter a few words of English.  One of the men forthwith pricked
+up his ears.
+
+"`Beg pardon, sir, you'd find an interpreter convenient, I think,' he
+said, touching his cap.
+
+"`What, are you not a Turk?' said I.
+
+"`I am not and I am,' he answered; `I have become a Turk.'
+
+"`You are a renegade, in truth,' said I.
+
+"`Your honour has hit it,' he replied.
+
+"I am sorry to say he was an Irishman.
+
+"`But I'm ready to serve a countryman, and I think I can help you at a
+pinch.'
+
+"`I shall be much obliged to you,' I answered; and from that time
+forward Pat Hoolan became my interpreter and right-hand man.
+
+"He was a great ragamuffin, and I did not trust him more than I could
+help; but he was very useful to me, and I believe faithfully interpreted
+the orders I issued through him.  I learned also from him some of the
+politics of the ship.  The captain was a great rascal according to our
+notions.  He cheated the crew of their pay and their rations, and his
+government of the stores and provisions, and indeed anything on which he
+could lay his hands; while he had been tampered with by some of Mehemet
+Ali's emissaries, and was only waiting an opportunity to carry his ship
+into Alexandria.  Such was the state of affairs when we put to sea.  He
+had just before found out that his treachery had been discovered, and
+that another Turkish ship had been sent in pursuit of him.  He tried to
+get to Alexandria but could not, so we knocked about running from our
+own shadow till you hove in sight.  He then did what he had long
+resolved to do, ran the ship on shore.  He and most of the officers and
+some of the men escaped in the boats, leaving me with the remainder to
+be blown up as a reward for my services.  No thanks to them I escaped,
+and that's the end of my story."
+
+Two days after this a brig of war hove in sight.  She signalised
+"Important news", "The war has begun."  The frigate made sail towards
+her.  The two men-of-war, as they drew near each other, hove-to, and the
+commander of the brig came on board the frigate.  It was soon known that
+the _Racer_ was to join the squadron of Sir Robert Stopford.  All sail
+was immediately made on both ships, and together they steered a course
+for the coast of Syria.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+TO SAVE THE FLAG.
+
+"I say, Jack, can you tell me what all this row is about between us and
+these wide-breeched, red-capped niggers, the Egyptians?" asked Adair, as
+he stood by the side of Jack Rogers on the quarter-deck of the _Racer_,
+while the latter, with his spyglass under his arm, was doing duty as
+signal midshipman.  The outlines of many a picturesque hill and white
+stone stronghold, famed in ancient and modern history, rose in the
+distance on the Syrian coast out of the blue glittering ocean.
+
+"Why," replied Jack, "I'm not much of a politician, Paddy, but as far as
+I can make out, old Mehemet Ali wants to be Sultan of the Turks, and we
+won't let him; and so Charlie Napier told him that if he didn't draw in
+his horns within twenty days, we would blow his fortresses on this coast
+about the ears of his pachas.  He, in return, told Charlie to go to
+Jericho, that he intended to keep what he'd got; and so now we're going
+to do what we promised.  We shall have some fun, depend on it."
+
+"Now I understand all the ins and outs of the matter," replied Paddy.
+"There's nothing like knowing what you are fighting about."
+
+"There, up goes a signal from the flag-ship," cried Jack, putting his
+glass to his eye, and pointing it towards the _Princess Charlotte_, Sir
+Robert Stopford's flag-ship, which, with the _Powerful, Thunderer,
+Benbow_, and several other line-of-battle ships and frigates, sloops and
+steamers, joined by a Turkish squadron under Admiral Walker, and a few
+Austrian ships, was cruising off Beyrout.
+
+"The signal for the captains of each ship to assemble on board the
+_Princess Charlotte_," cried Jack.  "Hurrah! the fun's to begin."
+
+The captains having visited the flag-ship, the squadron stood in, the
+larger portion taking up a position opposite the town, which they
+forthwith commenced bombarding, while the rest were employed in landing
+troops at different points to co-operate with the Turks, and to distract
+the attention of the Egyptians.  Suliman Pacha, Governor of Beyrout, in
+spite of the shot and shell showered into his fortress, held out bravely
+and fired away in return as hard as he could.  It was the first time the
+three midshipmen of the _Racer_ had been under fire, but as she had not
+to take any very active part in the affair, they voted it very slow
+work.
+
+"Is this what you call fighting?" said Jack.  "It seems to me as if all
+the fun was on one side."
+
+"Stay a bit, my boy," observed Hemming; "this is only just the beginning
+of the game.  Before many days are over perhaps we shall be at something
+which will make you cry out the other way."
+
+"At all events, we have silenced them; see, up goes a flag of truce on
+the old castle," exclaimed Jack.
+
+Jack was right in his fact but wrong in his conclusions.  A boat was
+instantly sent on shore to inquire the meaning of the white flag.  She
+quickly returned to the flag-ship bringing the Indian mail, with a
+polite message from Suliman Pacha, assuring the admiral that he was not
+at war with individuals, and that he should feel a satisfaction in
+forwarding all letters to and from India.  Sir Robert Stopford, himself
+so generous and polite, was the very man to appreciate such an act of
+courtesy: he therefore sent back the boat immediately with a case of
+wine, warmly thanking the pacha, and begging that he would accept it as
+a slight acknowledgment of his kindness.  This little episode over, the
+belligerents began firing away at each other as hard as ever.  The pacha
+showed that he was as brave as he was courteous, for in spite of all the
+cannonading he would not give in.  A short drama was, however, enacted,
+which showed the midshipmen a little more of the realities of war.  An
+Egyptian deserter came on board one of the ships, and gave notice that a
+train of gunpowder had been laid along a bridge leading to the eastern
+castle, in which was collected a large quantity of gunpowder, with the
+intention of blowing up into the sky any of the besiegers who might
+succeed in entering the place.  The deserter offered to guide any party
+formed to cut off the train.  Commander Worth, of the _Hastings_,
+undertook to accomplish the dangerous service; and numbers of officers
+and men volunteered to accompany him.  Jack and Murray and Adair were
+among others eager to go.  However, it was not likely that more than one
+midshipman from the frigate would be allowed to accompany the
+expedition.  The morning of the day in which it was to take place,
+Murray had been sent with a message on board the _Hastings_.  He came
+back with a flush on his cheek and a look of intense satisfaction on his
+countenance.
+
+"Jack, Terence, my dear fellows, congratulate me.  I'm to go.  W--, who
+has known me for some time, has applied for me.  He did so in most
+flattering terms.  He said he wanted a midshipman who would be calm and
+collected whatever might occur, and yet one on whose courage and
+resolution he could perfectly rely, and he has selected me.  It is that
+he has spoken of me in such flattering terms that has given me so much
+pleasure.  I wish that you two fellows were going also."
+
+"I wish we were," said Jack.  "But I congratulate you, Alick; you'll do
+justice to W--'s choice.  That I know right well."
+
+"There will be more work to be done than when we attacked the pirate's
+stronghold the other day," observed Adair.  "Well, I hope that my turn
+will come before long; I don't feel as if I had any right to wear starch
+in my shirt-collar till I've taken part in some real downright
+fighting."
+
+Jack and Terence warmly shook Murray's hand, as he stepped into the boat
+which was to convey him on board the _Hastings_.
+
+"I say, old fellow, don't now forget to come back to us safe and sound
+in life and limb," cried Terence, laughing; "remember the fright I gave
+you and Jack.  Don't give him and me the same, and we'll take care that
+Pigeon does not malign your character in your absence."
+
+Away went Murray.  To say that he was in high glee would be to use a
+wrong term.  There was a calm satisfaction and proud joy in his heart at
+the thought that the time had arrived when he might have an opportunity
+of distinguishing himself in the noble profession he had chosen, and to
+which he was so devotedly attached.  Neither Rogers nor Adair would have
+felt as he did; and yet, though neither of them could be considered less
+brave than he was, yet in reality he was the bravest of all three,
+because his mind was so constituted that he clearly saw all the dangers
+to be encountered and knew every risk he was running.  The expedition
+rendezvoused round the _Hastings_.  The ships stood in as close as the
+depth of water would allow them, and then, opening their fire, the boats
+shoved off and pulled away for the bridge which led to the castle.  As
+soon as they appeared a heavy fire of musketry was opened on them from
+the fortifications; but in the face of it the men clambered upon the
+bridge and, led by their gallant commander, rapidly pushed on across it.
+Jack and Terence eagerly watched the progress of the boats through
+their telescopes.  Their chief sympathy was concentrated on that which
+contained Murray and his fortunes.  They looked upon him as a dear
+brother, and, in spite of their apparent light-heartedness, they both
+felt the deepest anxiety for his safety.  In a very short time the whole
+party were hid from sight by the thick smoke which surrounded them.
+Murray, with his brave companions, in spite of the leaden shower which
+came pattering around their heads, pushed on till they reached the spot
+where the train was laid.  A few buckets of water, brought for the
+purpose, quickly cut off the train; then on they went to the gates of
+the castle.  They were not long in blowing it open.  In they rushed,
+putting the defenders to flight, who made their escape by an opposite
+gate, rejoicing in the belief that the infidel besiegers would soon be
+blown up sky high, and become the food of ghouls and vampires.  They
+were sorely disappointed when they found that the castle did not blow
+up, and that the giaours had taken entire possession of it.  The English
+leader saw that no time was to be lost.  He and his men hunted about and
+soon came upon the casks of powder of which they were in search.  "Now,
+my lads, heave them over the walls into the sea," he sang out, setting
+the example which the men were ready enough to follow.  Cask after cask
+was stove and thrown into the sea till some sixty or seventy casks had
+been destroyed.  Sentries had been placed to give notice of the approach
+of the enemy.  Notice was given that they were returning in force.
+"Now, my lads," cried Captain W--, "we'll carry off some of these casks
+to pepper the fellows with their own powder."  The idea just suited the
+taste of the seamen.  Each man shouldered a cask, and, fearless of the
+consequences should a spark of fire get inside one of them, away they
+scampered through the gates and across the bridge with their booty.  As
+soon as the enemy caught sight of them they again opened their fire.
+Several of the daring party were hit.  The officers cheered them on.
+The fire was hotter than ever.  One officer fell.  He was a midshipman.
+The men rallied round him, and lifting him on their shoulders bore him
+on towards the boats.  He did not breathe or give a sign of life.  "Who
+is it? who is it?" was asked.  They reached the boats and shoved off,
+for the Egyptians were gathering in force to attack them.  Jack and
+Terence, perched on the hammock-nettings, were looking out for the
+return of the expedition.  The frigate was close in, and the boats had
+to pass her on their way to their respective ships.  One of the boats of
+the _Hastings_ came first, the one in which Murray had embarked.  A
+union jack was thrown over a part of the stern-sheets.
+
+"Who have you there?" asked Jack, not able to restrain his anxiety.
+
+"A midshipman, sir, who has been killed," was the answer.
+
+"Oh, Terence, it must be Murray!" exclaimed Jack, almost falling off the
+hammock-nettings overboard.  "And yet, no, it can't be; it must not be.
+Who is he, that midshipman?" shouted Jack; but the boat was already at
+some distance, and the people in her did not hear the question asked.
+
+The report soon got about the decks that Murray was killed.  Jack and
+Adair would have been gratified at hearing all the things said about
+him, and the grief expressed at his loss.  Still, after giving vent to
+their grief for a time, they began to hope that possibly he might not
+have been killed, but only desperately wounded, and they resolved to ask
+leave to go on board the _Hastings_ to ascertain the state of the case.
+As they were going aft for that purpose, a boat came alongside, and in a
+few seconds afterwards, who should appear on deck uninjured in limb, and
+in capital spirits, but Murray himself.
+
+"Who are you? what are you? where do you come from?" exclaimed Terence,
+scarcely knowing what he said.  "Why, Alick, to a certainty you are
+dead, are you not?"
+
+"I hope not," answered Murray, laughing at the reception his two friends
+were giving him.  "I have not been hit or hurt that I know of."
+
+"All right," exclaimed Jack, springing forward and grasping his hand,
+which he wrung heartily.  "I am so glad.  It would have been too
+dreadful if you had been killed."
+
+"Unhappily, one poor fellow of our party, a midshipman, L--, of the
+_Hastings_, was killed," observed Murray.  "However, let us promise each
+other for the future, not to fancy that any accident has happened to
+those who are absent, unless we have very strong evidence of the same."
+
+"Agreed! agreed!" the other two exclaimed.  "Whatever anybody else may
+tell us, we'll all believe that we shall meet again somewhere or other,
+and be happy together."
+
+It is extraordinary what an effect the notion the three midshipmen had
+taken up had on them.  If Adair was away, though perhaps on some
+far-distant station, Jack frequently had to say that he did not know
+where he was to be found, but he always added, "I am certain that we
+shall meet again before long.  What message shall I give him?"  Murray
+said much the same thing of Jack or Adair, and they said the same of
+Murray.  I cannot follow them through the various scenes of the war in
+Syria.  While Sir Charles Napier, to his great delight, was acting the
+part of a general on shore, with some of his naval followers as his
+aides-de-camp, they were employed on board their ship, which, with the
+rest of the squadron, was engaged in sailing along the coast in
+cooperating with the army, and in blowing up and capturing one fortress
+after another of those which still held out for Mehemet Ali.  Now and
+then both bluejackets and marines landed, and, much to their
+satisfaction, stormed the old pacha's strongholds, and literally
+fulfilled Charley Napier's promise of pulling the stones about the ears
+of his governors.  On one occasion success did not attend the British
+arms, but, as Paddy Adair observed, "It's an ill wind which blows no one
+good," and he here had an opportunity which he had so long desired of
+distinguishing himself.  The fortress was a very strong one, with a high
+thick-walled tower which looked fully capable of defying the battle and
+the breeze for a thousand years.  The ship stood in with the intention
+of battering it down, but after firing away for an hour or more, little
+impression was made, and it was resolved to endeavour to take it by
+storm.  Jack had to stay on board, greatly to his disgust, and he did
+say that he considered himself a most ill-used officer.  Adair and
+Murray accompanied the body of seamen who, with the marines of the
+squadron, and some mountaineers who had been taken on board along the
+coast, were landed to form the storming-party.  The ground between the
+castle and the sea was laid out in gardens.  Here a body of the enemy
+was drawn up.  The storming-party landed to the south of the town,
+covered by the fire of the ships, which also cleared the gardens of the
+enemy.  The marines and bluejackets now pushed bravely on, but
+encountered a terrific fire from the troops within the forts.  Murray
+and Adair were side by side, scrambling over walls and leaping ditches,
+and cutting through hedges of prickly pears in spite of the showers of
+shot which rattled round their heads.
+
+"I say, Alick, poets talk of genial showers; I wonder what they would
+call the shower now rattling round us?" cried Adair, as he waved on his
+men.
+
+"A leaden shower, I should think," said Alick.
+
+"Not far wrong, my boy, but I'm afraid it will not make us grow,
+though," answered Adair.  "But I say, the shot do pepper, though."
+
+They did, indeed.  Numbers of the marines and sailors were knocked over.
+
+"There's another poor fellow down," cried Adair, stooping down to help
+up the man, but his aid was of no avail.  A deep groan escaped from his
+bosom, his musket fell from his grasp, and he was dead.  Adair with a
+sigh, for the marine had been his servant, let go his hand and sprang
+on.  In vain the British and their allies fired away at every loophole
+and embrasure where a man's head or firelock was to be seen.  The enemy
+rattled away as rapidly as ever, and no impression seemed to be made on
+the walls, while numbers of the storming-party were falling one after
+the other around.  Now a poor fellow would spring up into the air shot
+through the head, and now would fall down with a groan, and rolling
+over, clutch convulsively at the earth; one would utter a sharp shriek
+as he fell; others, with the blood streaming from their limbs, would
+endeavour to scramble on till they sank with a cry of pain exhausted to
+the ground.  The midshipmen now began to comprehend more clearly than
+they had ever before done the stern realities of warfare.  They got
+within thirty yards of the walls when they found themselves in front of
+a crenelled outwork with a deep ditch before it.  In vain the officers
+looked for some part of the castle wall which might prove practicable.
+Not a spot appeared accessible, and nothing but the ugly-looking muzzles
+of the enemy's muskets were visible through the loopholes.  Most
+unwillingly was the command given to retire, and most unwillingly was it
+obeyed.
+
+"I say, Murray, I don't like this--to have to turn my tail on those
+red-capped gentry," exclaimed Adair.
+
+"We must obey orders, at all events," observed Murray.  "Steady, my men,
+steady," he added, as some of the sailors were turning round to take a
+parting shot at the foe.
+
+The marines were drawn off in beautiful order, and the whole party were
+soon out of the reach of shot.  As they were pulling off, Murray and
+Adair remarked that a flag which had been planted in the garden, in
+front of the fort, was left flying.
+
+"That will never do, the enemy will be getting it," cried Adair.  "I
+say, Alick, let you and I go and see if we cannot pull it down, and
+carry it off."
+
+"With all my heart," answered Murray.  "Let us put back at once; we must
+ask Captain A--'s leave as we pass his boat.  He will not refuse it, I
+am sure."
+
+The crew of their boat were delighted at hearing what the midshipmen had
+resolved to do, and pulled back to the shore with a will.
+
+As they passed Captain A--'s boat Adair sang out, "There's an English
+flag left flying on the shore there, sir; those red-capped fellows will
+boast that they took it from us if we let it stay.  May we go and get
+it?"
+
+The commander of the expedition saw that if it was to be done, no time
+was to be lost, as the risk to be run would increase by delay, or the
+Egyptians might see the flag, and sally out and take it.
+
+"A brave idea; go and prosper, my lads," he answered promptly.
+
+"Thank you, sir, thank you," answered Murray and Adair in one breath,
+while their crew bent with all their might to their oars.
+
+"Oh, Alick," said Adair, "I do so wish that Rogers was with us.  This is
+just the thing of all others he would have liked."
+
+"I wish he was, indeed," answered Murray.  "But I dare say something
+else will turn up before long in which he may be able to take a part."
+
+The boat very soon reached the shore.  All the crew wanted to go on the
+expedition, but the midshipmen would only consent to take one.  They had
+their cutlasses by their sides, and pistols in their belts, but their
+arms were not likely to be of much use.  The instant the boat's stem
+touched the beach, they sprang on shore; and, running along across the
+beach, scrambled over the first wall they encountered, and found
+themselves in the garden.
+
+Scarcely were they there, when the sharp eyes of the enemy fell on them,
+and they were saluted with a hot fire of musketry.
+
+"Skip about--dodge them--fly here--fly there; take care they don't hit
+you," sang out Paddy, suiting the action to the word.  "The more we
+jump, the less chance we shall have of being hit."
+
+The midshipmen's movements, as they hurried on, were not unlike those of
+Wills-of-the-Wisp.
+
+The enemy could not conceive what they had come for, and probably
+supposed that they were madmen who had escaped on shore, and were coming
+to join them.  For a short time the firing ceased.  As the smoke cleared
+off, those on board the ships could see what was taking place, as well
+as could the enemy.  Every glass was turned towards them.  Jack among
+others recognised his friends, and saw what they were about.  They were
+not wrong in supposing that he would long to be with them.  He would
+have given a finger, or even a right arm, for the sake of being of their
+party.
+
+On they went.  They had another wall to get over.  They climbed to the
+top of it.  The enemy at last suspected what they were about, and came
+to the conclusion that if they were mad they had method in their
+madness, so they began once more furiously firing away at them.  Eastern
+matchlocks are fortunately not like Enfield rifles; or their lives, if
+they had had nine, like cats, whom they so resembled in their activity,
+would not have been worth a moment's purchase.  Murray and Adair raced
+on as merrily as if they had been playing a game of prisoner's base.
+They clambered up a wall, at the top of which the flag-staff had been
+placed.  They waved it about their heads; and, giving a loud cheer, down
+they leaped to the ground, where their companion was ready to receive
+them.  Happily they did so, for the next moment a thick shower of
+musket-balls came rattling across the spot they had left.
+
+"Not hit, Alick?" asked Adair, as they scampered back as hard as their
+legs would carry them.
+
+"No; I hope you are not," said Murray.
+
+"Can't say for a certainty," answered Terence; "I feel a funny stinging
+sensation in my side as if something or other was the matter."
+
+Whatever it was it did not impede his speed.  At length it seemed to
+strike the Egyptians that though they could not manage to knock over the
+young giaours with their matchlocks they might with their scimitars; so
+a band of fierce-looking fellows with long moustachios, wonderfully wide
+breeches, and gleaming blades, sallied out of the fortress to endeavour
+to overtake them.  The Egyptians ran very fast and felt very savage, but
+they might just as well have tried to catch three active tomcats.  Dick
+Needham, their companion, was the first to perceive that the enemy was
+in pursuit of them.
+
+"There's a lot on 'em a scampering after us, sir," he observed coolly.
+
+"All right," answered Terence.  "Their friends inside the fort, then,
+will be less likely to keep firing at us; and I should like to see the
+followers of the prophet, whether Turk or Egyptian, who can catch us in
+a fair race like this."
+
+To do them justice, however, the enemy made good play over the ground.
+The outside garden wall was reached and leaped, and now the three
+adventurers had a fair run for it along the beach towards their boat
+with the red-capped gentlemen, as Adair called them, in hot pursuit.  A
+long straggling branch of a tree had been thrown upon the beach.  Adair
+did not observe it, and suddenly he found himself toppled over on his
+head.  He thought that he had broken his leg.
+
+"Take the flag and run, Alick," he exclaimed, throwing the flag-staff to
+Murray.  "Never mind me, I'm too much, hurt to move."
+
+"Not when I have a pair of legs to run off with you, sir," cried Dick
+Needham, lifting Paddy upon his shoulders, running off with him as if he
+had been a baby.  "It was not for that, sir, that I comed here to look
+after you."
+
+Paddy felt that it was not a moment to stand on his dignity, so he was
+very much obliged to Dick for carrying him.  Murray took the flag, but
+would not leave him till he had seen him hoisted upon Dick's shoulders.
+Away they went then as before; but the Egyptians had gained considerably
+on them, and hallooed and shouted, and, worse than all, fired off their
+pistols with as good an aim as they could take, running as they were at
+full speed.  Fortunately the bullets did not reach the fugitives; just
+then the latter caught sight of their boat, which they had left under
+shelter of a rock.  The Egyptians did not see her, and so they ran on,
+which they otherwise would not have done.  What was their surprise,
+then, to find themselves saluted with a round of grape-shot from a gun
+in her bows, and a volley of musketry, while a true British cheer
+reached their ears.  Dick and Murray responded to it, and so did Paddy
+in a voice which showed that there was not much the matter with him, and
+all three very speedily tumbled into the boat, while the enemy turned
+tail and scampered back to the fort.  The boat immediately shoved off to
+return to the frigate.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Paddy?" asked Murray, as soon as they had
+taken their seats.  "I hope you are not much hurt.  Let me see."
+
+"My knee bothers me a little, but my side is the worst," answered Adair.
+"And, as I am a gentleman, look here, the fellows have shot away the
+handle of my sword!"
+
+Such was the case.  Adair had indeed had a narrow escape; his coat was
+torn and his skin slightly grazed.  An eighth of an inch on one side,
+and he would have received a very ugly, if not a mortal, wound.  Happily
+he was very little hurt, and the cheers with which the boat was
+received, as she got alongside the frigate, made him forget entirely
+that anything was the matter with him.
+
+"Oh!  I am so jealous of you two fellows," exclaimed Jack, as they were
+all seated together in the berths.  "You'll make me volunteer to lead a
+forlorn hope, or to do something terrifically heroic.  However, the fun
+is not over yet; we shall have plenty more work to do before long."
+
+The fun, as Jack called it, was not over.  Sidon was soon afterwards
+attacked by a squadron under Sir Charles Napier, in his usual slap-dash
+gallant determined-to-conquer manner.  The ships bombarded, then the
+Turks, marines, and bluejackets were landed, and stormed one castle
+after another, killing or putting to flight every one who opposed them.
+Jack, Murray, and Adair, to their great delight, were all on shore
+together.  The cannonading had not, however, driven the Egyptians from
+their entrenchments, so the ships again opened their fire.  Captain
+Austin, at the head of a Turkish battalion, had taken one castle,
+Captain Mansel, with great gallantry, led a body of marines into
+another, and then they fought their way into another castle which
+overlooked the town, not, however, without some loss.  And now the
+commodore conceived that the time had come for storming the town itself,
+and, putting himself at the head of the troops, he led them on.  The
+three midshipmen, with a body of seamen from the different ships, were
+with him.  They broke into some strongly fortified barracks, and drove
+out the enemy, then they fought their way through the streets to the
+citadel.  Several boats had brought their ensigns, Jack carried theirs
+at the end of a pole.
+
+"Hurrah, now!" he sang out; "let us have our colours on the top of the
+wall before any one else."  Terence and Murray echoed the sentiment;
+and, leading on some of their men, they endeavoured to reach the spot
+before a boat's crew of their Austrian allies, led on by a midshipman,
+as well as before other parties of British seamen.  Never was there a
+better race.  No one felt inclined to stop at obstacles, and everybody
+who attempted to oppose them was killed.  The governor of the town was
+encountered.  He was offered quarter, but he would not receive it, and
+before any officers could interfere two marines ran the brave old
+gentleman through the body, and he died like a true Turk as he was.
+
+When the enemy saw that their chief was dead, and that there was no one
+to lead them, they wisely threw down their arms, resolved, like brave
+men, to live and fight another day for a more profitable cause.
+
+Jack and his companions pushed on, and having now fewer enemies to
+encounter, made still greater progress.  The higher part of the town was
+reached; with shouts and loud huzzas they scrambled up to the summit of
+the walls, and, planting the British banner, Sidon was proclaimed to
+have fallen into the power of the allies.  Fortunately the commodore and
+his followers came upon a thousand men concealed in a vaulted barrack,
+who were prepared to rush out and cut them off, but who, instead, were
+very glad to lay down their arms, and in the end every one of the
+garrison, three thousand in number, was captured.  Tyre, that ancient
+city, was next captured; so was Caiffa, Tortosa, and other places; and
+at last the fleet appeared before Acre, still one of the most important
+places on the Syrian coast.  Here the midshipmen saw what real fighting
+was.  Acre presents two sides to the sea, one facing south and the other
+west.  In consequence of this it was necessary that the fleet should
+attack in two divisions.  It was a grand sight to see the mighty
+line-of-battle ships and the fine steamers, armed with their engines of
+destruction, approaching in order the devoted town, and still more when
+they began thundering away from a thousand loud-mouthed guns, confusing
+the senses with their roars and filling the air with their smoke.  Even
+Jack felt his spirits awed as hour after hour, without cessation, the
+mighty uproar continued, and houses were overthrown and strong stone
+walls were seen crumbling away before the reiterated shocks of the iron
+shower levelled at them.  The enemy, too, were not idle, and shots and
+shell came whizzing about the ships, striking down here and there many a
+gallant seaman and marine.
+
+"Well, Alick, what do you think of it?" asked Jack, as, in the course of
+their duty, the two friends were brought together.
+
+"That we are in earnest in what we are about; though I wish I could feel
+the poor fellows we are slaughtering deserved their fate more than I
+think they do," answered Murray.
+
+"I don't understand those niceties," observed Terence, who had just then
+come up.  "Those fellows don't do what we tell them, so we've a perfect
+right to kill and destroy them as fast as we can; but, halloo, what's
+that?"
+
+As Adair was speaking a terrific noise, ten times louder than the roar
+of all the guns of the squadron put together, was heard, and high up
+into the air were seen to ascend fragments of walls, and beams, and
+human bodies, succeeded by a dense smoke, out of which flames burst
+forth and raged furiously.  The castle had blown up, or rather the grand
+magazine within it, and in a moment nearly two thousand persons were
+hurried into eternity.  The firing ceased--the combatants held their
+breath, aghast at the dreadful catastrophe; but the Egyptians,
+undaunted, soon again recommenced the action, and the ships bombarded on
+as before till sunset, when the action was discontinued.
+
+"What tough fellows those must be to hold out so long," said Jack.  "I
+should have thought they would have had enough of it before this."
+
+The governor had already come to the same conclusion, and during the
+night he and his followers evacuated the place, and in the morning some
+Turks and Austrians were sent on shore to take possession.  The capture
+of Acre terminated the war in Syria, for many of the tribes which had
+been hesitating which side to choose, joined the Sultan's forces, and
+the army of Ibrahim Pacha dwindled from 75,000 to 20,000 men.  Sir
+Charles Napier went to Alexandria, and Mehemet Ali, persuaded that the
+tide of war had turned against him, undertook to evacuate Syria, and to
+restore the Turkish fleet, as soon as the Sultan should send him a
+firman, granting him the hereditary government of Egypt.  Everybody
+engaged in the Syrian war got a great deal of credit, and my three
+friends came in for a midshipman's share of the honours showered on the
+victors.  Once more the _Racer_ was ploughing the waters of the
+Mediterranean with her head to the westward.  She had been her full time
+on the station, and it was the general expectation that she would
+speedily be ordered home.
+
+"Hurrah for old England!" was the joyous cry on board, and no one
+enjoyed the thoughts of returning home more than did the three friends,
+and yet there was a lump of bitter in the bottom of the cup to spoil
+this pleasure.  It was the thought that in all probability they would be
+soon separated, for how long they could not guess--perhaps years might
+pass away before they could again meet.  They resolved, however, to
+stick together if they could, and, at all events, never to fail in
+letting each other know their whereabouts.
+
+The _Racer_ reached Portsmouth at last.  There was a paying off dinner,
+given by the midshipmen to the gun-room officers, at the far-famed _Blue
+Posts_.  Old Hemming presided, and a very good president he made.  The
+first course was over when a stumping on the stairs was heard, and the
+waiter, opening the door, announced Admiral Triton.  Jack sprang up and
+grasped his hand warmly.
+
+"I have taken the liberty of an old seaman to look in on you, gentlemen,
+on this occasion, uninvited; for I saw you just as you were all brought
+together, and I was anxious to meet you again before you all separate,
+probably for ever," said the Admiral--who, as may be supposed, was most
+cordially welcomed--after waiting for some time till the speech-making
+had begun.  "You have had, I am glad to find from my friend Rogers, a
+happy ship.  Many of you will, I hope, some day be captains; and let me
+impress it on you that on you yourselves will then mainly depend whether
+your ships also are happy ships or the reverse.  To make them so, you
+must command your tempers (you cannot begin too soon to practise the
+difficult task), you must endeavour to study and promote the true
+interests of all under you, and you must act justly towards all men.  To
+do this I must not fail to remind you that you must pray for strength
+whence alone strength for all difficult tasks can be given."
+
+The Admiral's speech in no way interrupted the hilarity of the evening,
+and he added much to it by several amusing anecdotes, at which no one
+laughed more heartily than he did.  The next day he accompanied Jack to
+Northamptonshire.  No one was ever more cordially welcomed in a happy
+home than was Jack.  It need not be said that, for at least three days,
+everybody did their very utmost to spoil him, though after that time he
+was treated very much as he used to be before he became a midshipman.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+BOUND FOR AFRICA.
+
+One morning, towards the termination of breakfast, Jack Rogers was
+leaning back in his chair, with a bit of buttered toast in one hand and
+the _Times_ in the other, on the contents of which he was making a
+running commentary, when he stopped short, put down his toast, took a
+hurried sip of his tea, and exclaimed, "So my old skipper has got a ship
+again, and they say is going out as commodore to the coast of Africa."
+
+"Dear me!" observed Mrs Rogers, "I am afraid that Captain Lascelles
+will not like that; I should always have such a horror of that dreadful
+station."
+
+"Oh, mother, don't pray entertain such a notion as that," said Jack,
+with no little emphasis.  "There is in the first place plenty of work to
+be done there, which in these piping times of peace is a great
+consideration.  Only think of the fun of capturing a slaver, and what is
+more, of getting an independent command; or at least that is of a prize,
+you know, and being away from one's ship for weeks together.  And then
+there is cruising in open boats, and exploring rivers, and fights with
+pirates or slavers; perhaps a skirmish with the dependents of some
+nigger potentate, and fifty other sorts of adventures, not to speak of
+prize-money and all that sort of thing, you know.  Oh, to my mind, the
+coast of Africa is one of the best stations in the world, in spite of
+what is said against it."
+
+When Jack made this assertion, he had never been there.  He talked on
+till he had worked himself up to a fit of enthusiasm, and almost made
+his family believe that the African station was not so bad a one after
+all.  The truth was that when Captain Lascelles paid off the _Racer_ he
+promised Jack that should he get another ship soon he would apply for
+him, and Jack therefore felt pretty certain that he should himself be
+very soon on station, and he of course was anxious to prevent his
+parents or sisters from feeling any undue anxiety on his account.  He
+could not sit down or turn his mind to anything all day till he
+discovered a copy of the _Cruise of the Midge_, over the graphic pages
+of which he was observed to be intently poring; and then he went and
+routed out of the library one or two books descriptive of the west coast
+of Africa.  At dinner he could talk of nothing else but the Gold Coast,
+and the Ivory Coast, and Congo, and other places in those regions.
+
+"Why, Jack, we might suppose that you were contemplating going out there
+from the way you talk about those places," observed one of his brothers,
+who wanted to bring some other subject on the tapis.
+
+"And so of course I am," exclaimed Jack.  "I should like to stay at home
+among you all; but as I have chosen a profession, and there is not
+another like it, I hope to stick to it, and I intend always to look out
+where there is most work to be done, and to go there."
+
+"My dear child," said his mother, "but not to the coast of Africa."
+
+Then Jack went into all the arguments in its favour, which he flattered
+himself had made so favourable an impression at breakfast, but which he
+found had all been forgotten, while the original very natural prejudice
+against it had once more asserted a pre-eminence in the minds of his
+family.
+
+The next morning Jack was unusually fidgety till the post came in, and
+there was a blank look on his countenance when the post-bag was opened
+and it produced no letter for him.  Soon after breakfast, however,
+Admiral Triton's carriage drove up to the door, and out of it stepped
+the admiral himself.  He quickly stumped into the drawing-room, and
+having made his salaams to the ladies, produced an official-looking
+document from his pocket.  Jack had followed him eagerly into the room.
+
+"Here, my boy," said he, "is a letter from my friend Lascelles, your old
+captain.  He says--let me see what he says.  Oh! here it is.  `I cannot
+find the address of Jack Rogers, so pray tell him to come down to
+Portsmouth at once and join the _Ranger_.  I have just been appointed to
+her, to go out as commodore on the African station.  Let his outfit be
+got ready accordingly.  I have no doubt that he will find some
+opportunity of distinguishing himself; and as he has already served four
+years, there is a fair chance of his getting his promotion when he
+returns home.'  The rest is private," observed the admiral, when he had
+concluded this somewhat laconic epistle.  "And now, Jack, I congratulate
+you, my lad," he continued.  "You have been quite long enough on shore
+to rub up your shore manners, and that is as long as a midshipman ought
+to remain at home.  How soon shall you be ready?"
+
+"In ten days or a fortnight I think that I could get his shirts and
+flannel waistcoats made, and his socks marked, and his--"
+
+"I beg your pardon, my dear madam, but by that time the _Ranger_ may be
+halfway across the Bay of Biscay.  Ten or fourteen hours you should say.
+He must go and see his ship fitted out.  He'll never be at home in her
+unless he does.  Well, well, then the day after to-morrow I intend to go
+down with him.  I enjoyed my last trip so much that I would not miss the
+opportunity of seeing him on board his new ship.  I know what you would
+say, my dear madam, but a longer delay would be objectionable.  Rogers
+will agree with me.  There, it is settled, so let us say no more about
+the matter."
+
+Thus Jack found himself, more speedily than he expected, about to go
+once more afloat.  That afternoon, in company with two of his brothers
+and his sister Mary, he galloped round and paid his farewells to his
+friends in the neighbourhood; and then his chest was packed, the
+contents of which all the womankind in and out of the house, for a long
+way round, had been employed without cessation, night and day, in
+getting ready.  So when the admiral, as he had done four years before,
+drove up to the door, he was perfectly ready to accompany him.  Jack did
+his best to keep up the spirits of his mother and sister to the last,
+though just as he was going they gave way, and he himself was nearly
+upset.  All the fighting he had seen had not hardened his heart.  Away
+he and the admiral went down to Portsmouth.  The next morning they were,
+soon after breakfast, on board the _Ranger_, then fitting out alongside
+a hulk.  She was a six and thirty gun frigate, no great improvement on
+the _Racer_, but still a ship which an actively disposed officer might
+well be glad to get.  Several of the officers had already joined, and
+the admiral made a few favourable remarks about Jack, which placed him
+at once in a favourable light in their eyes.  Captain Lascelles, who was
+living on shore, welcomed him very kindly, and Jack was very well
+pleased with what he saw of his future companions.  The third lieutenant
+of the frigate had not been appointed.  However, three or four days
+after Jack had joined, who should make his appearance but old Hemming,
+who had, on the paying off of the _Racer_, got his somewhat tardy
+promotion.  Jack did not know that he was promoted, and was not a little
+pleased to find that he was their third lieutenant.  Jack had written to
+Adair and Murray directly he found that he was appointed to the
+_Ranger_, urging them to exert all their interest to get appointed to
+her likewise, but he had not yet heard from either of them.  One was in
+Ireland, the other in Scotland.  Hemming laughed when he told him what
+he had done.
+
+"Their friends may take some trouble to get them on board a ship going
+to the Mediterranean, or to keep them on the Home station; but depend on
+it they will not bestir themselves to have them sent out to the Coast,"
+he remarked.
+
+Captain Lascelles' character was well-known, so he soon got his ship
+manned and ready for sea.  Admiral Triton had gone over to the Isle of
+Wight, and now came off to Spithead to see the last of them.  There was
+still room for another midshipman.  They were expecting every day to
+sail, and Jack was in despair at not hearing from either of his friends,
+wondering what would have become of them, when a shore-boat was seen
+coming off to the ship, and Paddy Adair and his chest came up the side.
+
+"Hurrah!" exclaimed Jack, as soon as he saw him; "that is jolly.  But I
+say, old fellow, where is Murray?  I wish that he was here too."
+
+Adair could not tell, and they puzzled their brains in vain to account
+for his silence.  The topsails were loosed, the capstan was manned, and
+to a merry tune the men were running round and heaving up the anchor,
+and as the fine old admiral was shaking hands with all he knew on board
+just before stepping into his boat, Jack could scarcely persuade himself
+that four years had passed over his head since, with the exception that
+Murray was not present as one of the _dramatis persona_, precisely the
+same scene had been enacted.  The _Ranger_ had a quick run to Sierra
+Leone, where her arrival was welcomed with very great delight by all on
+board the ship she came to relieve.  The frigate at last cast anchor
+opposite Freetown, and Jack and Adair were allowed with several of the
+officers to go on shore.
+
+They were surprised at finding so large and flourishing a town, with a
+population, although the greater number are black or coloured, so
+generally intelligent and well off.  They saw churches, and colleges,
+and schools, and places of education of all sorts.  They were told that
+many of the negroes liberated from slavers have become wealthy, and that
+the sons of men who landed on those shores twenty years ago ignorant
+savages, are now receiving a first-rate education, and studying Latin,
+Greek, and Hebrew, many of them diligently preparing for becoming
+ministers of the gospel.  Freetown, built on rising ground, close to the
+sea, has a very picturesque appearance.  Jack and Adair were also struck
+with the number of people who came into the town to trade, and with the
+signs of industry everywhere visible.  However, they were not sorry to
+find themselves once more at sea, with a sharp lookout kept night and
+day for slavers.  The officers were in general very different in
+appearance from those in the _Racer_, though they were all very good
+sort of fellows.  The oddest looking was Dr McCan, the surgeon.  He was
+a jovial-faced short man, and from having lived a life of ease on shore
+he had grown enormously fat.  As he had also got into a very comfortable
+practice, he did not at all like coming to sea, but at the same time, as
+he was a true philosopher, instead of moaning and groaning, he tried to
+make himself as happy as under the circumstances he was able.  The first
+lieutenant was a veteran of the old school, tall and thin, but as lithe
+and agile as he had been when he was twenty years younger.  He was
+constantly employed, because every captain who knew him wanted him as
+his first lieutenant, and so, because he was so very good in that
+capacity, John Holt remained still a lieutenant.  He did not complain
+beyond an occasional grumble; indeed those who knew him suspected that
+he rather preferred being looked on as one of the best first lieutenants
+instead of holding a higher rank, when he would have had to remain on
+shore and be forgotten.  The second lieutenant and master were both
+rough and ready seamen, short, strongly-built men, with light hair, and
+large bushy whiskers and beard; they were wonderfully like each other.
+The purser was one of the most gentlemanly and best educated men in the
+ship.  The marine officer was also a very excellent fellow, but he
+squinted awfully, which made him carry his head somewhat on one side;
+and his face was broad and strongly seamed with lines, which twisted in
+a way that made him look as if he was always laughing.  He however did
+laugh very frequently, more especially at his own jokes, which, if not
+always original, were very amusing.  In the midshipmen's berth there
+were several mates of long standing, who had come out on the station in
+the hopes of getting their promotion, while besides Rogers and Adair
+there were three other midshipmen, with their usual complement of other
+grades.  The frigate lay long enough off Freetown to make every one
+rejoice to find themselves once more at sea.  Lookouts were constantly
+aloft on the watch for slavers.  They had not been at sea many days,
+when the exciting cry of "Sail ho!" was heard from the mast-head.
+Several of the officers were soon seen going up the rigging with their
+spy-glasses slung over their shoulders to look out for the stranger.
+She was made out to be a ship dead to leeward.  All sail was instantly
+made in chase--she might be a merchantman, or possibly a man-of-war; but
+that was not likely, and Captain Lascelles had received information that
+a large slave-ship was expected off the coast.  It was not till nearly
+an hour had elapsed that the stranger bore up and made sail to escape.
+This left no doubt as to her character, and every one looked forward to
+the capture of an important prize.  The frigate sailed remarkably well,
+but a stern chase is a long chase, and several hours more passed before
+the topsails of the stranger were seen above the horizon.  Jack and
+Terence could scarcely tear themselves from the deck even to go below to
+dinner.
+
+"I say, Paddy," observed the former, "I wonder whether you or I shall be
+sent away in her when we take her.  Will Hemming go in command, or will
+one of the mates?--Lee or Weedon, perhaps."
+
+"Let us catch our hare before we eat her," said Adair.  "I tell you what
+I do wish; that we were in a smaller craft, and then you and I would
+have a chance of getting sent away together.  Wouldn't that be fun?"
+Jack agreed that it would, but both of them began to look very blank
+when darkness closed in on them, and the chase was still several miles
+ahead.  When the frigate first made out the chase she was standing to
+the eastward, and was about a hundred miles off Cape Palmas.  She was
+then running towards the Bight of Biafra.  Captain Lascelles kept the
+frigate on nearly the same course, edging slightly in towards the land,
+for he suspected that the ship was bound in for one of the harbours on
+the Gold or Slave-Coast, and would probably stand in towards the land
+during the night.  Neither of the midshipmen turned in that night.  The
+thought that they were about to take their first prize kept, indeed,
+many others out of their hammocks, and sharp eyes were on the watch for
+her in every direction during the night.  In spite of their sharpness,
+however, not a sign of the chase could be discovered.  Yet as she was
+not seen on either hand, the probabilities were that she was still
+ahead.
+
+"Do you know, Terence, this reminds me of the time when we chased the
+Turkish frigate which had you on board off the Egyptian coast," said
+Jack.  "I only hope that we may be more fortunate, and catch her before
+she gets on shore and blows up."
+
+"I shall be glad if we can catch her on the water, or earth, or sky,"
+answered Terence.  "These slavers are slippery fellows, and it is no
+easy matter to get hold of them."
+
+The night wore on.  When the morning at length broke the mast-heads were
+crowded with visitors.  They rubbed their eyes and their telescopes, and
+then looked through the latter, and rubbed and rubbed again; and then
+they pulled very long faces at each other, for the ship could nowhere be
+seen.  Many of them remained aloft, still looking for her, but at last
+they came down and looked at each other, and voted themselves sold.
+However, they went to breakfast, and as they walked the deck after it
+they hoped that they might have better luck next time.
+
+The men's dinner was just over, when once more everybody was put on the
+alert by hearing "Sail ho!" sung out from the mast-head.
+
+"Where away?" asked Captain Lascelles, who was walking the deck at the
+time.
+
+"Right ahead, sir," was the answer.
+
+The captain himself went aloft.  When he came down again he told Mr
+Holt that he believed she was the identical ship they had chased the
+previous day.  The frigate rapidly got up with her.
+
+"How jolly to think that we shall catch her after all," exclaimed Jack,
+as they got near enough to the chase to see halfway down her courses.
+"But what is the matter with her?  She seems to have altered her
+course."
+
+"She is becalmed, to be sure," answered Lieutenant Hemming, who heard
+the question.  "Daddy Neptune has brought her up all standing, to place
+her as a punishment in our power.  I only hope he will not make a
+mistake and becalm us till we get up to her."
+
+In another hour or less the stranger was seen floating in the middle of
+a shining sheet of water of silvery hue.  Still the frigate carried on
+the breeze.  It was a question whether the stranger would get it, and
+perhaps make a fresh start, leaving her pursuer in the lurch.  The
+excitement on board the frigate became greater than ever when the
+stranger was seen, for there was no longer any doubt about her
+character.  Her taut masts, her square yards, the great hoist of her
+topsails, and her light cotton canvas, all showed her to be a slaver,
+probably combined with the occupation of a pirate.  Gradually the wind
+decreased as the frigate neared her; when within about a couple of miles
+it fell a dead calm.  Captain Lascelles gave a rapid glance round the
+horizon, and then ordered away the first and second cutters with a large
+whale-boat, and directed the second and third lieutenants and one of the
+mates to join them.  Jack and Terence got leave to accompany Mr
+Hemming.  It was very evident, from the appearance of the stranger, that
+she would give them some tough work before they took her.  With loud
+cheers the expedition shoved off from the frigate's side and pulled away
+for the ship.  The three boats contained altogether from five and thirty
+to forty hands.  It was broad daylight.  There would have been no use in
+disguising their intentions.  If the slaver attempted to defend herself
+at all, they might well expect some desperate fighting, and from her
+appearance it could scarcely be expected that she would do otherwise.
+Hemming's boat, which pulled the fastest, got the lead.  The men every
+now and then gave a cheer to animate each other.  They rapidly neared
+the slaver, as the smooth shining water bubbled and hissed under the
+boats' bows.  Oh, how hot it was, as the sun's rays came directly down
+on their heads; but no one thought of the heat, and they laughed and
+joked as if they were employed in some amusing occupation.
+
+"I say, Paddy, I think we could do a beefsteak brown on these
+stern-sheets," observed Jack, putting his hand down by his side.
+
+"That to be sure we might," answered Terence.  "And here comes the
+pepper for them," he added, as the pirate sent a shower of round shot,
+grape, and canister flying around, and stirring up the water on every
+side, though fortunately no one was hit.
+
+"Give it them in return, my lads," cried the second lieutenant;
+"marines, fire."
+
+The marines were not slow in obeying the order, and as the seamen bent
+to their oars, they continued firing away as fast as they could load.
+The slaver's crew had evidently hopes of crippling their adversaries,
+for they kept up a brisk and well-directed fire; but, hot as it was, the
+gallant British tars were undaunted.
+
+"That dark ship has, perhaps, four or five hundred poor wretches under
+hatches whom it is our business to set free," cried Lieutenant Hemming.
+"And then, my boys, if we do take her, what a lot of prize-money we
+shall get?  Hurrah! hurrah!"
+
+Hemming had been too long at sea not to know how to excite the spirit of
+seamen.
+
+"We shall have some tough work, hurrah! hurrah!  You'll knock over some
+of those pirates, depend on it."
+
+Each officer excited his men by similar cries.  Their only fear was that
+a breeze might spring up, and that the enemy might escape them.
+However, though they pulled hard, nearly half an hour passed from the
+time the first shot was fired till they got up to the ship.
+
+"What an ugly set of cut-throats the fellows are," said Adair, pointing
+to the people who crowded the pirate's deck.  "Let's be at them, Jack."
+
+Jack was quite ready to respond to the proposal.  The two other boats
+boarded on the starboard side, amid a hot fire of langrage of all sorts
+poured down upon them.  Hemming pulled up on the port bow, sprang up the
+side, and soon fought his way upon deck.  Jack and Adair were climbing
+in at one of the ports when the pirates fired the gun through it
+directly over their heads.
+
+"Come on, Paddy, come on," Jack sang out; but Adair had been knocked
+over into the bottom of the boat.
+
+Happily, however, he was only kilt, as the Irish say; so he clambered up
+again, and quickly followed his friend, accompanied by Dick Needham, who
+had joined the _Ranger_, and another seaman.
+
+Fortunate it was for the midshipmen that they had so stout and true a
+seaman as Dick Needham as their companion; for they encountered a
+desperate resistance from the pirates, and were instantly engaged in
+furious hand-to-hand combats.  Meantime, so surrounded were they by
+their enemies, that they could not tell what had become of the rest of
+their shipmates.  More than once they were nearly driven back through
+the port by which they had entered.  Jack saved Adair from an ugly cut
+on the head, and Adair in return saved Jack from being run through the
+body, by cutting down the pirate who was making the attempt to do it.
+Both of them, as well as Dick Needham, were nearly exhausted, and poor
+Tom Bowles, their companion, had received a wound which brought him to
+the deck, when Hemming's voice was heard above their heads, and he
+leaped down from the forecastle, off which he had driven the enemy.
+With loud cheers he led on his men; the pirates gave way before them.
+Then Lieutenant Collard and Randall were seen fighting their way from
+aft.  The pirates looked about them, and seeing enemies on every side,
+gave way, some leaping below, and some throwing themselves overboard.
+Fully a dozen pirates were killed, and a still greater number were
+wounded.  Many did not even ask for quarter.  Others threw themselves on
+their knees, as their captors followed them below, and entreated that
+their lives might be spared.  The victory was not gained without loss.
+A marine and two seamen were killed and five were wounded, a large
+proportion out of the number composing the expedition.  No sooner were
+the decks cleared than a terrific howl was heard from below.  Mr
+Hemming rushed to the hold; just at that moment a whole host of negroes
+were seen emerging from it.  He was barely in time to drive them back
+again.
+
+"I know the rascally slavers' trick," he exclaimed; "they have been
+telling the poor wretches that we are going to murder them; and if they
+once had gained the deck, we should have had no little difficulty in
+preventing them from murdering us."
+
+Then looking down the hold on the heaving mass of black humanity, he
+cried out, "Hear me, you piratical rascals; if you don't make those poor
+negro fellows understand that we are their friends, and have come to set
+them free, we'll hang every one of you at your own yard-arms before ten
+minutes."  He knew that many of the crew understood English perfectly,
+indeed that some of them were English and Americans.
+
+The pirates, finding that their plot was defeated, wisely came on deck,
+having explained to the slaves that no harm was going to happen to them.
+As they came up they were secured by the manacles which they had
+prepared for their unhappy captives.  Some time was thus employed, and
+at length a breeze sprang up, and the frigate was seen bearing down upon
+them.  The prisoners looked very blank when they found that they were to
+be transferred to her.  The gallantry of every one engaged was warmly
+commended by Captain Lascelles.  Hemming got the command of the prize,
+and to their great delight Jack and Terence were allowed to remain in
+her.  The frigate and her prize then made sail together for Sierra
+Leone.  They kept close in with the land in the hopes of picking up
+another prize.  Before, however, they got round Cape Palmas they met
+with a strong westerly gale, which compelled them to bring up in a
+sheltered bay, which is to be found some way to the eastward of it.  The
+scenery was not very interesting.  Near them was a narrow neck of sand,
+with a few palm-trees on it, and a muddy lagoon on the other side.
+Still, men who have been long aboard are glad to find anything like firm
+ground on which to stretch their legs.  Now the surgeon and the
+lieutenant of marines were constantly joking each other as to which of
+them possessed the greatest physical powers.  If one boasted he had
+ridden fifty miles without stopping, the other had always gone ten miles
+farther.  If one had leaped over a wide ditch, the other had leaped over
+one five feet wider, or if one said he had kept up a Scotch reel for an
+hour, the other had danced one for a quarter of an hour longer.
+
+"I'll tell you what, doctor," explained Lieutenant Stokes; "I'll
+undertake to race you for a mile, each of us carrying another person on
+our backs."
+
+"Done," cried Doctor McCan; "it shall come off at once.  I'll take Adair
+as my jockey; you can take whom you like."  Adair was the lightest
+midshipman on board, and the doctor thought that by getting him he had
+stolen a march on his military competitor.
+
+"Agreed," answered Lieutenant Stokes, cocking his squinting eye in the
+most ludicrous way.  "I'll take Rogers.  He's a bit heavier than Adair,
+but I don't mind that.  As you had the first choice of a rider, I must
+choose the ground.  From the extreme end of that spit of land to the
+palm-trees near the neck is, I guess, about a mile."  This was said
+while the frigate and her prize were brought up on their voyage to
+Sierra Leone.  Doctor McCan looked at the white spit of sand, and
+thought what heavy work it would be running over it; but he felt that he
+was in honour bound to keep to the proposed terms.  A party was soon
+made up to go on shore, and all hands looked forward to the fun they
+expected to enjoy from the exhibition.  They had first to pull alongside
+the prize to call for Rogers and Adair.  Hemming gave them leave to go,
+and they of course were nothing loath to accept the invitation.  What
+Captain Lascelles would have thought of the matter I don't know.  He
+might have considered that the exhibition of an officer of marines
+racing with a midshipman on his back was somewhat subversive of
+discipline.  There was no surf on the shore, and the boats landed
+without difficulty.  The ground was measured by the umpires.  It was
+from the end of the point round the palm-trees and back again about a
+quarter of the distance to make up the mile.  The doctor felt the sand
+with his feet.  It was very fine and soft, and he began to repent of his
+proposal.
+
+"Now, gentlemen, take up your burdens and be ready at the
+starting-post," said the master, who was chief umpire.  They went to the
+ground, tossing up the midshipmen to make them sit comfortably on their
+backs.
+
+"Now--one, two, three, and away you go!" cried the master.
+
+Off they went, the marine officer prancing away with Jack in the pride
+of his strength, while the doctor ploughed his way steadily on through
+the sand, finding, even with Adair, that he had rather more flesh and
+blood to carry than was pleasant.  Still Mr Stokes did not gain upon
+him.  He too found that Rogers was no slight weight, though he was only
+a midshipman--as Jack said of himself, "All that is of me is good."  For
+some time they were neck and neck.  Hot enough they found it, for the
+sun was bright, the sand was soft, there was but little air, and what
+there was was in their backs.  They were lightly clad, to be sure; but
+had they worn as little clothing as the most unsophisticated of negroes,
+they would have found it hot enough.  They puffed, and they blew, and
+they strained, but still they persevered.  At first neither Rogers nor
+Adair cared much about the matter, but they soon got as excited as the
+men who carried them, and eager for their respective steeds to win.
+
+"I say, doctor," observed Adair, after they had gone about half the
+distance, "the sand inside of us there, along the lagoon, looks hard.
+It would not take us much out of our way if we were to go there, and you
+would then get along famously."  Terence intended to give good counsel,
+and the doctor followed it.  To his great delight he found the ground
+hard, and was getting on at a great rate.  Jack urged Mr Stokes to take
+the same route.
+
+"Stay a bit; all is not gold that glitters," was the answer.  "That's
+treacherous sort of ground."
+
+"But see, see how magnificently they get along," cried Jack, again
+wishing that he had a bridle to guide his refractory steed.
+
+All this time the umpires and other spectators were keeping up merry
+shouts of laughter.
+
+"There they go," shouted Jack; "they will be round the trees in no
+time."
+
+Just as he spoke there was a loud hullabaloo from Terence, echoed by the
+doctor.  Over they both went head first, but the doctor's heels did not
+follow, for they had stuck fast in the mud, into which poor Terence's
+head plunged with a loud thud.  The doctor heroically endeavoured to
+pull him out, but his own legs only stuck deeper and deeper.  As the
+marine officer came up and passed by them, he began capering about and
+neighing in triumph, while Jack barbarously inquired whether they would
+like to have a tow.  At last Terence, covered with mud, black and most
+ill-odorous, scrambled out, and, by throwing to him the end of his
+handkerchief, contrived to haul out the doctor, who once more took him
+on his shoulders, and in sorry plight continued his course.  Jack looked
+round and saw them coming just as Mr Stokes was about to round the
+palm-trees.  He crowed loudly and waved his hand.  It would have been
+wiser, however, if he had not begun to triumph so soon, for his steed's
+foot catching in a falling and half-hidden branch, over they both went,
+and were half buried and almost stifled in the soft hot sand.  However,
+they picked themselves up; and, Jack, mounting, away they went towards
+the goal where their friends were ready to receive them.  Just as they
+got up to it, down came the gallant marine once more, but Jack stuck to
+his back, and on all fours he crawled up to the winning-post.  The poor
+doctor, with Terence, as Jack said, like a huge baboon clinging behind
+him, came in soon after; and the doctor declared that it was the last
+time, with or without a jockey, he would ever run a race on the shores
+of Africa or anywhere else.  In the afternoon the blacks in parties were
+taken on shore under an armed escort to bathe and exercise themselves;
+and the next day, the wind shifting, the frigate and captured slaver
+again made sail for their destination.
+
+"The frigate is signalising to us," said Jack one morning to Lieutenant
+Hemming, who had just come on deck.  "She is going in chase of a sail to
+the southward.  We are to continue our course for Sierra Leone."
+
+In a couple of hours the frigate was out of sight.  There appeared to be
+every promise of fine weather.
+
+Hemming's chief concern was for the blacks, who were sickly.  Several
+had already died, and not a day passed without four or five being added
+to the number.  It was important, therefore, to make the passage as
+quickly as possible.  For this object the commanding officer kept
+probably more sail on the ship than she would otherwise have carried.
+
+Jack one afternoon had charge of the watch; all seemed satisfactory.  As
+he was taking a turn on deck, he saw Dick Needham hurrying towards him
+and pointing to the sea to leeward.  It was a mass of white foam.  He
+shouted out, "All hands shorten sail!"
+
+Hemming and Adair rushed out of the cabin.  Hemming without speaking
+seized an axe, and began cutting away at the halyards; Adair and Jack
+followed his example.  The crew flew into the rigging with their knives,
+but it was too late.  The tornado was upon them; over went the ship;
+down, down she heeled.  The seething water rushed in at her ports.
+Shrieks and cries arose from the unhappy negroes confined below.  Jack
+and Needham's first impulse was to knock off the hatches, and a few
+blacks sprang on deck before the sea closed over their heads.
+
+"The ship is sinking, the ship is sinking," was the cry fore and aft.
+
+"Then a raft must be formed, my lads," sang out Lieutenant Hemming.
+"Never say die, while life remains."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+WRECK OF THE SAN FERNANDO.
+
+The heart of the bravest man may well sink within him when he hears the
+cry uttered, in accents of despair, "The ship is sinking, the ship is
+sinking!"  Rogers and Adair looked at each other, and thought that their
+last moments had really come.  All the bright visions of the future
+which their young imaginations had conjured up, vanished in a moment.
+Well might they, for the ship lay hopelessly on her side, with more than
+half her deck under water.  There arose from every side shrieks and
+cries of terror.  There were the distorted countenances of the blacks,
+as they crowded up the hatchway, through which the sea was pouring in
+torrents, while their own men, intent on preserving their lives to the
+last, were clambering up the bulwarks or working their way forward,
+which was the part of the ship the highest out of the water.  Hemming,
+followed by the two midshipmen with axes in hand, endeavoured to gain
+the same part of the ship.  It was no easy task.  The howling wind blew
+with terrific violence around them, and the seething ocean bubbled up,
+and sent its fierce waves dashing over their heads.  "Oh, save me, save
+me!" cried Adair, as a sea struck him and washed him down the deck; but
+Hemming and Rogers caught the rope he had happily clutched and hauled
+him up again.  At length they gained the forecastle, where most of their
+own crew had assembled and some few of the unfortunate blacks.  They
+were the only survivors of the four or five hundred human beings who
+lately breathed the breath of life on board.  Mr Hemming, looking
+round, saw that there was not a chance of the ship righting herself.  He
+accordingly promptly issued orders for the formation of a raft.  Such
+spars as were loose or could be got at, were hauled up on the
+forecastle.  The topgallant masts and royals had been carried away, and
+fortunately still floated near; Jack saw them and got them hauled in.
+Hemming, meantime, was wrenching up the forecastle deck to assist in the
+formation of a raft.  There was not a moment to lose, for it was evident
+that the ship was fast settling down.  Fortunately a hammer and some
+nails were found forward.
+
+"Here, my lads, lash the ends of these spars together, so as to form a
+square," cried Hemming, working energetically.  "That will do; now this
+one diagonally--that will strengthen it; now these planks; nail them on
+as we best can on the top.  That will do bravely; next lash these
+lighter spars above all, they will form a coaming, and prevent us from
+slipping off the raft."  Thus he went on, by his activity and cheerful
+voice, keeping up the spirits of his men, and encouraging them to
+exertion.
+
+"Mr Hemming," said Jack, "how are we to live without food?  I must try
+and get some--who'll follow me?"
+
+"I will, with all my heart," cried Dick Needham.  Jack and he fastened
+ropes to their waists, and dashed aft towards the chief cabin, which was
+already under water.  The tornado had passed away as suddenly as it
+began, so that the water was tolerably smooth, or they could not have
+attempted this daring feat.
+
+"I know where a cask of biscuits was stowed.  If we can get it out, it
+will be a great thing," cried Jack, preparing to dive into the cabin.
+
+"I saw some beef in one of the starboard lockers," said Needham,
+accompanying him.  Another good swimmer and diver followed them.  All
+three remained under water so long, that those forward thought they were
+lost.  Adair could not restrain himself, and was dashing aft, when Jack
+came to the surface puffing and blowing like a grampus.  He had
+discovered the cask of biscuits, but no beef was to be found.  What,
+however, was of great consequence, was a breaker of water which Needham
+found, and both were floated up to the raft forward.  Two other attempts
+were made to get provisions, but in vain.  All the rest of the party
+were engaged with all their might in increasing and strengthening the
+raft.  Then the cry arose, "She is going down, she is going down!"  Jack
+looked about him as he came to the surface out of the submerged cabin,
+and seeing that not a moment was to be lost, summoning his two
+followers, sprang forward.  Adair, with outstretched hand, was ready to
+help him on to the raft as he felt the big ship sinking under his feet.
+
+"Shove off, shove off, my lads!" sang out their commander.  With spars
+and oars, the seamen forced the raft away from the foundering hull.
+Then, as the eddy formed by the huge mass going downwards through the
+water caught it, the helpless raft was whirled round and round, and then
+horrible seemed the fate in store for them.  One side dipped into the
+sea, and all believed that it was going to be drawn down amid the
+vortex.  The people held on tightly for their lives.  Tossing violently,
+however, up it again came to the surface, and floated evenly on the
+water.  Still their condition was melancholy in the extreme.
+
+On counting numbers it was found that the fifteen men who formed the
+prize crew including officers, had escaped, with two Spaniards out of
+those who had been left on board to assist in working the ship, and
+twelve negroes.  To supply all these people with food, there was only a
+cask of biscuits and about twelve gallons of water.  How long they might
+have to remain exposed to scorching heat, fierce storms, or chilling
+fogs, it was impossible to say.  Jack looked at Adair, and Adair looked
+at Jack, to read each other's feelings in their countenances.  They felt
+for each other as brothers, and each trembled for the fate which might
+overtake his friend.
+
+"How far do you make it out we are from the land?" asked Adair.
+
+"Oh, not more than a hundred miles," answered Hemming.  "That is
+nothing.  The sea-breeze would drive us in there in the course of the
+day."
+
+He did not say this because he thought it; he wanted to keep up the
+spirits of the people under his charge.  Nor did he remind them that
+they were five or six hundred miles from Freetown, Sierra Leone, and a
+very considerable distance from Manovia in Liberia.  A fore-topgallant
+studding-sail had been hauled on board the raft, and this set on a spar
+served them as a sail.  As soon as the ship had disappeared, and
+everything floating out of her had been picked up, Hemming's first care
+was to arrange the people so as to trim the raft properly.  He made them
+sit in rows back to back, with their faces to the sea.  He, with Jack
+and Terence, sat in the centre by the mast on the cask of biscuits and
+the water.  A spar, with a plank nailed to the outer end, served as a
+rudder, and two very inefficient oars were manufactured in the same way.
+For some hours after the tornado they were becalmed, and then a light
+air from the southward sprang up, which enabled them to steer towards
+the land.  After some consideration, Hemming stood up and addressed the
+men.  Jack and Adair admired the calm and collected, and, indeed,
+dignified way in which he spoke, so different to his manner when he was
+a mate.  "My men," he said, "we are placed by Providence in a very
+dangerous position.  We must trust to the help of the Almighty, not to
+our own arm to save us; still we must exert ourselves to the best of our
+power to take care of our lives; we must husband our resources, we must
+behave with the utmost order, we must be kind to each other, and we must
+keep up our spirits and hope for the best.  If we pray to God, He will
+hear us, and if He sees fit, He will save us.  Now, my lads, let us
+pray."  On this the lieutenant offered up a sincere prayer for their
+preservation, and all who could understand him joined in it.  Even the
+benighted blacks comprehended that he was performing some rite by which
+they were to benefit.  After it, Hemming again got up, "I told you, my
+lads, we must husband our resources.  Till we see what progress we make,
+it will be wise to take only one biscuit a day.  That will support life
+for some days, and if we take more our stock will soon be exhausted."
+The men replied cheerfully that they would limit themselves to any
+quantity he thought best.  Poor fellows, they were to be sorely tried;
+the sun went down, and an easterly wind blew, and not only prevented
+them from approaching the coast, but again drove them slowly off it.
+When the sun rose the wind fell altogether, and they lay exposed to the
+full fury of its scorching rays.  A thirst, which the small quantity of
+water served out in a teacup during the day could in no way assuage, now
+attacked them.  Jack and Adair felt their spirits sinking lower than
+they had ever gone before.  They could scarcely eat their small
+allowance of biscuit.  They knew too that in another day the bottom of
+the cask would be reached.  Still they tried to imitate Hemming in
+keeping up a cheerful countenance.  Many of the people complained
+bitterly of their sufferings.  The poor blacks said nothing, but three
+of them, almost at the same moment, sank back on the raft, and when
+those near them tried to lift them up, they were found to be dead.  They
+were speedily lowered into the water.
+
+"Adair, what is that?" asked Jack, as a dark fin was seen gliding round
+the raft.
+
+"A shark," answered Adair.  "See, there are two, three, four of them.
+We must have one of those fellows.  They will eat us if we don't eat
+them, that is very certain.  Here, Needham, have a running bowline ready
+to slip over the head of the first who comes near enough."  The idea was
+taken up eagerly by the men; there being plenty of line on board,
+several of them sat ready with the bight of a rope in hand, hoping to
+catch one of those evil-disposed monsters of the deep.  But death in the
+meantime was busy among their companions.  One by one the blacks dropped
+off, till one only remained.  He was a fine-looking, intelligent young
+man, of great muscular strength, and evidently superior to the rest in
+rank.  He sat by himself, slowly eating crumb by crumb his share of
+biscuit, and gazing with steadfast eyes towards the land of his birth.
+Once more the wind got up, and sent the water washing over the frail
+raft, which worked fearfully, as if it would come to pieces.
+
+"Never fear, my lads," said Hemming, "I know of no part which will give
+way.  It will hold together, depend on that."  In spite of all the
+working it did hold together.  Hemming's face, though his words were
+always cheering, looked very grave.  "Rogers, Adair, my friends," he
+said solemnly, "the water is expended, and there are no more biscuits--
+how shall I announce it to these poor fellows?"  He thought a little.
+"Come now, lads," he cried out, "be smart about catching some fish; a
+change of food will do us all good."
+
+No one asked for more biscuits or water; they knew it was all gone.
+Some gave way under the appalling thought.  One of the Spaniards went
+raving mad, and threw himself into the sea, whence no one had strength
+to pull him out; the other fell back and died quietly.
+
+"Some of our men won't hold out much longer," observed Jack to Hemming;
+"can we do nothing for them?"
+
+"Nothing," answered Hemming solemnly.  The cool air of the night seemed
+to revive them; but when the hot sun came out, and shone down on their
+unprotected heads, they died.  Two more went raving mad.  They chattered
+and sang, and then howled and shrieked.  It was with difficulty they
+could be held down.  One of them escaped from his companions, and threw
+himself into the sea.  The other was prevented from following his
+example, but his strength gradually decreased till he also died.
+Scarcely was his body sent into the deep, than a fair wind sprang up,
+and the sail being hoisted, the raft went along at the rate of three or
+four miles an hour.  No one had relaxed their efforts to catch a shark.
+A shout was given (not a loud one, for their voices were already hollow
+and weak), and several men were seen hauling in the head and shoulders
+of a large shark.  How eager and anxious was the expression of their
+countenances, for they all dreaded lest their prize should escape them.
+Their strength too was scarcely adequate to the task.  At last he was
+hauled up on the raft, but so violent were his struggles, that he nearly
+threw some of the people into the sea as they crawled up to him to
+despatch him with their axes.  At last Jack, not knowing what mischief
+might be committed, sprang towards him, and aiming a blow at his tail,
+struck directly on it, and instantly he was quieted.  Scarcely was the
+monster dead than the men's knives were cutting away at him.  Some drank
+his blood, and others eagerly ate the yet almost quivering flesh.  The
+officers, however ravenous they felt, got some thin slices, which they
+dried in the sun before eating.  Food had thus been providentially sent
+them, but their sufferings from thirst soon became very painful.  It was
+piteous to hear some of the poor fellows crying out for water when there
+was none to give them.  Several more died from the grievous thirst they
+were suffering.  Mr Hemming anxiously looked round the horizon.  Not a
+sail was in sight in any direction.  Hour after hour passed away.  Their
+tongues became parched, and clove to the roofs of their mouths.
+
+"This is dreadful," whispered Jack; "I don't think I can stand it much
+longer."
+
+"I would give a guinea for a bottle of gingerbeer," exclaimed Terence.
+
+"Oh, how delicious! don't talk of such a thing.  I would give ten for a
+pint of the dirtiest ditch-water in which a duck ever waddled," said
+Jack; "however, we must try and not think about it."
+
+Some hours passed slowly by after this, when Hemming's eye was seen to
+brighten up.
+
+"Is there a sail in sight?" asked Jack and Adair, who were constantly
+watching his looks.
+
+"No," he answered, "but there is a cloud in the horizon.  It is a small
+one, but it rises slowly in the north-west, and I trust betokens rain.
+If it does not bring wind at the same time, our sufferings may be
+relieved."
+
+How anxiously all on the raft, who had yet consciousness left, watched
+the progress of that little cloud, at first not bigger than a man's
+hand.  How their hearts sank within them when they thought that it had
+stopped, or that its course was altered; but it had not stopped, though
+it advanced but slowly.  Still it grew, and grew, and extended wider and
+wider on either hand, and grew darker and darker till it formed a black
+canopy over their heads; and then there was a pattering, hissing noise
+heard over the calm sea, and down came the rain in large drops thick and
+fast.  The men lifted up their grateful faces to heaven to catch the
+refreshing liquid in their mouths as it fell, but Hemming lowered the
+sail, and, ordering the men to stretch it wide, caught the rain in it,
+and let it run off into the breaker till that was full.  Then they
+filled the cask which had held the biscuits, and each man took off his
+shirt, and let it get wet through and through; and eagerly they sucked
+the sail, so that not a drop more than could be helped of the precious
+fluid should be lost.  Then when they found that the rain continued,
+each man took a draught of the pure water from the cask, which they
+again filled up as before by means of the sail.
+
+"Oh, Terence, how delicious!" exclaimed Jack, drawing a deep breath.
+
+"Nectar," said Adair, draining a last drop in his cup.  It was of a
+doubtful brown hue, and in reality tepid from falling on the not over
+clean and hot sail.
+
+Jack and Terence learned the lesson, that the value of things can only
+be ascertained by being compared with others.  That shower was the means
+sent by Providence to preserve the lives of many of those on the raft.
+Some were already too far gone to benefit by it.  They opened their
+glassy eyes, and allowed their shipmates to pour the water down their
+parched throats; they seemed to revive for a short time, but soon again
+sank, and some even died while the water was trickling over their
+cracked lips.  All this time the raft was constantly surrounded by
+sharks.  The flesh of the first caught was almost exhausted, and though
+dried in the sun had become rather savoury.
+
+"Come, my lads, we must have another of those fellows," cried Hemming,
+standing up, and supporting himself against the mast.  "Can any of you
+heave the bight of a rope over one of them?"
+
+"I'll try, sir," said Dick Needham, kneeling at the edge of the raft,
+for he had not strength to stand.  How changed he was from the stout
+seaman he had appeared but a few days before.  He made several trials in
+vain.  Jack Shark always kept at too great a distance when the rope was
+thrown.  At last one of the seamen took off his shoes, and, tucking up
+his trousers, stuck out his leg and moved it slowly backwards and
+forwards.  The voracious shark saw the tempting bait, and made a dash at
+it.  The seaman drew it in, and as the fish, disappointed of his prize,
+turned round whisking up his tail out of the water, Needham adroitly
+hove the rope over it.  As the shark darted off Dick was very nearly
+drawn overboard, but the rope tightening brought up the shark; and as he
+turned round to ascertain what had got hold of his tail another rope was
+thrown over his head, and he was hauled, in spite of his plunges and
+struggles, on board.  A few blows on the spine near the tail quickly
+finished him.  He was soon cut up, some part of him was eaten fresh, and
+the rest was hung up to dry.  The men would have thrown what they did
+not want overboard, but their commander reminded them that bad weather
+might come on, when they could not catch another, and that they should
+preserve a store for such an event.  It was fortunate this forethought
+was shown, for that very night a strong breeze sprang up, and the frail
+raft was tossed up and down till there appeared every chance of its
+upsetting or being knocked to pieces.  Happily more rain came down and
+refreshed them, and the clouds sheltered them from the scorching rays of
+the sun, or not one of them would have held out.
+
+Sadly were their numbers reduced.  Ten Englishmen and the young African
+chief only now remained alive.  Some of them appeared almost at death's
+door, and they would have slipped from the raft had not their comrades
+held them on.  Darkness again came down on the waters, and the
+wave-tossed raft drove onwards no one knew in what direction.  The stars
+were hidden--they had no compass--nor, had they possessed one, was there
+a lantern by which to see it.  Great were the horrors of that night and
+of two succeeding nights; still neither did the gallant Hemming nor his
+two younger companions allow their courage to desert them.  They
+conversed as much as they could, they talked of their past lives, they
+even spoke of the future; nor did they forget to pray to Heaven for
+strength to support whatever might yet be in store for them.  Still the
+wet and cold of the night, and the heat of the day, was telling
+fearfully on all of them.
+
+"When do you think we shall reach the shore, sir?" asked Jack.  "We have
+been driving for a long time towards it nicely."
+
+"In two days if the wind holds," answered Hemming; "perhaps in less time
+we may sight it."
+
+But the wind did not hold.  Once more they knew that they were being
+blown off it.  Their hearts sank.  They wellnigh gave way to despair.
+Each of the officers took it in turns to stand up to keep a lookout for
+a sail or for land.  Jack was standing on the top of the cask, holding
+on by the mast, when his eye fell on a white glittering object to the
+northward.
+
+"Yes, it is! it is!" he exclaimed; "a sail! a sail! she must be standing
+this way."  All but the weakest or most desponding turned their anxious
+eyes in the direction Jack indicated.  The sight of some was already too
+dim to discern her, but others raised a feeble shout, and declared that
+she was standing close hauled towards them.  How eagerly they watched
+her, till their anxiety became painful in the extreme.  Some shouted,
+"We shall be saved, we shall be saved;" but others moaned out, "No, no,
+she'll not see us, she will pass us."  Hemming stood up, watching the
+approaching vessel.  He said nothing.  He was not certain that she would
+near them.  One hour of intense anxiety passed.  There was very little
+wind.  Another hour glided on.
+
+"Yes, my lads, she is undoubtedly standing this way," cried Hemming.
+"But--" and he stopped.  "She may be a slaver, and if so, I know not
+whether we should be better off than we now are."
+
+"Surely, bad as they may be, they would not leave us," said Jack.
+
+"Don't let us be too sure of that.  There is nothing too bad for slavers
+to do," observed Hemming; "however, let us hope for the best."
+
+The stranger approached.  She had very square yards, very white canvas,
+and a black hull.  If she was not a slaver, she looked very like one.
+Still, even if they had wished it, they could not have avoided her.  On
+she came.  Her course would have taken her somewhat wide of the raft.
+It was not seen apparently.  Then suddenly her course was altered.  Some
+one on board had made them out.  The brig stood towards them.  When she
+was scarcely more than half a mile off, it fell a dead calm.  A boat was
+lowered.
+
+"Those fellows pull in man-of-war's style," observed Hemming.  "Grant
+she may be an English cruiser: but I fear not."
+
+The almost dying seamen endeavoured to cheer, but their weak voices were
+scarcely heard over the waters.  The boat dashed towards them.  They
+could hear the officer in her speaking to his men.  It was in Spanish.
+
+"Then they are slavers, after all," cried Jack, with a sigh.
+
+He had taken a great antipathy to slavers.  To an Englishman no class of
+men are more hateful.  The boat came alongside.  The people in her
+regarded them with looks of commiseration.  Well they might have done
+so; for more wretched-looking beings could scarcely have been seen.  Two
+of them stepped on board the raft, to which they secured a rope, and
+began towing it towards the brig.  Neither Hemming nor any of his
+companions could speak Spanish, so they asked no questions.  They were
+soon alongside the brig, and were handed up on deck.  They felt sure
+that they were going on board a slaver or perhaps a pirate; but what was
+their surprise to see several officers in uniform on deck, one of whom
+stepped forward and addressed them in very good English: "You are on
+board her most Catholic Majesty's brig the _San Fernando_.  We will not
+ask you how you came into this plight.  You shall be taken below, and
+all possible care shall be bestowed on you."
+
+Hemming tried in vain to reply to this very kind and polite speech.  He
+pointed to his mouth and signified that he could not speak.  The
+necessity for exertion being over, he felt himself completely unnerved.
+
+The officers were conveyed to the captain's cabin, the men to a sick-bay
+on deck; and the surgeon, if not very clever, was kind; and what they
+chiefly wanted was rest and food.  Jack and Terence fell asleep, and
+slept twenty-four hours without waking: so they said.  Several days
+passed, however, before they were able to sit up in their beds.  At last
+they were able to crawl up on deck.  It was wonderful then how soon they
+picked up their strength.  Hemming took longer to come round.  Dick
+Needham was about as soon as they were.  Two poor fellows died on board,
+so that eight only of the prize crew ultimately remained alive.  The
+brig, they found, had come out nominally in search of pirates, and was
+then bound across to Cuba.  The captain was a very gentlemanly man; so
+were some of the officers, especially the first lieutenant, who spoke
+English well.  One of the sub-lieutenants, or mates, also spoke a little
+English, so they got on capitally.  The captain said he would not go
+back to Sierra Leone, but would land them at Fernando Po.  The brig,
+they found, had touched, while they were in bed, at several places along
+the coast: and what with light winds and baffling winds her progress was
+much delayed.
+
+"I wonder, Paddy, when we shall ever get on shore again," said Jack.  "I
+should like to get back to the frigate, to let them know that we are not
+all lost; for I'm afraid that they will be writing home not to expect to
+see us again, and all that sort of thing; and then all our families will
+be going into mourning for us."
+
+"I'm afraid mine would find it a hard matter just now to pay for the
+said black garments," said Adair.  "They were in a bad way as to money
+matters when I left home.  The famine and the fever killed the people,
+and rent did not come in; and to say the truth, I don't know that any of
+them will trouble their heads much about me."
+
+"Oh! don't say that, Paddy," exclaimed Jack; "still I don't know.
+Sometimes I have wished that the dear ones at home would not be so
+unhappy when they hear that we are lost; and then again I should be very
+sorry if they did not love me, I own.  I only hope that they may not
+hear of the loss of the prize."
+
+When they were able to observe the state of things on board they
+discovered that the brig was in a very bad state of discipline.  The
+crew were a worthless set of vagabonds, the scum of some Spanish port,
+pirates, slavers, and cut-throats of all descriptions.  The officers
+tried to get obeyed but could not, and at last seemed to give it up as a
+bad job; some of them, indeed, were very little better than the men.
+The brig consequently was constantly getting into irons or being taken
+aback by careless steering, and it was only wonderful that she had got
+thus far on her voyage without a serious accident.  The captain and
+first lieutenant, though pleasing in their manners, were evidently not
+much of seamen, and took their observations in a very careless way.
+Hemming, on questioning them, found that they had not been to sea for a
+long time, and, had they not been compelled, would not have come now.
+They seemed fully aware that things were not as they should be; but they
+shrugged their shoulders, and said that they could not help it.  By this
+time Hemming, as well as the rest of the people, with the exception of
+two poor fellows, had almost recovered their strength.  The weather had
+hitherto been fine, but it came on very thick one night, and began to
+blow hard; but the wind was fair, and the captain, who was in a hurry to
+get over his voyage, continued to carry on a press of sail.  Lieutenant
+Hemming and the two midshipmen, who did not like the look of things,
+with the rest of the English, continued on deck.
+
+"Are you certain that you know your exact position?" asked Hemming of
+the first lieutenant.
+
+He was not indignant, but he laughed and said that the master was a good
+navigator, and that he must be right; Hemming had formed a different
+opinion.  An hour passed.  Suddenly, Jack and Adair, who were walking
+together, were startled by a cry from the lookout forward, which they
+guessed was, as it proved, "Breakers ahead."  They, with Hemming, ran
+forward to ascertain the state of things, and there they made out
+through the darkness on the port bow amass of white breakers.  No sooner
+did Hemming see them than he rushed aft to put the helm to port, while
+the officers on deck were giving different orders.  When he got to the
+wheel he found that it had been put the wrong way, while the yards were
+being braced up first in one direction, then in another.  The next
+instant the brig struck with a tremendous crash, throwing those on deck
+off their legs, and those below out of their berths.  The following sea
+lifted the brig nearly her entire length more ahead, jamming her between
+two rocks, and a third came rushing on board, and made a clean sweep of
+everything on her decks.  Jack and Adair and Needham were together.
+
+"There are those two poor fellows below, sir.  Don't let us forget
+them," said the latter.
+
+"Certainly not," exclaimed Jack and Adair together.  They dived below
+and brought them up, and then followed Hemming and the rest of their
+shipmates into the main rigging.  The authority of the Spanish officers
+was now completely gone.  Not an order was obeyed; indeed, every man
+seemed to be aware that he must look out for himself, and that there was
+no one on whom he could depend.
+
+The first sea which came on board washed away several unfortunate
+wretches; their shrieks and cries for help were heard as they were
+dashed against the rocks, no one being able to render them the slightest
+assistance.  The greater part of the crew began to collect in the
+rigging and the tops, and there they seemed to prepare themselves to
+spend the night.  Indeed, dark as it was, it would have been difficult,
+even with strict discipline, for them to have concerted effectual
+measures to save themselves.  The gale increased, and with it
+occasionally bright flashes of lightning darted from the black clouds.
+By their light, as they went zigzagging around them.  Jack, whose eyes
+were the sharpest, thought he discerned close to them a rock, towards
+which he resolved, should the vessel go to pieces, to endeavour to make
+his way.  He pointed it out to his companions.
+
+"Stick by me, Paddy, you know; as I'm a good swimmer I may be able to
+lend you a hand," he sang out to his messmate, who knew full well that
+he could trust to his help.
+
+Terrific, indeed, was that night.  Few of those who long to follow a sea
+life, if they could see pictured out before them all the sufferings and
+hardships they may be called on to endure, would not hesitate before
+adopting it.  The roar of the waves as they dashed over the rocks, the
+howling of the wind in the rigging, the groaning of the hull at each
+successive blow she received from the seas, mingled with the cries and
+shrieks of those who had remained on deck, or had fallen from the
+rigging and been washed overboard, together with the oaths and
+blasphemies of many of the survivors, mingled in one chaotic and
+terrific uproar, which stunned and bewildered the senses.  Some hours
+thus passed.  At last Hemming's voice was heard calling them quickly out
+of the rigging; without hesitation they obeyed him.  The brig had heeled
+over on her side, and her decks were exposed to the full fury of the
+sea.
+
+Scarcely had Jack and Terence descended than the mainmast with a crash
+went by the board, throwing off many who clung to it and crushing
+others.
+
+"Follow me, my lads, and we'll try to get on the rock close aboard us,"
+shouted Hemming, as he began to clamber, often covered by the seas which
+roared up over the ship, along the unstable mast, the extreme end of
+which just touched the wave-washed rock.
+
+"Come along, Paddy, come along," cried Jack, as they also endeavoured to
+work their way in the direction taken by their commander.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+AGAIN UNITED.
+
+The lightning flashed brightly, the sea, roaring loudly and wildly,
+dashed over them, seeming angry at being disappointed of its prey, as
+the two midshipmen climbed along the mast, till, reaching the very cap
+of the topmast, they found that it rested on a small rock.  Here all the
+English were collected, including the sick men, who had been helped
+along the mast by their messmates.  They soon found, however, that the
+sea broke over the greater portion of the rock, and that even the
+highest part was wet and slippery with the spray.  It also was evident
+that the wreck considerably broke the fury of the seas, and that when
+she went to pieces the rock would be untenable.  No one, however, felt
+inclined to fold his hands to rest.  At length Hemming said that he
+thought he saw something dark on the opposite side of the rock, and that
+he observed when the sea washed up it came surging back as it does
+between two rocks, and that thus he hoped there might be a larger one
+farther on.  They had contrived happily to get hold of the topgallant
+halyards.  Unreeving them, Hemming fastened one end round his waist, and
+ordered the men to hold the other while he felt his way across the
+seeming gulf.  Jack and Adair strained their eyes eagerly after him as
+he disappeared in the pitchy darkness among the roaring waters.  On he
+went, they gradually paying out the rope.  Suddenly it slackened, and
+with horror they felt that he was being carried off by the hungry waves.
+They were about to haul in the rope to try to save his life, when once
+more it straightened and he seemed to be proceeding as before.  At last
+they felt that the end was being lifted up, and all the slack hauled in.
+They fancied also that they heard his voice shouting to them; but it
+came to the teeth of the wind, and they could not understand what was
+said.
+
+"I will go over and learn what he wants," cried Jack, guessing that he
+wished them to join him.
+
+Jack, as he spoke, seized the rope, and grasping it tightly worked his
+way on till he found himself surrounded by the foaming sea as it dashed
+through a passage which he saw evidently separated two rocks.  More than
+once he was plunged over head and ears, but on he went wading among the
+rugged rocks, and every instant expecting to be carried off his legs.
+Often he had to stop to recover his breath.  Once he was completely off
+his legs and had to float on his back, while he worked his way along by
+the rope.  At length he reached the side of a large rock, and by the
+fact of the lichens growing out of its crevices he knew that he must be
+above the reach of the waves.  In another minute he found himself
+alongside Mr Hemming, who congratulated him on getting safe across.
+They shouted to the other people to join them, but their voices were
+drowned by the noise of the tempest.  At last Jack begged that he might
+go and hurry them over, and argued that as he was the slightest of the
+two, he should run less risk of being carried away.  Jack seized the
+rope, and in spite of the waves which washed over him, by stopping every
+now and then and grasping it with all his might, he succeeded in
+returning to the spot where his shipmates were collected.  Some of the
+Spanish officers and men were also on the rock, though others were on
+the forecastle of the brig, and a few still clung to the shattered poop.
+At that moment a tremendous sea knocked the poop to pieces and sent
+most of the wretches who clung to it to destruction, a few only reaching
+the rock.
+
+"Come, Adair, now is your time to cross," cried out Jack.  "Quick,
+quick."
+
+Jack, seizing Terence's hand, guided him to the rope.  Terence crossed
+without much difficulty, Dick Needham and the rest following with their
+sick comrades; Jack brought up the rear, but a sea caught him, and he
+had to hold on like grim death to save himself.  Dick and another man
+had, just before they left the wreck, snatched up a couple of muskets.
+They had both once been cast away among savages when they had felt the
+want of arms to defend themselves.  The first faint streaks of daylight
+were appearing in the sky when the Englishmen found themselves assembled
+on the top of the rock.  No sooner did the Spaniards ascertain where
+they had got, than they made a rush to follow; their officers and men
+indiscriminately crowding over, shoving each other aside, and all trying
+to be first.  The consequence was that numbers were washed away and
+drowned.  Hemming's first care was to ascertain the condition of his own
+people.  None were much hurt.  The two sick men had been brought over in
+their blankets.  These were spread out in the air, where they quickly
+dried, and the poor fellows were then wrapped up in them again and
+placed in the most sheltered spot on the top of the rock.  In the
+meantime the afterpart of the brig had gone to pieces, and the foot of
+the rock was strewn with a vast number of things sent up by the waves.
+Among them, unfortunately, was a cask of spirits which had come out of
+the hold.  The Spanish seamen quickly discovered it, and in spite of all
+their captain and officers could do, they insisted on broaching it.
+Often British seamen have done the same, but there have been numerous
+instances where, without uttering a word of complaint, a crew have seen
+casks of spirits started by their officers that they might not have the
+opportunity of getting drunk.  At first the Spaniards were quiet enough,
+till they produced some leathern cups and rapidly passed the liquor
+round.  The officers no longer attempted to exert any control, and some
+even sat down and drank with the men.  How desolate was the scene on
+every side of the barren rock on which the Englishmen stood!  Below them
+were groups of men, many of them already half drunk, sitting round the
+cask of liquor only just above the wash of the sea.  The shore was
+strewn with fragments of the wreck, with casks, chests, furniture, sails
+and rigging, and with mangled bodies, many of whom might probably have
+been saved had their comrades exerted themselves.  On the small rock a
+few wretches were still collected, the sea every instant breaking over
+them.  Now one and now another would be washed away, while scarcely one
+made an attempt to save himself.  The bow of the brig still held
+together.  On it were collected some dozen men or more.  Having hitherto
+found it a place of safety they seemed afraid to quit it, while on the
+sea around fragments of the wreck and broken spars were floating, a few
+poor fellows clinging to them and crying for help to those who could
+afford them none.  A dull grey sky was overhead, and far as the eye
+could reach the ocean seemed a mass of white foam increasing the
+dreariness of the view, while in the far distance appeared a blue line
+so faint that many doubted whether or not it was the land.  On the rock
+not a blade of grass nor a drop of water was to be found, so Hemming saw
+that it would be necessary to use every exertion to provide for his men.
+Accordingly he sent Jack and Adair with three of them to collect what
+things they could pick up at the foot of the rock.  Fortunately they
+discovered four small breakers of water, and a couple of casks of salt
+meat with a bag of bread.  These they dragged to the top of the rock,
+hoping to conceal them from the Spaniards.  Unhappily the latter caught
+sight of the casks of water, and, fancying that they contained brandy,
+came hurrying up to get them into their power.  In spite of all Jack and
+Adair could do, one was broached and the invaluable contents recklessly
+spilt on the ground.  Still the Spaniards, unconvinced that the others
+only contained water, advanced with threatening gestures towards the
+English.  Needham grasped his musket, Mr Hemming seized another, and
+made signs that if they approached nearer they would blow out the brains
+of a couple of them at all events.  This made those in advance of the
+rest hesitate, for they did not remember that the muskets had been
+thoroughly wetted and could not go off.  The Spanish officers generally
+sided with the English, and tried to explain that, as there was no water
+on the rock, all would be suffering from thirst, and that therefore the
+contents of the casks were more precious than any spirits.
+
+"That may be the case, but then those hated Englishmen shall not boast
+that they prevented us from doing what we intended," exclaimed one of
+them, rushing to seize a cask.
+
+Hemming waited till the fellow got within reach of his fist, and he then
+hit him such a blow on the chest that he sent him rolling back head over
+heels till he reached the edge of the rock, when down he went among a
+group of his comrades, who were sitting carousing together below.  Each
+of the Englishmen singled out an opponent, and treated him much in the
+same way, all this time many of the Spanish officers standing by and not
+attempting to interfere.  The Spanish seamen, finding that nothing was
+to be obtained but hard knocks, retreated to secure their share of the
+liquor.  Often had Jack and Adair cast their eyes round the horizon in
+the hopes of discovering a sail by which they might escape from the
+rock, but none appeared.  Meantime hunger was pressing; the head of one
+of the meat-casks was knocked off, and the biscuits were spread out to
+dry.  In vain they tried to light a fire.  There was plenty of
+driftwood, but it was too wet; so they had to eat the meat raw.  Their
+appetites were thus quickly satisfied.  At first the sky gave
+indications of an improvement in the weather, but by noon it came on to
+blow as hard as ever.  They made all the signals they could devise to
+induce the people who still remained on the wreck to quit it, but they
+soon found by the wretches' frantic gestures and maniacal shouts that
+they also had got hold of a cask of spirits, and were in as bad a
+condition as their comrades.  They were soon indeed seen snapping their
+fingers, and dancing about the decks as if they were in a place of
+perfect safety.  One poor wretch slipped overboard, but his companions,
+instead of trying to help him, only laughed and shouted the louder, nor
+did they appear to comprehend that he was drowning before their eyes.  A
+few remained on the small rock.  Every now and then one would carelessly
+get within the influence of the seas, and several were thus swept away.
+The larger part of the crew who had been carousing at the foot of the
+big rock, soon began to dispute with each other; their voices grew
+higher and higher, their actions more vehement.  Knives at last were
+drawn, and one lay a corpse by the side of his companions.  This act of
+violence, instead of sobering the rest, induced another to take up the
+quarrel, and another and another joining, in a short time the greater
+portion were engaged in a deadly hand-to-hand struggle.  The officers
+contented themselves with merely shouting and ordering them to desist,
+and of course their commands received no attention.  In a few minutes
+several of the combatants lay weltering in their blood, and two of them,
+locked in a deadly embrace in each other's arms, fell off the rock into
+the sea, and a huge wave rolling in washed them both away.  The gale was
+increasing, the wreck rocked to and fro, large portions were constantly
+being detached and hove against the rock.  At length a sea heavier than
+any of the preceding ones came roaring in.  It struck the wreck.  High
+over it the foaming waters rushed, the spray from it almost blinding
+Hemming and his companions, far above it as they stood.  A piercing
+shriek reached their ears, the squall passed by.  They looked towards
+the spot where the brig had been.  Not a particle was to be seen hanging
+together.  Not one of those clinging to it escaped.  This catastrophe
+appeared to have no effect on the other Spaniards.  Even when a sea came
+and washed away several of those who had remained on the lower rock, the
+rest went on quarrelling and shouting and shrieking as before.
+Sometimes, without any apparent reason, a wretched man would throw
+himself off the rock, when he was soon swept out of sight by the
+retiring sea.  Some rolled off helplessly drunk into the water, and were
+washed away.  Hemming and his companions would have helped them had they
+been able, but their own countrymen would not allow the English to
+interfere, and they were compelled to desist.  They felt, indeed, all
+the time, that those who held their own lives so cheap were not likely
+to pay any respect to theirs.  While watching with painful interest the
+scenes which have been described, they observed a cask drifting towards
+the rock.  The Spaniards saw it also.  Adair, with Needham and three
+other men, hurried down to secure it.  The Spaniards rushed to the spot
+at the same moment, and two of them, in their eagerness to obtain the
+coveted prize, for they of course believed it to contain spirits, fell
+headlong into a surging sea, which, sweeping out again, carried them
+both far away.  Adair meantime got hold of the cask, and was in triumph
+bearing it up the rock, when the Spaniards surrounded him, and, though
+Dick and the other men fought most desperately, succeeded in carrying it
+off.  The effect of the fresh supply of fire-water was most disastrous.
+The Spaniards became almost raving mad, and, excited to fury by the
+opposition they had encountered from the English, now drawing their
+knives, advanced once more in a body towards them.  Some even of the
+Spanish officers joined them, others, however, stood surrounding their
+captain, but seemed inclined to take no part in the fray.
+
+"Are you going to see us murdered before your eyes, gentlemen?"
+exclaimed Hemming with indignation.  "If they murder us they will murder
+you, depend on that."  The appeal had an effect, and, drawing their
+swords, the Spanish captain and his superior officers sided with the
+English.  On rushed the infuriated Spaniards, uttering the fiercest
+oaths and threats of vengeance.  Fortunately, besides the two muskets
+many of the English had knives, and all had provided themselves with
+boats' stretchers, or pieces of spars, which served the purpose of
+singlesticks.  They were thus not ill prepared to meet their assailants.
+The shock came.  Headed by Lieutenant Hemming they stood firm.  One of
+the first victims was a young Spanish officer.  He fell pierced to the
+heart by the knife of one of his countrymen.  It showed the Spanish
+officers that their safety depended on that of the English.  Again and
+again the infuriated wretches rushed at them; but were beaten off by the
+English quarter-staves.  All this time the wind had been howling and the
+sea dashing fiercely against the rocks; indeed, the elements were in
+perfect accordance with the mad strife going forward on that isolated
+spot of earth.  Night too came on to add to the horrors of the scene.
+Then the clouds opened and flashes of the most vivid lightning darting
+from the sky played like fiery serpents round the rock, while crashing
+peals of thunder rattled and roared around them.  At first the seamen
+took no notice of the storm; then came a loud, thundering explosion, and
+two of their number lay blackened corpses on the ground.  In an instant,
+seeing what had occurred, they fled with shrieks of dismay down the rock
+to the spot whence they had come.  Amid wind and rain, the lightning
+flashing and the thunder roaring, the survivors passed that terrific
+night.
+
+The day dawned at last.  Hemming's first resolve was to try and
+conciliate the unfortunate wretches by offering them food.  Their
+officers gladly agreed to the proposal.  The sun came out, the driftwood
+dried, and at last a fire was kindled.  The Spanish officers were far
+superior to the English in the art of cooking.  They made hot cakes out
+of the wet biscuit, and in a short time had a number of nice-looking
+little bits of meat ran upon wooden skewers.  Having satisfied their own
+hunger, they offered the food to the men below, who at first thought
+that they were mocking them; but when assured that the Englishmen were
+willing to forget what had passed, one by one came up with a sulky and
+doubting manner to take what was offered to them.
+
+"I doubt those fellows even now," observed Adair; "the sooner we are
+away from them the better."
+
+Hemming hearing this, observed that he proposed making a raft, and in
+spite of all they had undergone, venturing on it to the coast of Africa,
+which he was confident was visible to the eastward.  It was agreed
+therefore that they would set about building it at once, and should no
+sail appear in sight, push off as soon as it was completed.  On the east
+side of the rock was a bay sheltered from the view of the other part.
+Here a number of spars and planks were driven in, as well as rope and
+canvas.  Hemming thus had soon a raft constructed capable of carrying
+twice as many men as wished to trust themselves on it.  He also had a
+supply of provisions and water carried down to it without being observed
+by the drunken seamen.  When all was ready, he invited the Spanish
+officers to accompany them, but they declined, saying that they could
+not leave their men, though from the glances they cast on the raft, it
+was evident that they did not wish to entrust themselves on it.  They,
+however, did not object to the Englishmen taking the water and
+provisions, the latter promising that if they got safe to any European
+settlement they would send them assistance.
+
+"Now, my lads, we'll launch our raft," exclaimed Hemming, when all their
+arrangements were made.
+
+The Spaniards had not been aware of the nature of their proceedings, but
+unfortunately two or three of the more sober, who had begun to scramble
+about the rock, caught sight of them.  Believing naturally that they
+were about to make off with the provisions and water, summoning their
+comrades, they rushed fiercely towards them.
+
+"Now, my boys, a hearty shove altogether, and we'll have the raft into
+the water before the scoundrels can come up to us," shouted Hemming,
+setting an example by putting all his strength to the work.  The Spanish
+seamen, brandishing their knives, were close to them.
+
+"One shove more and the raft will be afloat," cried Jack.
+
+"Hurrah, hurrah, she's afloat," sang out Terence.  Their two sick
+shipmates were speedily placed in the centre of the raft, and the rest
+leaped on to it.  The Spaniards were close to them; one seized a rope
+which still held the raft to the shore.  Quick as thought Hemming took
+one of the paddles they had prepared, and springing on shore, used it
+with such good effect that he drove the wretches back before him, then
+leaping again on to the raft, he shoved it a dozen yards off from the
+shore.  As the Englishmen vigorously plied their paddles they saw the
+Spaniards making all sorts of frantic gestures at them, shaking their
+fists and hurling abuse at their heads.  When they got from under the
+lee of the rock, they hoisted sail and found that the raft steered very
+well, and with the aid of the paddles made good way towards the land.
+Gradually the rock sank lower and lower in the horizon, till it was
+almost hid from sight; but when they looked towards the shore, that
+appeared almost as far off as ever.  They had hoped to reach it before
+sunset, but that hope gradually faded away, as the breeze which had
+hitherto favoured them grew less and less, and finally sank into a calm.
+However, that was better than a gale, and they could still paddle on
+their raft in the direction in which they wished to go.  They were also
+far better off than they had been on their former raft.  It was more
+strongly made, they had better provisions, and the prospect of reaching
+land in a short time.  The sun, however, went down, and they were still
+far from it.  Jack and Terence sat side by side, and endeavoured to keep
+up each other's spirits during that long, long night.  It came at last
+to an end.  The sun rose; they looked round the horizon; no sail was in
+sight.  Some of the seamen began to grumble, as even the best will at
+times, and to complain at having been enticed off the rock.  Hemming
+overheard them.
+
+"What think you, my lads, would have been our lot had we remained with
+those madmen?" he said.  "I'll tell you; by this time not one of us
+would have been alive."  As the sun rose, the breeze came strongly off
+the land and drove them once more away from it.  "Never fear, my lads;
+we shall have the sea-breeze soon to send us back again," he cried out
+cheerfully to keep up their spirits.  It did not come as soon as he
+expected.  At last a rock appeared rising out of the water.  It rose
+higher and higher.  The raft drifted slowly by at a distance; still the
+atmosphere was so clear that they could discern figures on the top.
+They all looked earnestly.  There could be no doubt of it; the people
+were struggling like madmen.  Now and then one of them, it appeared, was
+cast off the cliff into the water, but the distance was so great that it
+appeared rather like some dreadful dream than a reality.  While they
+were gazing at this spectacle the wind fell; then in a short time the
+breeze came from the west, and hoisting their sail they once more
+rapidly approached the shore.  For the remainder of the day they made
+good progress; still they knew that they could not hope to reach it that
+night, and once more the sun went down and left them in darkness.  The
+night passed as the former had done.  No one now expressed a wish that
+he had remained on the rock.  Jack and Terence had kept up their spirits
+wonderfully.  At length, leaning on each other's shoulder, they fell
+asleep.  They were startled with a cry of "A sail ahead!"  In an instant
+every one roused up.  As they looked out they saw a large brig on the
+port tack, standing to the southward across their course.  In a few
+minutes more she would have shot ahead out of hearing.  "Now, my lads,
+shout, shout, till you crack your voices," cried out Hemming; "she is a
+man-of-war brig; one of the cruisers on the station.  I know her by the
+cut of her canvas."  Weak as all on board the raft at this time were,
+they raised a shout such as Englishmen only know how to give.  They
+listened eagerly.  Directly afterwards a cheer came in answer towards
+them.  The rattling of blocks was heard, and the brig's helm being put
+down, and her maintopsail backed, she came up into the wind.  In another
+instant they were alongside.  Cramped and half starved as they all had
+been, they had great difficulty in getting on board.  Hemming was the
+only man who went up by himself, and his knees trembled so much when he
+gained the deck that he had to lean against the bulwarks for support.
+The officer of the watch came forward to receive them.  Hemming gave his
+name as a lieutenant of the _Ranger_.
+
+"Delighted to see you," exclaimed the lieutenant of the brig; "we heard
+at Sierra Leone that you were lost, for several vessels have been sent
+to look for you, and not one could gain tidings of you.  But come below;
+you want sleep and food, and dry clothes."
+
+The captain of the brig, hearing what had occurred, turned out, and had
+berths made up for the two midshipmen in his own cabin, while one of the
+lieutenants gave up his berth to Hemming in the gun-room.  The doctor
+was soon in attendance on all the party, and sleep, which they all so
+much required, soon sealed their eyelids.  Jack and Terence slept for a
+long time.  When they awoke the sun was shining right down the cabin
+skylight.  At the cabin table was sitting a midshipman reading.  They
+could not see his face, but there was something in his figure and
+attitude which made them both sit up and exclaim, "Hallo! who are you?"
+The midshipman sprang from his seat, and in another instant Alick Murray
+was shaking them warmly by the hand.  "This is jolly, this is
+delightful," exclaimed Jack; "tell us all about it, though."  Alick
+accordingly told them that the brig was the _Archer_, of sixteen guns,
+that she was commanded by a relation of his, Captain Grant, who had got
+him appointed to her, and that she had only just come out direct from
+England.  Murray then got his friends to give him an outline of their
+adventures, which they had to repeat to Captain Grant himself, who
+shortly after came into the cabin.  Meantime the steward had brought
+them some breakfast; for midshipmen are not heroes of romance, and
+require feeding before they are fit for much.  After breakfast they felt
+wonderfully recovered, and were able to get up and go on deck.  Hemming
+had before this explained to Captain Grant his promise to bring relief
+to the Spaniards, and the brig was accordingly beating up towards the
+rock.  As they drew near they looked out for signals, but none were
+made.  They got still nearer.  "Where can the people have got to?"
+exclaimed the captain, looking through his glass.  As the brig
+approached the rock the lead was kept going, but the water was found to
+be quite deep.  She sailed round and round it, but not a human being was
+seen there alive.  Whether some dreadful catastrophe had occurred after
+the English left the spot, or whether some vessel had visited it and
+carried off the survivors, was never ascertained.  Jack and Terence did
+their best to banish the dreadful scenes which had occurred from their
+thoughts, and it was with infinite satisfaction that the three
+midshipmen found themselves once more together.  "This is the station
+for adventure," exclaimed Jack; "depend on it before long we shall have
+lots to do."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+LIFE ON AN AFRICAN CRUISER.
+
+That naval officers do not idle away their time when at sea, on beds of
+roses, the adventures of my three old schoolfellows will, I think,
+convince all my readers.  Who would have thought when we were together
+at dear old Eagle House, that they would, ere many years had gone over
+their heads, have actually crossed swords with real red-capped or
+turbaned Mahomedans, fought with true Greek romantic pirates, hunted
+down slavers, and explored African rivers with voracious sharks watching
+their mouths, hungry crocodiles basking in their slimy shallows, and
+veritable negroes inhabiting their banks; yet here were all the three,
+Alick Murray, Jack Rogers, and Terence Adair, collected on board Her
+Majesty's brig of war _Archer_, commanded by Captain Grant.  Alick had
+come out in the brig from England, the other two, after being
+shipwrecked, nearly drowned, murdered, and starved, eaten up by sharks,
+and having undergone I do not know how many other terrible dangers, had
+at last been picked up by the _Archer_, their own ship, the _Ranger_
+frigate, being they did not exactly know where.  This last circumstance
+did not probably weigh very much with them.  Midshipmen are not
+generally given to suffer from over anxiety from affairs terrestrial;
+but Rogers certainly did wish that he could let his family know that he
+was well, and picked up again, after having, as was supposed, gone down
+in a slaver the frigate had captured off the African coast.  They were
+capital fellows, those three old friends of mine.  Rogers was a good
+specimen of the Englishman--genus middy--so was Paddy Adair of Green
+Erin's isle, full of fun and frolic; and a more gentlemanly,
+right-minded lad than Alick Murray Scotland never sent forth from her
+rich valleys or rugged mountains.  He too was proud of Scotland, and
+ever jealous to uphold the name and fame of the land of his birth.
+
+The _Archer_ was a fine brig, and Captain Grant was a first-rate
+officer.  When naval officers or seamen go on board ships of war they
+have to take their share of the duty with the rest of the crew; so
+Rogers and Adair found that they should have plenty of employment, even
+though they might not for some time be able to join their own ship.
+Captain Grant considered that idleness is the mother of all vice, so he
+took care that no one in his ship should be idle, and certainly he had
+the knack of making good seamen of all who sailed with him.
+
+The midshipmen's berth in the _Archer_ was a very happy place, because
+the occupants were, with few exceptions, gentlemanly, well-disposed,
+and, more than all, well and religiously educated young men.  I do not
+mean to say by that, that they always acted with the wisdom and
+discretion of a bench of judges.  Far from that.  They were merry,
+light-hearted fellows, full of fun and frolic, but they could be grave,
+and treat serious things as they ought to be treated, with reverence and
+respect.  Jack and Paddy quickly found themselves perfectly at home
+among them.  The _Archer_ had been standing off the coast of Africa
+under easy sail, when, just as the cold grey light of day stole over the
+waters, a vessel was seen inside of her, evidently making for a harbour
+in the neighbourhood.  As the light increased, she was discovered to be
+a schooner.
+
+"All hands make sail," cried the officer of the watch, who had just made
+his report to the commander.
+
+"All hands make sail," echoed the boatswain, giving with his shrill pipe
+the well-known signal.  "Tumble up there, tumble up there," roared out
+the boatswain's mates, with their gruff voices, to the sluggards who
+seemed inclined to stick in their hammocks.
+
+In a few moments the watch below were rushing up on deck and flying to
+their stations, and then, as if by magic, the masts and yards of the
+brig were covered with the broad sheets of canvas which had been furled
+during the night.  Topgallant-sails, royals, and studding-sails being
+set in rapid succession, away glided the brig with her head towards the
+land, through the calm, leaden-coloured water.  Jack and Terence had
+with the rest sprung on deck, not taking many moments to slip into their
+clothes.  Few landsmen can understand how quickly that operation can, by
+constant practice, be performed.  They had there joined Alick, who had
+the morning watch.  Together they all went aloft to take a look at the
+chase.
+
+"She's a slaver, from her evident wish to avoid us, and from the way she
+is standing," observed Alick, after having taken a long look at her
+through his glass.  "We may prevent her from embarking her slaves, and
+save the poor wretches the horrors to which they are always exposed,
+when once they get on board these iniquitous prison-ships.  To look down
+on a slave-deck crowded with human beings, is quite sufficient to make a
+man abhor slavery for ever after, and to desire to put an end, with all
+his might, to the system which can produce such horrors."
+
+Jack and Adair agreed that they should have great satisfaction in
+capturing or destroying every slaver on the coast.  The stranger soon
+discovered that the brig of war was in chase of her, and having crowded
+all sail, kept away directly for the land.  From the wide spread of her
+white canvas, and from the way she had behaved, there was no doubt she
+was a slaver.  Everybody felt certain that they should capture the
+stranger; the _Archer_ was undoubtedly overhauling her, and she could
+not escape either to the north or south without their perceiving her,
+and cutting her off.  An hour's chase brought them in sight of the land.
+It was a low, uninviting shore, lined with a dense belt of mangrove
+bushes, a few tall palms appearing here and there above them; then the
+ground rose slightly, with some ranges of blue hills in the distance.
+As the sun rose, a mist was drawn up which floated just above the water
+and shut out the lower branches of the mangrove-trees, though their
+tops, forming a wavy dark line, could just be seen above it.  None of
+the officers of the _Archer_ had been on the coast before, and as she
+had no pilot, it was necessary to approach it with caution.  The lead
+was therefore kept going.  The schooner stood boldly on.
+
+"The fellows will, I am afraid, run her on shore, if they can find no
+other means of escaping," observed the captain, after scrutinising the
+chase and the coast she was approaching through his glass.
+
+"We shall have her, she can't escape us, that's one comfort," cried Jack
+Rogers.
+
+On flew the schooner.  The wind freshened somewhat.  Suddenly she
+entered the belt of mist.  Everybody on board the brig rubbed their
+eyes.  Where was she?  Not a vestige of her was to be seen.  As they
+approached the land, the roar of the surf on the shore reached their
+ears.  There could be little doubt that the schooner had been run on
+shore, and would probably soon be knocked to pieces, while her crew had
+made their escape to the land.  Captain Grant was anxious to stand in as
+close as he could.
+
+"By the deep nine," sang out one of the men in the chains.
+
+"By the mark seven," soon repeated another.
+
+To approach nearer would not have been prudent.  The canvas was
+therefore flattened in, and the brig's head was once more turned to
+seaward.  Scarcely had she hauled her wind, than the sun having risen
+high above the land, the mist lifted, and the whole line of coast
+fringed with mangrove bushes, and here and there with a white belt of
+sand, appeared in sight.  But the chase, where was she?  Not a sign of
+her appeared on the shore, while neither to the north nor to the south
+was she to be seen.  Jack looked at Adair, and Adair looked at Jack, and
+together they discussed the matter with Alick, but neither of the three
+could offer any satisfactory explanation of the matter.  Captain Grant
+and the rest of the officers appeared equally puzzled.  As the brig
+stood closer in-shore there was a chance of the mystery being solved.
+The hands in the chains were kept heaving the lead, which showed that
+the brig was slowly shoaling her water.  At length she was hove-to, and
+two boats were lowered.  Their own lieutenant, Hemming, who had escaped
+with them from a sinking slaver, volunteered to take charge of one of
+them, and Evans, the second lieutenant of the brig, went in the other.
+The former, as the senior officer, had charge of the expedition.
+
+"As she cannot have escaped along shore, and certainly has not
+evaporated into the air, the chase must have got into some creek or
+inlet, the mouth of which we cannot distinguish," observed the captain.
+"You will therefore search for such an entrance, and pursue, and bring
+her out if you can."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" answered Hemming, delighted with the work in prospect.
+
+The three midshipmen got leave to go in the boat.  Jack accompanied
+Evans, the other two went with Hemming, as did Jack's old follower Dick
+Needham.  Away they pulled in high spirits.  As they approached the
+shore they observed that a long line of white surf was breaking heavily
+on it.  Hemming stood up and scanned the coast narrowly, thinking that
+after all the schooner might have been run on shore, and as slavers are
+but slightly put together, might have speedily been knocked to pieces.
+As he stood up, and the boat rose to the top of the swell, he saw not
+what he expected, but a piece of clear water inside a narrow spit of
+sand, and a little to the south he observed a spot where the surf broke
+less heavily, and which he concluded was the entrance to the creek or
+river.
+
+"I have little doubt that this must be the place where the schooner has
+taken refuge; and as she has gone up, so may we," shouted Hemming,
+pointing it out to his brother officer.
+
+Evans agreed with him, and the two boats pulled away in the direction
+indicated.  That there was an entrance was evident, but it required
+great caution in approaching it.  A capsize would probably prove fatal
+to all hands--for had any escaped drowning, they would have fallen a
+prey to the sharks, which in southern latitudes generally maintain a
+strict blockade at the mouths of rivers, to pick up any offal which the
+stream may bring down.  The boats rose and fell on the smooth swells as
+they came rolling in.  At last Hemming observed a space on the bar clear
+of broken water.  He gave the signal to go ahead.
+
+"Now, my lads, now pull away," he shouted.
+
+The boats dashed on, the surf roared and foamed on either side of them,
+and not only did the three midshipmen, but most of the older men in the
+boats, hold their breath till they were well through it, and once more
+floating in smooth water inside the bar.  Instead of being in a mere
+creek, they found that they had entered a broad deep river which seemed
+to come down from a considerable distance in the interior.  They pulled
+on more certain than before of finding the chase.  However, after they
+had gone some distance, they arrived at a spot where the river formed
+two distinct branches, or, rather, it might be, where another broad
+stream joined the main current.  Up which the schooner had proceeded it
+was impossible to say.
+
+"I'll take one stream, you take the other," shouted Hemming to Evans;
+and the boats dashed on.
+
+It was important to overtake the schooner before she got higher up, and
+perhaps hidden away in some narrow creek where it might be no easy
+matter to find her.  The scenery was far from attractive.  Little else
+on either side was to be seen but long lines of mangrove bushes, and as
+the tide fell black banks of mud began to appear, which it was evident
+would soon narrow the width of the stream.  Evans and Jack took the
+branch of the stream which came from the southward.  It wound about a
+good deal, so that they were aware they might any moment come on the
+schooner.  They kept their muskets by their sides ready loaded.
+
+"I say, Mr Evans, I wish that we could see the chase some time before
+we get up to her," observed Jack.  "What are we to do should we find
+her, sir?"
+
+"Jump on board, and knock every fellow down who resists," was the
+lieutenant's answer.  "Depend on it she is a slaver or pirate, probably
+both, and her crew will not give in without a tussle."
+
+"With the greatest pleasure in the world," replied Jack, who was very
+practical in his notions about fighting, and had no idea of half
+measures.
+
+The current was now making down very strong, and the boat consequently
+progressed but slowly.  Still Mr Evans persevered.  The men bent
+lustily to their oars, and reach after reach of the river was passed,
+but there was no sign of the chase.  Now and then there were openings in
+the mangrove bushes, and more than once Jack felt certain that he saw
+some dark figures running along parallel with the river, and evidently
+watching their movements.  Jack pointed them out to Mr Evans.
+
+"That looks as if we had enemies in the neighbourhood," observed the
+lieutenant.  "Be ready, my men--marines, look to your arms."
+
+The boat pulled eight oars, and there were two marines in the bows, and
+two in the stern-sheets, sitting with their muskets between their knees.
+In the bows of the boat was a small swivel-gun, and all the bluejackets
+with cutlasses and pistols.  Besides the lieutenant and Jack, there was
+the coxswain, and there were some half-dozen long pikes which, as the
+latter observed, would come in handy, if they had a fight with another
+boat or had to attack a fort, but for boarding he would not give a rush
+for them.  The ebb-tide rushed past the boat dark and smooth, but with
+swirling eddies, which showed the strength of the current against which
+they had to contend.
+
+"I wonder whether the other boat has fallen in with the slaver."
+
+"I envy them if they have," observed Jack, who didn't much like being
+silent just then.
+
+There was something very oppressive in the atmosphere, and in the dark
+solemn scenery which surrounded them.  The sea-breeze had by this time
+set in and blew up the river, but it had not yet been strong enough to
+make it worth while to hoist the sail.
+
+"I scarcely think the schooner could have got up so far as this,"
+observed Mr Evans.  "But we will pull on a little farther, and then if
+we do not see her, we will go back, and join the other boat."
+
+They had just then arrived at the end of a reach.  The extent of the
+next one was hidden from their sight by a point of land thickly covered
+with trees.  They pulled on, and soon doubled the point.  Directly they
+did so there appeared before them, pressing up the stream, under all
+sail, the object of their search.  The men required no urging, but,
+bending to their oars, away they pulled in hot chase after her.  The
+schooner stood on steadily, as if no one on board was aware of the
+presence of the boat of a British man-of-war.  The boat rapidly came up
+with her.  As they drew near, Jack remarked that her decks were crowded
+with a very ill-looking set of ruffians, but he cared little for that,
+and he knew that every man in the boat would be ready to attack even
+twice as many as there were there.  They had got up to within a hundred
+yards of the schooner without any notice being taken of them.
+
+"Give way, my lads; we'll be alongside in a moment," shouted the
+lieutenant.
+
+Scarcely had he uttered the words, when a couple of guns were ran out at
+the schooner's stern ports, and a shower of langrage, nails, bits of
+iron, lead, and missiles of all sorts, came rattling among them,
+accompanied by a volley of musketry.  One or two of the seamen and one
+of the marines were hit, but the boat pulled on as fast as before.
+
+"Marines, give it the scoundrels," cried Mr Evans.  The red-jackets,
+turning round, deliberately picked off several of the people who had
+fired at them.  They had scarcely time to load again before the boat was
+alongside the schooner, and the seamen, cutlass in hand, began to
+scramble up on her decks.  Pikes were poked out at them, pistols were
+flashed in their faces, and cold shot hove into their boat, but fiercely
+as the pirates fought, they could not prevent the British seamen from
+gaining the deck of their vessel.  Desperate was the struggle which took
+place there.  Both parties fought for their lives.  The English knew
+that they should receive no quarter.  The pirates did not expect it
+either.  Jack was soon knocked down, but he got up again with a somewhat
+ugly gash on his arm, and went at it as hard as ever.  At length Mr
+Evans and his men gained the afterpart of the vessel, and were thus able
+to command her movements, but the pirates still clustered thickly in the
+bows, and were evidently preparing to make a rush aft.  The English had
+left their boat, which was alongside, with her painter made fast to the
+fore-chains.  This was an oversight.  The pirates perceived it, hauled
+her ahead, and instead of attempting to regain their vessel, the greater
+number, jumping into her, made off, leaving four or five of their
+companions in the hands of the British.  These few threw down their arms
+and sang out for quarter.  This was granted them, little as they
+deserved it.  Meantime the rest of the pirates pulled away for the
+shore, and were soon concealed from view behind a wooded point.
+
+"See the cable ranged, to bring up, Mr Rogers," was the first order
+given by the lieutenant.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Jack, but he found that he could not obey the
+order, as there were neither cables nor anchors on board.  It was
+therefore necessary to keep the vessel under weigh, and to endeavour to
+beat down the river.  Had the English known the channel, this might have
+been a more easy task than it was likely to prove.  They were obliged to
+make very short tacks for fear of getting on shore, and in whatever
+reach they were the wind always seemed to head them, so that their
+progress, notwithstanding the strong current in their favour, was but
+slow.  Their victory had not been gained without considerable loss: a
+marine had been killed, and three other men, besides Jack, had been
+wounded, two of them so badly that they were unable to help in working
+the vessel.  This made Mr Evans not a little anxious, and he kept
+looking out ahead, in the hopes of seeing the other boat coming to his
+assistance.  Jack also, who never failed to make good use of his eyes,
+was not altogether comfortable, for he had observed in the openings
+where he had before seen people, a much greater number, evidently
+keeping a watch on the movements of the schooner.  As long as she could
+be kept moving, there was no great cause for fear; but should she get on
+the mud, it was difficult to say what might happen.  Jack was stationed
+forward.  At length the schooner entered a reach which ran nearly north
+and south, and the wind enabled her to lay nearly down it.
+
+"No sign of the boat yet, Mr Rogers?" sang out Mr Evans, from aft.
+
+"No, sir," answered Jack; "but there are a number of dark objects in the
+water which look remarkably like canoes.  They seem to be waiting for us
+at the end of the reach, where we must go about."
+
+"We must run some of them down, and give the rest a taste of the
+pirate's guns," replied Mr Evans.  The guns were got forward, but
+neither shot nor powder was to be found.  Still undaunted, the seamen
+and marines stood ready to receive the expected attack.  Things looked
+serious.  Jack soon made out not less than twenty canoes full of men,
+with a couple of large boats so posted that it would be almost
+impossible to avoid them.  The schooner was but a very little way from
+the junction of the two rivers, and the other boat might come to her
+assistance, but her best chance of escaping was by getting a strong
+breeze, so that she might dash past the fleet of canoes before they
+could manage to catch hold of her.  There was a prospect of this.  The
+wind had for some time been blowing in fitful gusts, and now it came
+down on them stronger than ever.  To shorten sail was out of the
+question, but in another minute Jack and his companions found that they
+had more than the little vessel could well stagger under.  That was all
+right though.  On she flew towards their enemies.
+
+"Why, there is our boat among them," exclaimed Jack; "she must have got
+down by some other channel.  We shall have a hard tussle for it."  The
+critical moment was approaching.  They could already see the faces of
+their enemies, and most villainous-looking ruffians they were.  Many of
+them were blacks, but there were several white men among them.
+
+"Steady, my lads, now.  Don't throw a shot away till they attack us,"
+sang out Mr Evans.  "Stand by to go about."  Down went the helm.  The
+jib was shivering in the breeze.  A loud shout arose from the canoes and
+boats, and, making a dash at the schooner, many of the villains began
+clambering up on each quarter.  At that moment a violent gust coming
+down between an opening in the trees struck the vessel.  It was not a
+moment to start sheet or tack.  Every one, indeed, was engaged in the
+desperate conflict with their assailants.  Jack was rushing forward to
+drive back some fellows who had just hooked on their canoe at the lee
+fore-chains.  The marines were thrusting away with their bayonets.  A
+huge mulatto had grasped Mr Evans by the throat, and several of the
+seamen were grappling with their opponents.  Over heeled the vessel.
+Just as she was in midstream another gust, more furious than the first,
+struck her.  In an instant Jack felt that she had gone over not to rise
+again.  He scrambled up over the bulwarks into the weather-chains, where
+he hung on while the rest of the combatants, English, pirates and
+negroes, were precipitated into the rapidly running stream.  Two or
+three of the canoes were swamped.  Some of the blacks swam to the other
+canoes, and were picked up, but numbers of the combatants, grappling
+with each other, went down in the dark whirling stream, their shouts,
+cries, and struggles quieted only by the water which closed over their
+heads.  Jack climbed up to the bottom of the vessel and looked around.
+His heart sank within him.  Where were his late gallant comrades, Mr
+Evans and the rest?  Not one remained.  The capsized schooner was
+drifting rapidly down the stream.
+
+Jack, however, found that he was not alone; but he would gladly have
+dispensed with his companions.  Two blacks had hung on by the
+rudder-chains, and now, as they climbed up, they caught sight of him.
+Their eyes flashed vindictively.  They had their knives in their belts,
+but no other weapons.  He had retained his grasp on his cutlass, and he
+had a pistol in his belt, but he feared that the priming must have got
+wet.  The blacks began to creep slowly towards him.  They grinned
+horribly, and were evidently intent on his destruction.  Jack saw that
+he had not the slightest prospect of escape, and must depend entirely on
+his own exertions.  He had no notion, however, of giving in.
+
+The schooner rapidly drifted away from the place where she upset, and
+none of the canoes were following her.  Jack grasped firm hold of the
+keel of the vessel while he held his weapons in his hands ready for
+action.  Fortunately the blacks could only move on by following each
+other.  They shouted to him in fierce, rough tones, but what they said
+he could not understand.  He was not alarmed, but he held his pistol
+very tight.  The ruffian got close to him; Jack cocked and presented his
+pistol: if it missed he had his cutlass ready.  The negro smiled or
+rather grinned.  He thought the pistol would not go off.  Jack pulled
+the trigger; the negro fell over and over down the side of the vessel
+into the water.  He tried to swim and to regain his lost hold, but his
+strength failed him, and, with a cry of disappointed rage, he sank under
+the tide, a small circle of ruddy hue marking the spot where he had gone
+down.
+
+Jack had not, however, a moment to think about this; he had just time to
+grasp his cutlass in his right-hand, before his enemy made a spring on
+him.  Jack was still only a boy, though a good stout one, but his nerves
+were well strung and his muscles were strong.  He swung his cutlass
+round with all his might till the blade met the neck and shoulders of
+the black, and over he went into the water, where he at once sank,
+without even attempting to strike out for his life, indeed Jack's blow
+had almost severed his head from his body.  A very short time had been
+occupied in this encounter; still the schooner had drifted down some
+way, and neither the pirates nor their allies seemed inclined to follow
+her.  Notwithstanding this, Jack's position was far from a pleasant one.
+If the vessel drifted on to either bank of the river, he would probably
+be murdered, and if she continued in the stream, she would soon be among
+the heavy breakers on the bar, where he would, in all probability, be
+washed off and devoured by the sharks.  With straining eyes he looked
+out for Hemming's boat, but she was nowhere to be seen.  He soon drifted
+past the channel up which she had gone: not a sign of her could he
+perceive.
+
+On drifted the schooner.  The channel must be very deep, he knew, or the
+masts must have stuck in the bottom.  Should this latter happen, he was
+afraid that the current gathering round her would speedily wash him off
+his hold.  He felt very grave and sad, and though he was certainly not
+afraid, he could not help being aware that the life he had found so
+pleasant and so cheerful, and to which he had so many ties, was slipping
+away from him.  The courage of an older man might well have given way.
+Jack sighed deeply, but his courage did not give way, for he said to
+himself, "God's will be done."  In that feeling was his strength and
+support.  "I am in God's hand, He will preserve me if He thinks fit."
+
+On drifted the schooner.  The current, strengthened by the additional
+stream, grew more rapid.  The vessel kept in mid-channel.  He might have
+gained nothing had she verged on either side, unless he could have got
+near enough to catch hold of a stout branch of some mangrove bush, where
+he might have hung on to it till the boat came by, when, should anybody
+see him, he might be rescued, otherwise a lingering and painful death
+would be his lot, instead of the speedy one he had every reason to
+expect.  The roar of the breakers on the bar sounded mournfully on his
+ears.  He could see the white surf dancing less high above the sandbank,
+and he knew that in a few minutes he must be among those roaring,
+hissing, raging breakers.  He thought that he could see the white sails
+of the brig in the offing, but she was much too far off to render him
+the slightest assistance.  There was, he thought, one chance more.  The
+current might set against the sandspit which crossed its course, and if
+so, he might be washed on shore.  He watched eagerly to ascertain if any
+logs or branches floating down took that direction.  There was nothing
+to give him assurance of this.  For a minute he thought that she was
+going towards the spit, but the current again seized her, and whirling
+her round, sent her driving rapidly onwards towards the boiling
+breakers.  Jack felt the wreck rise and fall.  He clutched firmly hold
+of the keel, useless as he believed it to be.  The foaming waters
+sounded in his ears, the foam washed over him, and he knew that he was
+on that terrible bar, in the midst of the raging breakers.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+ADVENTURES ON SHORE.
+
+While Jack Rogers, with Lieutenant Evans and his unfortunate boat's
+crew, took the southern branch of the river, Mr Hemming, with Murray
+and Adair, pulled away in the boat up the northern channel, each party
+believing that they were following the track of the schooner of which
+they were in search.  On dashed Lieutenant Hemming's boat, the crew, as
+British seamen always will when work is to be done, bending bravely to
+their oars.  They also, as had the other boat, met a strong current.
+
+"Hurrah, my lads, hurrah!" shouted the lieutenant, bending forward
+almost mechanically to give time to their strokes.  "If the chase has
+gone up the channel, we must take care that she does not creep away from
+us, that is all."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Dick Needham.  "No fear but we'll hunt her up if
+she is above water."
+
+In a chase on shore some signs discernible either by the eyes or the
+olfactory nerves are perceptible by which the pursuers may be guided,
+but the gallant seamen had only hope on this occasion to lead them on.
+That, however, was enough.  The scenery of this branch was as monotonous
+as that of the other.  Mangrove bushes, with a few tall palms appearing
+over them, lined the banks, and here and there an opening left blank by
+nature, or perhaps made by the dark-skinned natives.
+
+"I wonder if, after all, the schooner did come up this way," observed
+Paddy Adair sagaciously.  "If she went up the other, I don't think she
+could."
+
+His remark of course produced a laugh.  No great amount of wit was
+required to do that.  They looked about in every direction, to discover
+some one from whom they might obtain information, but no one was seen.
+
+"It is not very likely the black fellows would trouble themselves with
+telling us the truth, so it doesn't much matter," said Paddy.  "They are
+all in league with the slavers, from the king who dresses up on great
+occasions in a cocked-hat, top-boots, and an old blanket, to poor
+Quasho, who has never had his nakedness covered since he was born."
+
+Notwithstanding their want of success, still they perseveringly pulled
+on.
+
+Suddenly Murray put his hand on Adair's shoulder, pointing at the same
+time with the other ahead.  "I say, Terence, what do you see away there
+at the end of the reach?" he asked.  "Does it not look to you like the
+stern of a vessel?"
+
+"So like it that it must be one," said Hemming.  "Hurrah! the slaver
+must be ours after all."
+
+Just at that moment the sound of firearms coming from a distance was
+heard, borne faintly on the wind through an opening in the mangrove
+bushes.  Shot after shot followed.  "The other boat must have fallen in
+with some of the rascals; the two channels cannot be far apart,"
+exclaimed Mr Hemming.  "Give way, my lads, give way."
+
+He could not help in his eagerness saying this, although the men were
+already pulling as hard as they could.  He was eagerly looking about all
+the time for some passage through which they might get to the assistance
+of their comrades.  The boat dashed on up the river, and very soon they
+came in sight of a schooner moored close to the bank of a small creek.
+They were quickly up to her and mounting her sides.  No one opposed
+them, and not a human being was to be seen.  There were, however,
+evident signs that people had only just left her.  A stage of planks led
+from her deck to the shore.  Her sails were bent, her anchor stowed, she
+was in perfect readiness for sea.  A hurried glance below showed that
+she was undoubtedly a slaver, and about probably that very day to
+receive her human cargo on board.  In her hold were leaguers or huge
+water-casks filled with water; a large supply of wood and provisions,
+especially of farina, on which slaves are chiefly fed.  Then there was
+the slave-deck, scarcely thirty-six inches in height, and large coppers
+for boiling the slaves' food, and some hundred pairs of slave irons or
+manacles for confining their legs or arms; indeed, nothing was wanting
+to condemn her.  Although Hemming guessed that the crew would soon be
+back, he was so eager to go to the assistance of Mr Evans, that leaving
+Murray and a couple of men on board the schooner, he leaped again into
+his boat and pulled up the creek, thinking that he might get through it
+into the other channel.  It narrowed, however, very rapidly.  The trees
+grew closer and closer together till the branches touched, and finally
+arched so much overhead as to shut out the view of the sky.  It was
+almost evident that there could not be a navigable passage into the
+other stream, and Hemming felt that he was not doing a prudent thing in
+thus pushing on into what might prove not only a hornets' nest, but a
+hornets' trap, where he and those whose lives were entrusted to him
+might be stung to death without the power of defending themselves.
+Still he did not like to abandon his purpose.  To push over land would
+be still more dangerous.  The question about proceeding was settled for
+him.  The boat, although in mid-channel, ran her stem into the mud.
+With a falling tide it would have been madness to proceed farther.
+
+"Back all!" cried the lieutenant.
+
+There was barely room for the oars between the two banks.  It seemed
+doubtful, at first, whether the boat could be shoved off.  Delay in this
+case, as it is in many others, was dangerous.  Paddy Adair and several
+of the men on this instantly leaped out, but sank very nearly up to
+their middles in slime and water.  With their weight, however, out of
+her the boat floated, and the rest standing up and shoving at the same
+time, they got her a little way down the stream.  Paddy, who was always
+ready to do anything, however unpleasant, for the sake of setting an
+example, continued in the water shoving the boat along; the black banks
+on either side showing the importance of getting out of the trap into
+which they had gone as quickly as possible.
+
+"Jump in Adair--jump in--she'll freely swim now," said Hemming.
+
+"We'll just get her past this log of wood and give her a shove off from
+it," said Paddy, making a spring on a dark brown object close to them.
+He jumped off again, however, very much faster, and sprang towards the
+boat, for the seeming log opened a huge pair of jaws, exhibiting a
+terrific row of teeth, with which it made a furious snap at the
+midshipman's legs.  Happily Mr Hemming, leaning over, caught him by the
+arm and dragged him in, while one of the men gave the monster a rap with
+the end of his oar, which somewhat distracted his attention, and allowed
+the rest of the men to scramble on board, which they did in a very great
+hurry, and no little consternation exhibited in their looks.  The
+alligator first vented his rage by gnawing the blade of the oar, and
+then made a terrific rush at the boat.
+
+"Shove away, my lads--shove away," cried Hemming, not wishing to waste
+time in a contest with the beast.
+
+The men, standing up, urged on the boat with their oars as fast as they
+could; but the savage brute still followed, biting at the blades and
+trying to get in between them.  Terence, however, who very speedily
+recovered from his alarm, seized a musket, and, watching for the moment
+when the alligator next opened his huge mouth, fired right down it.
+
+"A hard pill that to digest, if it does not kill him," cried Paddy, when
+he had done the deed.
+
+At first the brute seemed scarcely aware that anything unusual had gone
+down his throat; but, as he was making another dart at the boat, he
+suddenly began to move about in an eccentric way--as Paddy said, "as if
+something troubled him in his inside," and then, turning away, buried
+his huge body in the mud, while his tail lashed the water into foam.
+Round the spot above where his head was probably hidden, a red circle
+was formed, which, whirling round in the eddies of the current, came
+sweeping past the boat, proving that Adair's shot had not failed to take
+effect.  Well content to get thus easily rid of their unpleasant
+antagonist, the men shaved the boat on rapidly down the creek.  They had
+not quite come in sight of the slave schooner when a shout reached their
+ears.  It was repeated.  It sounded like a cry for help.
+
+"It is Murray's voice, sir," exclaimed Adair; "he is shouting to us; he
+is attacked, depend on it."
+
+So Mr Hemming thought.  The boat was got round, the men sprang into
+their seats, and, getting out their oars, dashed away down the stream.
+The sound of several pistol-shots reached their ears and increased their
+eagerness to get on.  They soon came in sight of the schooner.  Murray
+and his two companions were on her deck, and keeping at bay a dozen
+Spaniards and blacks, who were attempting to force their way across the
+platform.  Several other people were coming up, and in another instant
+Murray and the two seamen would have been overpowered.  Even when united
+the Englishmen were far outnumbered by the Spaniards and blacks.  Murray
+heard the shout of his friends as they drew near, and it encouraged him
+to persevere in his hitherto almost hopeless defence of the prize.  In
+another instant the boat dashed alongside.  The crew quickly scrambled
+on board, and, whirling their cutlasses round their heads, with loud
+shouts they charged the enemy, and drove them off the platform.
+
+They next set to work to cut it away.  They were not long about it.  Not
+a moment was to be lost.  More people were coming up, blacks and whites,
+armed with muskets.  The warps which moored the vessel to the shore were
+speedily cut.  Three hands jumped into the boat, and the end of a hawser
+being heaved to them, they towed round the schooner's head--the current
+caught it and helped them.  Meantime the topsails were loosed and the
+jib run up; a puff of wind also came down the creek.  Away glided the
+schooner--the boat dropped alongside.  The slave-dealers, now mustering
+strong, began firing at them.  They fired in return, so as to drive the
+villains to seek shelter behind the trees.  It might well have enraged
+the Spaniards to see their vessel carried away from before their very
+eyes.  They did their best to revenge themselves by trying to pick off
+the Englishmen; but though two of the latter were slightly wounded, no
+one was disabled, and the schooner held her course unimpeded down the
+stream.  Our friends found, however, before long, in one of the reaches,
+the wind heading them; and, looking astern, they saw that several large
+canoes and other boats had put out from the shore, and were in pursuit
+of them.  The slavers probably calculated on their getting on shore, to
+enable them to come up with them.  The current, however, was strong, the
+wind was tolerably steady, the schooner went about like a top, and a few
+tacks carried them through each of the reaches, when the wind headed
+them.  Thus they made good way; but still there were many dangers to be
+encountered.  They might, for the present, easily keep ahead of their
+pursuers; but, unless they could get a free wind, to cross the bar, they
+must bring up, as it would otherwise be madness to make the attempt.
+They had gone a long way up the river, and it was difficult to say how
+the wind might be at the mouth.  At last, in a long reach, they ran the
+pirates out of sight.  They, however, suspected that the latter were
+stopping to collect more of their forces before coming on to the attack.
+At length the schooner reached the main channel of the river.  Hemming
+and Murray and Adair looked anxiously up the other stream in the hopes
+of seeing Mr Evans' boat.
+
+"Perhaps she has come down, and will be waiting for us at the bar,"
+observed Hemming.  "If she has got hold of the schooner we were looking
+for, we shall very likely find her ahead of us; at all events we must
+keep on till we find her."
+
+The little vessel was accordingly kept on down the river.  Great was
+their disappointment, on coming in sight of the bar, to find a heavy
+surf breaking over it, while the breeze which came in set very nearly up
+the stream.  It was absolutely necessary to bring up.  The anchor was
+dropped, and as the vessel swung to the tide the dark waters came
+whirling and eddying by with a force which made Hemming thankful that he
+had not attempted to cross the bar.  As soon as he had brought up, he
+made every preparation for defending the vessel from the attack to be
+expected.  Having got all their arms ready, he had ropes passed round
+and round the vessel above the bulwarks, so as to serve in the place of
+boarding-nettings, and then, not without great difficulty, they hoisted
+their own boat on board, and stowed her amidships.  These important
+preparations being made, they lighted the fire in the caboose and cooked
+a dinner, for which an abundance of provisions was found on board.  A
+couple of hours passed away.  They were anxious ones to Hemming--so they
+were to Murray, and perhaps to Adair, though the men did not probably
+trouble themselves much about the matter.  A constant lookout, however,
+was kept--up the river, lest the pirates should come on them unawares,
+and down the river, in the hopes of seeing the surf diminishing on the
+bar and the wind set more out of it.  What could have become of Mr
+Evans, Rogers, and their party, was also the constant subject of
+conversation.
+
+"Hurrah!" at last cried Murray, who had been looking out astern, "the
+bar is getting quite smooth.  See, there is scarcely any current passing
+us, and the wind is setting almost out of the river."
+
+"And here come the canoes in battle-array," cried Adair from forward.
+"They will be down upon us before many minutes are over."
+
+"Heave up the anchor, my lads," shouted Hemming; "let fall the topsails.
+Run up the jib and fore-staysail.  Set the foresail and mainsail."
+These orders followed in rapid succession.  The men did not require to
+be told to be smart about the work.  Round came the schooner's head.
+Her sails filled, and, under complete command, she stood towards the
+bar.  A clear piece of water showed the only passage she could take with
+safety.  The slave-trader's fleet of canoes came on, but they were just
+in time to be too late.  The schooner stood on, and, well piloted,
+dashed through the dangerous passage; the surf boiling up still on
+either side, but not breaking on board her.  In another minute she was
+over it, and floating free in the open ocean.
+
+The brig was at a considerable distance, in chase of a vessel in the
+offing; but there was no sign of the other boat, or of the schooner,
+which it was hoped she might have captured.  Not knowing the sad fate of
+Mr Evans and his party, Murray and Adair were eagerly on the lookout
+for them.  Occasionally they turned a glance astern to see what had
+become of their pursuers; but the pirates seemed to have considered it
+useless or too hazardous to attempt to cross the bar, and had given up
+the chase.
+
+"I say, Alick, what do you make out that dark object to be there?"
+exclaimed Adair, pointing to the southward.  One after the other
+examined it through the glass.
+
+"It's a whale or a ship's bottom," answered Murray, after a long
+scrutiny.  They reported what they had seen to Hemming.
+
+"No whale is likely to have floated into these latitudes," he remarked;
+"some vessel must have been capsized.  Keep her away towards it."  The
+schooner, with a fair breeze, rapidly approached the object they had
+seen.  It was soon ascertained that Hemming was right in his
+conjectures.  They got close up to the wreck.  There was no one on her!
+"By the set of the current here, I judge that she may have come over the
+very bar we have just crossed--not very long ago either," observed
+Hemming, thoughtfully.  Twice he sailed round the wreck, examining her
+narrowly.  "I am afraid something has happened," he observed at last; "I
+am not happy on the subject.  It cannot be helped though.  It may be the
+lot of any of us.  Keep her up once more for the brig."
+
+Alick and Terence became very sad when they heard these remarks.  They
+scarcely liked to ask Hemming what he meant.  As they talked over the
+matter, they felt very much alarmed on Jack's account.  Still they could
+not believe that he, their old friend and companion, could possibly be
+lost.
+
+"No, no, he'll turn up somewhere, I'm sure," cried Paddy.
+
+"I trust he will," answered Alick, gravely; but he felt very sad and
+depressed in spirits.
+
+Hemming seemed doubtful what to do; whether he would across the bar,
+make a dash at the pirates, and run up the river and look for his
+friends, or stand on at once and get greater force from the brig.  The
+latter was the wisest course, and he determined to follow it.  The
+_Archer_ had stood away in chase of another vessel of a suspicious
+appearance, and when night fell she was nowhere to be seen.  Hemming,
+therefore, hove the schooner to, to wait till her return.  Had he gone
+after her they might very probably, in the darkness of night, have
+missed each other.
+
+Never, perhaps, had my two old schoolfellows passed a more anxious
+night, even when they were wrecked on the coast of Greece; then the
+three friends were together; now their minds were racked with doubts of
+the most painful description as to what had become of Jack and his
+companions.  Had they known of the destruction of the boat and her crew,
+they would, if possible, have been still more anxious.
+
+Hemming also kept pacing the deck all night long, looking out on every
+side, like a good officer, as he was, who felt that the lives of the
+people with him were entrusted to his care.  He did not dread any attack
+from boats, but he knew that armed slavers might be attempting to run in
+or out of the river while the brig was away, and that if they attempted
+to molest him, he should find them very difficult customers to dispose
+of.  Still he was not the man to allow a slaver to pass him without
+attempting to capture her, inferior as he might be to her in force.  The
+night was very dark, now and then a few flashes of phosphorescent light
+played over the ocean, or were stirred up by the bows of the schooner,
+as she slowly worked her way through the water; but even the sharpest
+eyes on board could scarcely distinguish anything two or three hundred
+yards off.  Terence and Alick could not bring themselves to lie down nor
+take any rest, even though Hemming urged them to do so.  They were
+leaning together over the bulwarks.  They neither of them could have
+said whether they were asleep or awake.  The wind had dropped
+considerably, and at intervals the sails shook themselves and gave a
+loud flap against the masts.  Terence felt a hand suddenly resting on
+his shoulder.
+
+"What is that?  Do you hear a sound?  Did you see anything?" said a
+voice in his ear.
+
+The voice appeared so deep and hollow and strange, that he did not at
+first discover that it was Murray speaking to him.  Alick repeated the
+question twice before he replied.  He had, in truth, been fast asleep,
+but he did not know it.
+
+"No--what? see, hear what?  I don't see anything," was his somewhat
+incoherent answer.
+
+"There it is again; music--some one singing," continued Alick.  "Can you
+see nothing?"
+
+The two midshipmen peered eagerly out into the darkness, but nothing
+could they discern.  They, however, drew Hemming's attention to the
+circumstance.  He had been walking the deck, so the noise of his own
+footsteps prevented him from hearing the sound.  He now listened with
+them, but after some time, hearing nothing, was inclined to think that
+they had been deceived by their fancy.  Murray thought not, and, keeping
+his eyes on the point from which he believed the sounds had come, was
+almost certain that he could distinguish the sails of a square-rigged
+vessel passing at no great distance off, standing in towards the coast.
+He called Hemming's attention to it, but whether or not the night mists
+had at the moment he was looking lifted up, and again sunk down, and
+allowed him to see a vessel really there, or that his fancy still misled
+him, it was impossible to say.  Certainly no sail was to be seen, nor
+was a sound again heard.  Slowly the hours of that night seemed to pass
+away.  Day came at last, a gloomy coast of Africa morning, with a thick
+damp ague-and-fever giving fog.  In vain they looked out for the
+_Archer_.  They began to fear that she might have followed the vessel
+after which she had gone in chase to a considerable distance, thus
+delaying the expedition they were so anxious to undertake in search of
+the other boat.  As the sun rose, however, his rays began a struggle
+with the mist, and, aided by a light breeze which sprung up from the
+northward, finally triumphed, and rolling off their adversary, they
+beamed forth on the dancing blue waters, and on the white canvas of the
+brig, which came gliding on majestically towards them, followed by
+another vessel, which she had overtaken and captured.  The prize had
+half a cargo of slaves on board, and was on her way up to another place
+where her owners had agents to complete it.  The first question which
+Alick and Terence asked on getting on board the _Archer_, was for Rogers
+and the other boat's crew.  Their hearts sank within them, when they
+found that nothing had been seen of the boat.  Captain Grant listened to
+all the information they could give, and promptly formed a plan, the
+execution of which he entrusted to Hemming and the two midshipmen,
+complimenting them at the same time for the gallant way in which they
+had captured the slaver and brought her out of the river.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+TO FIGHT HIS FRIENDS.
+
+Poor Jack Rogers!  His lot was indeed a hard one.  We left him clinging
+to the keel of the schooner, while she was carried on by the rapid
+current over the bar, amidst the raging waters and blinding foam.  Every
+moment he expected to be torn from his hold; but life was dear to him,
+and he exerted every particle of strength he possessed to hold on.  Now
+a sea would come and wash over the vessel, almost drowning him, and
+completely preventing him from seeing; then he felt that he was whirled
+round and round, till he looked up--but it was only to see another huge
+breaker rolling up ready to overwhelm him.  He felt the terrific dash of
+the wave, its roar sounded in his ears--he was almost stunned.  He
+prayed that he might be preserved from the terrible danger to which he
+was exposed.  The roller passed on, leaving him still firmly clutching
+the wreck.  Again he looked up.  The blue sea danced cheerfully before
+his eyes; the sun shone brightly; the wreck had drifted clear of the
+influence of the breakers.  Most grateful he felt at having been thus
+far preserved.  Still he knew that he was not out of danger.  The
+schooner might any moment go down, and he might be left, without a plank
+to rest on, to the mercy of the ravenous sharks which swarmed around.
+His first impulse was to look out for the brig.  She was in the offing,
+standing away to the westward.  He had no hope from any help she could
+render him.  Then he looked back over the bar, in the expectation of
+seeing the other boat coming out; but nowhere was she to be discovered.
+He saw, meantime, that the wreck was drifting to the southward down the
+coast, and at no great distance from it.  He calculated the distance,
+and thought to himself that he could swim on shore.  If he delayed, the
+vessel might drift farther out to sea, and the feat might be impossible.
+
+"The sooner it is done, the better," he thought to himself.  "I have
+swum as far in a worse sea before now."  Before slipping off into the
+water, he commended himself with a hearty prayer to the care of a
+Merciful Providence.  He was on the very point of letting go his hold,
+when, as he looked into the water, his eye fell on a dark triangular
+object, just rising out of it, slowly moving past.  He looked again with
+a shudder, for he recognised the fin of a shark.  Another and another
+passed by.  Truly thankful did he feel that he had not trusted himself
+voluntarily within the power of their voracious jaws.  If the vessel
+sank though, where would he be?  He could not help thinking of that.  He
+got up and gazed around.  He was beginning to feel very hungry, and to
+his other dangers the risk of starvation was now added.  Still, he did
+not allow himself to despair.  He hoped that his old schoolfellows and
+Hemming would soon recross the bar, and, seeing the wreck, come and find
+him.  After a little time, as he was casting his eye to the southward,
+he thought he saw a dark object moving along close in-shore, just
+outside the surf.  He soon made out that it was a canoe, and then that
+she was manned by blacks.  As they drew near, it was evident that they
+saw him on the wreck, for they at once pulled towards him.  He scarcely
+knew whether to hail them as friends or foes.  They were very
+ill-looking fellows he thought.  There were also two white men in the
+stern-sheets of the canoe.  He did not like their looks at all either.
+They were soon alongside, and when they saw his uniform, they looked up
+at him with no very friendly eye.  Having held a short parley among
+themselves, they hailed him, but what they said he could not make out.
+Dangerous as his present position was, he felt no inclination to entrust
+himself to their care.  However, they made signs to him to come down
+into the canoe, and after a little reflection, and thinking it better
+not to show any fear or mistrust of them, he complied with their
+demands, and as he slid down over the side of the vessel, they caught
+him, and hauled him in.  He saw them minutely examining the vessel, and
+then they asked him a number of questions in Spanish, or a sort of
+mongrel Spanish, which he could not clearly comprehend, and he thought
+it more prudent not to show that he understood them at all.  He made
+out, however, that the strangers were inquiring how the vessel was
+capsized, and how he came to be on board her.  He guessed also that they
+knew that she was a slaver, and had been captured by the party to which
+he had belonged.  When they found that he did not reply to their
+questions, they let him sit down at the bottom of the canoe, while the
+two whites and one of the black men talked together among themselves.
+They every now and then cast glances ominous of evil intentions towards
+him.  Poor Jack did not at all like their looks, still less the tenor of
+the few words whose meaning he caught.  "Knock him on the head at once,"
+said one.  "Throw him overboard, and let the sharks have him," proposed
+another.  "Shoot him with pistol," quoth the big negro,--grinning
+horribly.  These words were uttered with the most cold-blooded
+indifference, as if the act proposed by the speakers was one of everyday
+occurrence with them.  Jack, as he listened, longed to make an effort to
+save his life; anything was better than to sit there quietly and be
+murdered.  Far rather would he die struggling bravely for existence.
+Still, as the pirates did not make any further demonstration, he thought
+it would be wiser to appear unconscious of their threats, and remained
+where he was without moving.  Jack, however, every now and then, looked
+over the gunwale of the canoe, to ascertain where they were going.  They
+quickly arrived off the bar, but the slave-dealers or pirates, or
+whatever they were, seemed to think that there was too much surf to
+allow them to cross it.  They therefore pulled back a little way to the
+south.  Jack observed a patch of sandy beach, with a clear channel up to
+it, between two rocks.  They waited for a short time, and then the
+canoe, mounting on the top of a roller, was carried rapidly forward, the
+foam hissing and bubbling round her, till she grounded on the beach.  In
+a moment the crew, jumping out of her, ran her up out of the reach of
+the succeeding roller, which roared angrily, as if disappointed of its
+prey.  Jack was going to walk on, but he felt a hand laid heavily on his
+shoulder, and his arms, being seized by two of the black fellows, were
+bound behind him, and he found himself a prisoner on the coast of
+Africa, without the slightest prospect, as far as he could see, of
+making his escape from his ruffian captors.
+
+Poor Jack was dragged along by his savage companions, the muzzle of a
+pistol or the point of a long knife every now and then being shown him,
+as a hint that he must keep up his spirits and move on.  This was no
+easy matter without stumbling, for the ground was strewed with decayed
+timber, while creepers and parasitical plants of numerous species formed
+traps to catch his feet.  He saw, too, the grass frequently moving, as a
+hideous snake or some other reptile crept away among it.  Overhead were
+birds of every variety, and of the richest plumage; parrots, trumpet
+birds, pigeons, whydahs, green paroquets, and numberless others, which
+he was in no humour just then to admire, while monkeys of all sorts
+skipped about among the boughs of the lofty palms, and chattered away,
+as if to inquire where the stranger had come from.  In one or two
+openings between the giant palms, bananas, and other lofty trees, Jack
+caught sight of some blue ranges of mountains in the far distance, and
+towards them, as they pushed their way through the dense underwood, his
+captors seemed to be proceeding.  The dreadful thought occurred to him,
+that he was being carried off into the interior to be turned into a
+slave, and perhaps that he should never be able to make his escape.  The
+jungle grew thicker and thicker, and the forest more gloomy as they
+proceeded, till he could scarcely work his way along, and even the
+Spaniards and blacks, with their arms at liberty, had no little
+difficulty in making progress through it.  At last they came to a
+standstill, and a talk among themselves.  Poor Jack caught the very
+ominous words, "_mata el chico_," which he knew too well meant "kill the
+little chap."
+
+"He is not worth the trouble he costs us," added the ferocious Spaniard
+who had spoken.  "This knife of mine will settle him with a blow."
+
+"It is a pity we did not do it in the canoe, and save ourselves
+trouble," growled out his companion, drawing his long knife from his
+belt.
+
+Jack felt that his last moments had come.  He, however, eyed his captors
+boldly, and tried to nerve himself for the expected stroke.  A short
+time before, some villains of the same character as those into whose
+power he had fallen had murdered a young midshipman, whom they had found
+on board a prize they had retaken, and he knew that they would have no
+scruple about killing him.  The blacks stood by, enjoying, apparently,
+his agony; for, brave as he was, it was a bitter thing thus, without
+cause, to be cruelly murdered in cold blood.  No one spoke.  Jack tried
+to offer up a prayer to Heaven, but, at such a moment, even to pray was
+difficult.  His heart, though, was praying, and One who knows what is in
+the heart heard him.  Suddenly there was a rustling of leaves, a
+crashing of boughs.  A loud shriek was uttered, and a huge animal leaped
+through the brushwood, and, seizing one of the negroes, again bounded
+off into the thicket.  The unfortunate wretch cried out piteously for
+help.  The Spaniards and the negroes turned to pursue the wild beast.
+From the glimpse Jack had of it, he believed it to be a tiger.  The
+negro who had been seized was the smallest of the party, and of light
+weight; and the savage brute was more accustomed to make his way through
+the tangled underwood than were his pursuers.  On he went, bounding
+through the thicket, his miserable victim in vain crying for assistance.
+The rest pursued as fast as they could, apparently forgetting Jack
+altogether.  They were soon hid from his sight by the trees.  He had no
+wish to follow them, even had he possessed the power of so doing.  His
+arms were bound, and before he could do anything he must contrive to get
+them loose.  He tugged and tugged away frantically.  He was afraid his
+captors would be back before he could get free, and execute their
+murderous threats.  By what means he was to escape, he could not just
+then tell.  The first thing was to obtain the use of his limbs.  He
+worked away for life and death.
+
+At last he twisted the rope round so that he could reach one of the
+knots with his teeth.  He pulled away lustily.  He found that he was
+slackening it.  He listened for the shouts and cries of the pirates.  He
+thought that their voices sounded louder and nearer again.  He was every
+moment getting the ropes looser.  One more tug, and his hands were at
+liberty.  He struck out on either side to assure himself that he had the
+free use of them.  He looked round; no one was in sight.  His first
+impulse was to set off and run back to the coast, but then he
+recollected that he might be easily pursued, that it must be seven or
+eight miles off at least, as three or four hours had passed since he and
+his captors had left it.  After a moment's reflection he determined to
+find his way as soon as possible to the banks of the river.  He was
+certain that the boats would be sent in to look for his party, and, by
+watching for them, he hoped to be able to make some signal to call their
+attention to himself.  He still heard the voices of the pirates.  A tall
+palm-tree was near.  He thought that the safest plan would be to get to
+the top of it.  He could easily hide himself among the wide-spreading
+leaves, and the Spaniards, believing that his arms were bound, would
+never think of looking there for him.  He would also have the advantage
+of watching all that was going on below.  He had seen blacks climb a
+tree with a band partly round their stem and partly round their waists.
+The rope he had just got clear of his arms would help him up in the same
+way.  He rapidly fitted it, and, with knees and hands working away, up
+he went the smooth stem.  He had got nearly to the top, when he heard a
+chattering, and looking up, he saw a very ugly face grinning down upon
+him.  An ape had previous possession of his proposed stronghold.  He was
+not to be daunted, however, but, swinging himself up on the bough,
+prepared to do battle for its possession.  He had still a pistol in his
+belt, though it was not loaded.  The pirates had forgotten to deprive
+him of it.  He held it by the muzzle, and Master Quacko, who seemed to
+be a very sensible monkey, thought that it would be foolish to pick a
+quarrel with so well-armed a stranger.  As Jack advanced, he retreated,
+till Jack reached the centre of the tree, where he could coil himself
+away without the possibility of any one below discovering him.  He
+looked round before sitting down.  Below him was a dense mass of
+foliage, with only here and there an opening.  To the west, in the far
+distance, was the sea, looking bright and blue; to the east were ranges
+of mountains, the most remote evidently of considerable elevation; while
+to the north he caught a glimpse of the river, to his great
+satisfaction, not very far off.  He could still hear the voices of the
+pirates, but he could not discover whether they had succeeded in
+rescuing the wretched negro from the fangs of the tiger.  Meantime the
+monkey sat on the farther end of a branch watching him.
+
+"I hope you have formed a favourable opinion of me, Master Quacko," he
+said, looking at the ape, for even in the dangerous predicament in which
+he was placed he could not resist a joke.
+
+"Quacko, quacko, quacko," went the monkey, in a tone which Jack thought
+was friendly.
+
+He felt about in his pockets, and found a piece of biscuit.  He nibbled
+a bit, and then held it out to his companion.  The ape drew near, at
+first, hesitatingly; Jack nibbled a little more of the biscuit.  Quacko
+thought that it would all be gone if he did not make haste, so he made
+one or two more hops up towards Jack.  Jack nibbled away, then once more
+held out the biscuit.  The monkey made one spring, and nearly caught it,
+but Jack drew it back, that the animal might feel that it was given him.
+Then he held it out, and the ape took it quite gently, but ran off to
+the end of a bough, that he might examine this new sort of food, and eat
+it at his leisure.
+
+The pirates had now found their way back to where they had left Jack.
+He could plainly hear them asking one another what could have become of
+him.  They were under the tree in which he lay so snugly ensconced.
+
+"He must have hid himself in the brushwood; he cannot be far off," said
+one.
+
+"If he had had his hands at liberty, I should say he would have got up
+one of these trees," observed another.  "Those English sailors can climb
+anything.  I have seen them go up the side of a slippery rock without a
+hole in which to stick their nails."
+
+"He cannot be up this tree," remarked the first.  "See! there is a
+monkey quietly eating a nut on one of the branches.  There is no other
+tree near in which he could hide."
+
+After this the men hunted about on every side, and Jack hoped that they
+would then go away.
+
+"He must still be near," exclaimed one of them.  "Sancho, do you climb
+that tree and look about you.  You will soon find out where he is by the
+shaking of the bushes as he moves along.  Up! man, up!"
+
+Jack knew, by the voice which replied, that one of the negroes was
+climbing up.  The monkey had finished his biscuit, and, liking it very
+much, came back for some more, not observing what was occurring below.
+Jack had now won his confidence; and by giving him a very little bit at
+a time kept the animal close to him.  Up climbed the black.  Jack knew
+that he could knock him down again with the butt end of his pistol, but
+if he did he would only hasten his own destruction, as the others would
+quickly find means to get hold of him.  He felt that the black was close
+under him.  He caught sight of his woolly pate working its way through,
+the leaves.  "Now or never," thought Jack.  He seized the unsuspecting
+ape, and threw him down directly on the negro's head.  The monkey, as
+much astonished as anybody, laid hold of the woolly crop with his claws,
+and scratched and bit, chattering away with all his might.
+
+"Fetish! fetish! fetish!" screamed out the negro, sliding down the tree
+a great deal faster than he had come up, coming down the latter part by
+the run, and reaching the ground more dead than alive; while the monkey
+clambered up again, and, not daring to approach Jack, took his seat at
+the end of a bough, chattering away in the greatest state of agitation.
+
+Jack lay snug.  He had hopes that none of the other blacks would attempt
+to climb the tree after the reception their companion had met with; and
+from what he heard them say he had great hopes that they really believed
+they had seen a fetish.  The Spaniards too, though pretending to laugh
+at the superstition of the negroes, having no real religion of their own
+to supply its place, were very strongly impressed with the black man's
+superstition, and would on no account have attempted to climb up the
+tree.  Jack therefore began to hope that he should escape from his
+intending murderers, and he did not despair of ultimately getting back
+to his ship.
+
+In a short time the Spaniards and negroes, uttering loud oaths at their
+ill luck in having lost one of their companions as well as their
+captive, set off once more; and Jack watched them as they worked their
+way through the brushwood to the eastward.  He felt truly glad when they
+were no longer to be seen.  He was now also in a hurry to be off.
+"Good-bye, Mr Quacko," said he, turning to the monkey, and making him a
+profound bow, for Jack was the pink of politeness.  "I am much obliged
+to you for the accommodation your tree has afforded me, and for the
+assistance you have rendered me, and if you will ever venture afloat I
+shall be very happy to see you on board our ship.  Good-bye, old fellow,
+give us a paw."  He felt in a curiously excited state, and ready to talk
+any nonsense.  Quacko, who thought he was to have some more biscuit,
+came near, but when he saw that there was none he hopped off again and
+chattered away louder than ever.
+
+Jack now descended in the same way that he had got up.  His first care
+was to cut a thick stick to serve as a weapon of defence, for he thought
+to himself, "If the tigers about here are so bold as to carry off a
+black man, they are just as likely to attack me."  He accordingly kept
+his eyes about him, and, steering as well as he could by the sun, he
+pushed away towards the north.  He could not help expecting to see a
+tiger spring out towards him, and every now and then he was startled by
+a snake crawling across his path; while the cawing of parrots and
+parrakeets, and the chattering of monkeys, made him feel like one of
+those knights in fairy stories, who have to traverse a forest haunted by
+evil spirits, who do their utmost to turn him from his gallant purpose
+of rescuing a lovely princess from the enchanted castle in which she has
+been shut up.  Jack, however, was not to be turned from his intention of
+getting down to the banks of the river.  He forgot that he would have to
+cross through a mangrove swamp, unless he could hit upon one of the few
+paths used by the negroes for the purpose of crossing it.  Night was now
+rapidly approaching.  He saw that unless he would run a very great risk
+of serving as the supper of some hungry wild beast, he must get up into
+a tree and pass it there.  He was getting very hungry also, and he had
+but a few scraps of the biscuit he had shared with the monkey.  Still,
+as long as there was daylight, he was anxious to push on, for he was
+sure that the boats would be sent in to look for him the first thing in
+the morning, and he wanted to be near the river to signalise to them.
+So he pushed on, beating down the bushes with his thick stick.  Many a
+snake, lizard, and other creeping or crawling thing hissed or croaked at
+him as he passed.  At last he saw before him an open space.  "Ah! now,
+at all events, I shall be able to push on rapidly," he thought to
+himself.  So he did, and he went on some way, when on a sudden he found
+himself in front of a pailing with some grotesque-looking figures carved
+in wood grinning above it, and within it a bamboo-leaf-covered hut,
+before which stood a remarkably big ugly-looking blackamoor.  Jack
+looked at him, and he looked at Jack, and uttered some words which
+clearly were meant to express, "Hillo, youngster, where are you hurrying
+to?"  Jack followed a very natural impulse, which was to run as fast as
+he could.  Under other circumstances this might have been a wise
+proceeding, for he certainly could run faster than the black man, who
+was not only big but fat.  He had scarcely begun to run when a piece of
+painted wood came whizzing through the air after him, which would
+certainly have knocked him down had it hit him.  He dodged it, however;
+but the next moment he heard the gruff voice of the black hounding on a
+dog, and when he turned his head he saw a huge Spanish bloodhound
+leaping over the pailing, followed by the negro.  To attempt to escape
+was now hopeless, so he ran forward, flourishing his stick in the hope
+of keeping the dog at bay.  When the negro saw he was coming back he
+called the hound off him.
+
+"For why you run so?" exclaimed the negro, who saw that he was an
+Englishman.
+
+"For the same reason that a pig does, because I was in a hurry,"
+answered Jack, who saw that his best course was to put a good face on
+the matter.
+
+"Ah, you funny young ossifer, you laugh moch," observed the negro.
+
+"Yes, it runs in the family, we are addicted to laughing," replied Jack
+with perfect coolness.  "And now, old gentleman, I'm very sharp set, and
+as I doubt not that you have, plenty of provender in your house, I shall
+be much obliged to you for some supper."
+
+The negro evidently could not make out what Jack was about, and seemed
+to have an idea that he had run away from his ship.  Jack was not sorry
+to encourage this.  The black was evidently balancing in his mind
+whether he should make most by giving him up and claiming a reward, or
+helping him to hide, and then getting possession of any wealth he might
+have about him.  He, in the most friendly way, led Jack into his house.
+It was very neatly built of bamboo, of considerable size, oblong in
+shape, and divided into four or five rooms.  In one was a table, with
+some chairs; and the negro, having given some orders in a loud voice to
+several ebon-hued damsels, who appeared at the door, in a short time
+several dishes of meat and grain were placed on it.  "Come you eat,"
+said the host.  Jack stuck his fork into the meat.  It was not a hare,
+or a rabbit, or a pig, or a kid.  He could not help thinking of his
+friend Quacko, as he turned it over and over.  However, he was very
+hungry, and he thought he would taste a bit.  It was very tender and
+nice, so he resolved that he would not ask questions, but go on eating
+till his appetite was satisfied.  There was a sort of porringer of
+farina, and some cakes of the same substance.  He ate away, and felt
+much more satisfied than at first with the state of affairs.  His host
+informed him that he was a grand pilot of the river, and showed him a
+variety of certificates which he had received to prove the fact, from
+the masters of English, American, Spanish, Portuguese, and French
+traders.  Some praised him, but others remarked that he was one of the
+greatest rascals unhung, and that he would cheat and rob whenever he had
+the opportunity, and tell any falsehood to suit his purpose.  "A nice
+sort of gentleman," thought Jack, but he did not express his opinions,
+and tried to make himself as comfortable as he could.  The negro placed
+wine and spirits before him, but he partook sparingly of them.
+
+"You say I good man," observed his host.  "Go off to fight ship.  Tell
+moch.  Ah, ah!"  And he winked and nodded and turned his eyes about in a
+curious way.
+
+Jack concluded that he proposed going off to the ship, and would give
+some information about the slavers, and that he wanted him to vouch for
+his character.
+
+"All right," answered Jack; "you come on board; we shall be very happy
+to see you, and bring your book of certificates--remember that."
+Considering the small vocabulary possessed by the negro, he managed to
+carry on a good deal of conversation with his guest.  At last he made a
+sign that it was time to go to bed, and, pointing to a bundle of mats,
+he told him to lie down, and that no harm would come to him.  Jack did
+as he was bid, and, having a good conscience and a good digestion, was
+very soon asleep.
+
+The household was astir by an early hour.  When Jack opened his eyes, he
+saw that two or three strangers were in the room.  They looked at him
+askance, with no friendly glance.  His host soon after entered, and it
+was very evident that a change had come over the man's feelings towards
+him.  Jack, however, got up, and, shaking himself, tried to look as
+unconcerned as possible.  The bloodhound also, which had been very good
+friends with him the previous evening, walked in and stalked, snuffing,
+and growling round and round him.  Jack did not like the look of
+affairs.  Some food at last was brought in for breakfast--baked yams,
+fried fish, farina, and other delicacies, of which his host invited him
+to partake, but was evidently inclined to treat him with very little
+ceremony.  When the meal was over.  Jack intimated that he should like
+to begin his journey to get on board his ship.  The negro laughed and
+said something to the other men.  "You no go dere now, you go wid dees."
+Jack's countenance fell.  The other blackamoors grinned, and without
+ceremony took him by the shoulder to lead him off.  The midshipman's
+impulse was to resist, and he began to lay about him with his stick,
+which he snatched up from a corner, but the blacks threw themselves upon
+him, while the horrid bloodhound sprang at his legs, and in an instant
+he was overpowered, and his hands once more bound behind him.  Jack
+thought that before he was carried off, he would try and induce the big
+negro to help him, so he exclaimed, "I say, friend pilot, perhaps you
+can't help this; so just let them know on board ship where I am, and you
+will be well rewarded."  He saw the negro grin, but before he could get
+an answer, he was hurried off by his new masters.  They conducted him
+along over ground very similar to that which he had passed the previous
+day.  Now and then he saw fields of Indian corn, and small patches
+cultivated with other grains, but otherwise the country was covered
+mostly with a dense jungle, very narrow paths only being cut through it.
+After travelling five or six miles, they reached the river, and having
+dragged a canoe from among the bushes on the banks, all the party got
+into it, and paddled away up the stream.  The cords were by this time
+really hurting Jack's arms, and he made all the signs he could think of
+to induce the negroes to remove them.  To his great satisfaction, after
+talking together, one of them got up and slackened the knots, so that he
+could throw the rope off.  He expressed his thanks to the negro, and
+placed it gently by his side.  Scarcely had he done so, when his eye
+fell on a piece of board floating by.  He stretched out his hand and got
+hold of it.  That instant the idea flashed into his mind, that this
+board might enable him to communicate with his shipmates.  It very soon
+dried, and then, as if to amuse himself, he took out his knife and began
+cutting away at it.  If he could carve but a few words, they might be
+sufficient to signify where he had gone.  He carved, in no very regular
+characters, "A prisoner, up south branch.--Jack R."  As soon as he had
+done this, pretending to be tired of the amusement, he threw the board
+into the stream and watched it floating down towards the sea.  "It is a
+hundred to one whether it is picked up," he said to himself with a sigh,
+"I'll double the chances though."  So he looked out for another board or
+piece of stick; and having before long got one, carved that in the same
+way.  The blacks did not seem to suspect his object, and allowed him to
+continue the operation.  After paddling about an hour, they ran up a
+small creek with black mudbanks; and when they had drawn the canoe on
+shore, Jack found himself standing before a strong stockade or fort with
+a deep ditch round it.  There was no gate on the side turned towards the
+river, but going round some way, they arrived at an entrance over a
+rough drawbridge.  The negroes talked a few minutes together, and then
+led Jack in.  The object for which the fort was used was very clear.  In
+the centre stood a large barracoon full of slaves.  This barracoon was a
+shed built of heavy piles driven down into the earth, lashed together
+with bamboos, and thatched with palm-leaves.  Jack, as he passed, looked
+in.  Sad was the spectacle which met his sight.  The negroes who had
+charge of Jack did not appear to have found the person of whom they were
+in search; for after waiting some time they led him again out of the
+fort and took the road up a hill away from the river.  After walking
+some way they reached a village or town.  It was surrounded by a bamboo
+fence.  They entered by a narrow gateway at the end of a street.  The
+houses, or rather huts, were all joined together, forming one long shed
+of uniform height on each side of the road.  Each habitation had a small
+low door, which alone showed the number of separate dwellings in a row.
+The sides were composed of broad strips of bark, and bamboo leaves
+served for the thatch.  Here and there were larger houses built of
+bamboo, with raised floors, marking the residences of chief men.  At
+last they reached a house nearly a hundred feet in length, and, having
+ascended some steps, Jack found himself ushered into the presence of a
+burly negro, who was sitting in oriental style on a pile of mats smoking
+a pipe.  He had on a cocked-hat and a green uniform coat covered with
+gold-lace, wide seamen's trousers and yellow slippers, a striped shirt,
+and a red sash round his waist.  From his air he evidently considered
+himself a very important personage, and Jack did not doubt that he was
+in the presence of some Indian potentate.  Round the room were several
+mirrors in gilt frames, and on a table stood a large silver bowl, while
+there were a couple of chairs and a sofa covered with damask or silk.
+The king, for so he called himself, looked at Jack sternly and said,
+"For what you come to my country, eh?"
+
+Jack answered that he had been brought there against his will, and that
+he had no intention of coming.  But his Majesty seemed to doubt him, and
+asked him a number of questions to elicit the truth.  At length,
+however, he seemed satisfied.  Jack was in hopes that he had made a
+favourable impression, and as he was getting hungry, he intimated that
+he should like some dinner.  The king seemed pleased at the request, and
+ordered it to be brought into the room.  It was a very good repast, and
+Jack was getting very happy, and hoping that there would be no great
+difficulty in making his escape, when the aspect of affairs was once
+more changed by the appearance of the two Spaniards who had picked him
+off the wreck of the slaver.  They looked very fierce, and made
+threatening gestures at him, and abused him to the king for running away
+from them, and he discovered that they knew all about the expedition of
+the _Archer's_ boats up the river, and the capture of the schooner.  He,
+however, went on eating his dinner, and tried to look unconcerned about
+the matter.  This enraged them still more.  What they might have done he
+could not tell; but suddenly a man rushed into the room, and gave some
+piece of information which seemed to put them all into a state of great
+agitation.  They seized upon Jack and dragged him off, and they and a
+number of other people, headed by the king, rushed down the bill towards
+the fort.  From the few words dropped which Jack could comprehend, he
+understood that they expected an attack to be made on it for the purpose
+of rescuing the slaves, and that they were resolved to defend it to the
+last.  He found himself dragged along till he was carried into the fort
+with the crowd; he was then shown a gun, and it was intimated to him
+that if he did not do his best to fight, he should forthwith have his
+brains blown out--a dreadful alternative, but from which he could
+discover not the slightest prospect of escaping.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+IN THE NEGRO PRISON.
+
+Jack Rogers stood near the gun at which he had been placed in the
+slavers' fort.  He had plenty of time to consider how he should act;
+but, turn the matter over in his mind as much as he would, he could not
+arrive at a satisfactory decision.  The alternatives left for his choice
+were to fire at his friends or to be shot himself.  The slave-traders
+and their assistants, and the slavers' crews who stood around him, were
+fellows whose very ill-looking countenances showed that they would not
+scruple to execute with very scant warning any threat they had made.  An
+older man than Jack might have felt very uncomfortable under such
+circumstances.  A more evil-disposed band of ruffians could not often
+have been collected together.  They were of all colours, from those who
+called themselves white to negroes of the most ebon hue.  Not that the
+whites had much claim to the distinction, for they were so bronzed by
+sun and wind that they were almost as dark as the Africans, and
+certainly they were not the least villainous-looking of the gang.  Two
+of them especially, who had belonged to the crew of the schooner Jack
+had assisted to capture, seemed to have recognised him, and paid him
+very particular and disagreeable attention.  One of them politely handed
+him a rammer, and showed him how he was to load his gun, while the other
+put a pistol under his nose, and exhibiting the perfect condition of the
+lock, explained with a mild smile that it was not at all likely to miss
+fire.  Jack smelt at the pistol, and flourished the rammer.
+
+"Very good powder I have no doubt," he remarked, looking as unconcerned
+as possible, "but I cannot say that I admire its odour.  If any of you
+have a pinch of snuff to offer me now, I should be obliged to you.  I
+want something to overcome the smell of the mud, which is anything but
+pleasant, let me assure you."
+
+The Spaniard, though he did not understand what Jack said, comprehended
+his signs; and, thus appealed to, could not resist pulling out his
+snuff-box and offering it to him, though he fully intended, in case of
+any sign of insubordination, to blow out his brains at a moment's
+notice.  Jack dipped his fingers into the snuff-box with all the
+coolness and as great an air as he could command.  He knew that his best
+chance of escape was to throw his captors off their guard.  "_Bueno,
+bueno_," he remarked, scattering the snuff under his nose as he had seen
+Spaniards do, for in reality he had no wish to take any up his nostrils.
+The slave-traders could not help shrugging their shoulders, and
+thinking that they had got hold of a very independent sort of young
+gentleman.  They talked together a good deal, and from what they said
+Jack made out that they were proposing to invite him to join them.  "A
+very good joke," he thought to himself; "the rascals!  I'll humour them
+in it, however; it will certainly afford me a better chance of escape."
+
+During this time a number of blacks were pouring into the fort, carrying
+all sorts of arms, most of them matchlocks of very antique construction,
+though some were muskets which had probably not long before left the
+workshops of Birmingham.  Jack, hoping that he had thrown his captors a
+little off their guard, shouldered his rammer, and walked about to try
+and obtain a more perfect notion of the state of affairs.  Looking
+through the stockades, he saw that the fort commanded entirely the reach
+of the river, at the extreme upper end of which it was situated.  The
+stream there made a sudden bend, nearly doubling back on itself; and as
+the fort was placed almost on this point, the guns in it could fire
+point-blank right down the stream.  No boats had yet appeared, but from
+the look of intense eagerness exhibited on the countenances of all the
+blacks, he had no doubt that they were near at hand.  The whole fort was
+in a great state of bustle, if not of confusion.  The black warriors
+were running about here and there, chattering away to each other, and
+examining not only their own arms, but those of everybody else.  Some of
+them Jack saw squinting down the barrels of their companions' muskets,
+to try and ascertain the cause, apparently, of their not going off,
+while the man at the other end would snap the lock without giving the
+slightest warning.  One of them after this came up to Jack, and, by
+signs and a few words of English, requested him politely to look into
+the muzzle of his musket and ascertain why it would not "fire! bang!" as
+he expressed it, intimating that he had already put in several charges.
+
+Jack declined that mode of proceeding, but begged to look at the other
+end.  Jack burst into a fit of laughter.  "The reason, _amigo_, is this
+_intendez ustedes_," he answered, as soon as he could find breath to
+speak.  "There's no flint to your lock, and if there had been, the
+touch-hole is well stopped up with rust, so you had two very secure
+preventives against its going off.  I only hope that the rest of you
+have arms of a like character.  Not much fear for my friends then."  He
+picked out the touch-hole, however, for the negro, telling him that he
+must put a match into the pan when he wanted to fire it.  He resolved,
+however, to stand clear of the negro when he fired it; for he had little
+doubt that when he did so the barrel would burst, and do much more
+damage to the defenders of the fort than to the assailants.  Jack was in
+hopes that the guns mounted in the fort would prove to be in a similar
+condition; but on examining them he soon saw that they were ship's guns,
+and were in very good order.  He had managed by his independent manner,
+by this time, to throw the slave-dealers off their guard.  He waited for
+an opportunity when they were not watching him, and then hurried back to
+the gun of which they had given him charge.  As he could not manage to
+withdraw the shot, he knocked in a wedge, which gave it an elevation
+calculated to carry it far over the heads of any of the attacking party.
+He looked round when he had done this, to ascertain whether he had been
+observed, but the white men had turned round for some purpose, and the
+blacks did not seem to comprehend what he had been about.  "At all
+events, I shall not have to fire at my friends," he thought to himself,
+"and now the sooner they come on the better for me."  Scarcely had these
+words passed through his mind than he observed a great commotion among
+the motley garrison of the fort, and, looking through the embrasure at
+which his gun was placed, he caught sight of several boats just rounding
+the point at the other end of the reach.  He could not make out who was
+commander-in-chief of the present gang of villains with whom he was
+associated.  The two Spaniards, who had at first paid him so much polite
+attention, were evidently not even officers.  A huge black man, with a
+very ugly visage, seemed to have considerable authority.  He was engaged
+in marshalling the negroes, and posting them at the stockades ready to
+make use of their firearms.  The burly sovereign of the territory was
+nowhere to be seen.  He probably thought discretion the best part of
+valour, and had retired again to his capital, to await the results of
+the contest.  At last Jack's eyes fell on a little wizened old Spaniard
+in a straw hat, nankeen trousers, and a light blue coat, who, as soon as
+he made his appearance, began to order about everybody in an
+authoritative and energetic manner, and very quickly brought the
+confused rabble of defenders into order.  Two or three other Spaniards,
+who from their appearance seemed to be officers, came with him.  He had
+evidently just arrived from a distance, summoned in a hurry, probably,
+to defend the fort.  He went round, looking at the guns, and Jack was
+very much afraid that he would examine his.  Just, however, as he was
+about to do so up went a rocket high into the sky, let off probably as a
+signal for some purpose or other.  It had the effect of calling off the
+old man's attention from him.  The people in the advancing boats seemed
+not to have any notion that they were so near the fort, for they pulled
+on, without in any way quickening their speed, right up towards the
+guns.
+
+Jack had remarked the mode in which the place was fortified, so likely
+to lead strangers into a trap.  In front of the stockades was a deep
+broad ditch, and then beyond it rose a low bank of soft slimy mud, held
+together by reeds and aquatic plants, and which sloped away again down
+to the river.  This bank was covered at high water, but even then Jack
+doubted whether a boat could be got across it.  The slave-traders and
+blacks grinned as they thought of the trap into which the British seamen
+were about to fall.  Jack watched the approach of the boats.  Oh! how he
+longed to warn his friends of the danger threatening them.  He would
+have shouted out to them, but they could not have heard him; and then he
+thought that he would climb up to the top of the stockade and warn them
+off; but he knew that the moment he was seen by the blacks to make any
+signal, a pistol-bullet would be sent through his head.  Jack was
+perfectly ready to run any risk for an adequate object; but after a
+moment's reflection he felt perfectly sure that the boats would come on
+notwithstanding anything he might do, and that the moment for
+sacrificing his life had not yet arrived.
+
+As the boats drew near so did the flurry and excitement among the blacks
+increase: the white men looked along their guns and prepared for action;
+the little wizened old Spaniard posted himself in a position whence he
+could observe all that was going forward.  Jack saw that he was watching
+him, and he also heard him tell one of the Spaniards, who had before
+paid him so much polite attention, to keep an eye on his movements.  The
+old man, probably, had no great confidence in Jack's honesty of
+intentions.  Luckily no one found what Jack had been about with the gun,
+or it would have fared ill with him.  Jack cast many an anxious glance
+through the embrasure, to catch the movements of the boats.  There were
+a good many of them--that was one comfort.  His friends were not so
+likely to be overpowered as he at first feared.  Evidently another ship,
+or perhaps more, had joined the _Archer_ and accompanied her boats up
+the river.  He could not help also turning round to see what the old
+Spaniard was doing.  There he stood on his perch surveying his motley
+crew--the impersonation of an evil spirit--so Jack thought.  Yet he
+looked quite calm and quiet, with a smile--it was not a pleasant one,
+however--playing on his countenance.  In a moment afterwards his whole
+manner changed; he sprang off the ground and clapped his hands, crying
+out loudly, "_Tira! tira, amijos_."  "Fire! fire, my friends! and send
+all those English to perdition."  He was under the belief that the boats
+had just come in a direct line with his guns, and that every shot would
+tell on them.  The Spaniards and blacks were not slow to obey the order.
+Off went the guns, and the small-arm men began peppering away till the
+whole fort was in a cloud of smoke.  Jack delayed firing as long as he
+could, that he might be more certain that his shot would fly over the
+heads of his friends.  He would have waited still longer, had he not
+seen a Spaniard near him cocking his pistol and giving a very
+significant glance towards him.  He had already begun to stoop down to
+fire, when a bullet whistled by his head, and he heard the sharp voice
+of the old Spaniard, "Take that, young traitor, if you don't choose to
+obey orders."
+
+Jack felt that he had had a narrow escape of his life.  Looking along
+his gun, and seeing that the arc he believed the shot would make would
+extend far beyond the boats, he fired.  He could not see where his shot
+went, for at the same moment the British, though at first not a little
+surprised at the warm reception they had encountered, had brought the
+guns in the bows of the boats to bear on the fort, and had opened a hot
+fire in return.
+
+With loud cheers they advanced; but Jack guessed that they had something
+in store which would astonish the blacks much more than the round shot;
+nor was he mistaken.  Up flew, whizzing into the air, a shower of
+rockets, which came down quickly into the middle of the fort, and made
+both Spaniards and negroes scamper here and there at a great rate,
+knocking each other over, shrieking out oaths and prayers in a variety
+of dialects, and trying to hide themselves from their terrific pursuers.
+It was as if a number of wriggling serpents had been turned loose among
+a crowd of people.  The old Spaniard stamped and swore with rage,
+calling the people back to their guns, abusing them, and firing his
+pistols right and left at them to bring them to order.  Jack ran a great
+risk of being shot in the _melee_, either by friends or foes.  Oh, how
+he wished that the former knew the state of affairs inside the fort, and
+would make a dash at that moment and get into it!  It was high tide, and
+the water covered the mudbanks.  The favourable moment was however lost,
+and by the fierce energy of the little old Spaniard the defenders of the
+fort were driven back to their guns.  Jack pretended to be very busy
+loading his.  He had managed to get in a shot during the confusion, and
+one of the blacks next rammed in the powder and put another shot in
+after it.  "All right! now blaze away, my hearty!" he sang out.  He had
+piled up a good quantity of powder over the touch-hole, so there was an
+abundance of smoke, and the negro whom he addressed fully believed that
+the gun had gone off.
+
+"Now more powder and shot, old boy," cried Jack; "ram away!"
+
+Jack's gun was not likely to hurt his friends, but had the old Spaniard
+seen his tricks, he would very likely have had another bullet fired at
+him.  Fortunately the old fellow was too much engaged.  The whole fort
+was full of smoke, and the defenders, having got over their first alarm
+at the rockets, were blazing away with all their might.  Jack caught
+sight of the boats for an instant, separating on either hand so as to
+avoid the direct fire from the fort, and then he heard in another minute
+that true hearty British cheer, which has so often struck terror into
+the hearts of England's enemies.  On either flank there came pouring
+into the fort a fresh flight of rockets, and almost the next instant
+Jack saw the boats' bows run stem on to the mudbank, which almost
+surrounded the fort.  In vain the seamen endeavoured to shove the boats
+over it--they stuck fast.  Jack shouted as loud as he could, in hopes
+that his voice might be heard, for he caught a glimpse of Alick Murray
+in one of the boats and Paddy Adair in another, using every effort to
+get up to the stockade.  Perhaps they heard him, for he saw them leap
+overboard, followed by their men, with the intention clearly of wading
+up to the stockade, ignorant of course of the deep ditch between them
+and it.  Jack felt sure that they would be shot down by the blacks if
+they made the attempt.  He could restrain himself no longer, but ran
+towards them, shouting out, "Back, back! you can't get in that way!"
+Whether they heard him or not he could not tell, for a heavy blow on the
+head was dealt him by the butt end of a pistol, the owner of which, one
+of his Spanish friends, would certainly have shot him had it been
+loaded, and he fell to the ground, stunned and helpless.
+
+How long he thus lay he could not tell.  It could not have been for any
+length of time, for the battle was still raging when he came to his
+senses.  He instantly crawled to one of the embrasures, and looked out.
+The English had suffered severely.  One boat lay on the mud, disabled,
+and the dead bodies of several men strewed the mudbank, which the
+falling tide had left dry.  Then he turned his head, for he heard loud
+cheers and shouts, and cries and howls, on one side of the fort.  A
+fresh attack, he suspected, had just been made.  It was resisted with
+all the desperation of despair by most of the Spaniards and many of the
+blacks.  The British were forcing their way in.  He caught sight of the
+heads of the seamen surmounting the stockade, and then he saw that it
+was Alick Murray leading them on.  The spectacle gave him fresh life.
+He jumped on his legs and gave a loud huzzah.
+
+He had better have been silent.  The old Spaniard, who had been flying
+about in every direction with the most wonderful activity, encouraging
+the people, pointing the guns, and showing himself the leading spirit of
+the gang, caught sight of him.  It had now become evident that the fort
+would be taken; there was but one outlet by which the gang could escape;
+the ruffians began to give way.  Numbers were wounded; many lay dead on
+the ground.  Several of the fugitives passed him.  He was hoping that
+the moment of his deliverance was at hand, when he felt his shoulder
+grasped by the little old Spaniard, and found himself dragged along by a
+power he could not resist.  He struggled, but struggled in vain.  Small
+as the old man was, he was all sinew and muscle; his clutch was like
+that of a vice.  There was a fierce rush, blacks, Spaniards, and
+mulattoes were all mingled together; and good reason they had to run,
+for at their heels came fast a body of English seamen, slashing away
+with their cutlasses, and firing their pistols.  Hemming, Murray, and
+Adair were leading them, and Jack recognised some of the officers of his
+own ship, the _Ranger_.  He now knew how it was the expedition had been
+strengthened.  He sought to escape from his captor.  "If you shout, I'll
+shoot you!" said the old man, in English, grinning horribly.  He was in
+hopes his old schoolfellows would have recognised him.  Back he was
+hurried.  Still he felt sure that his friends would overtake him.  The
+retreating villains had got close to the barracoon, and not far from the
+last entrance to the fort.  The seamen pressed on.  There was still some
+space between the parties, when the old man fired his pistol into a cask
+sunk into the ground; a thick smoke came out of it.  Back, back the
+pirates pushed.  In an instant more a dense mass rose before them of
+earth, and stone, and timbers, horribly mingled with the arms and legs
+and bodies of human beings;--a mine had been sprung.  Jack was in an
+agony of fear for the fate of his friends.  He could see nothing of
+them.  He observed only that the mine had taken effect under one end of
+the barracoon.  The terrible shrieks and cries of its wretched inmates
+rang in his ears.  A large number of them had been liberated, and with
+loud yells were following in the rear of the slave-dealers, for whom
+they served as an effective shield against the shot of the seamen.  The
+slaves had been told that the English would kill them, so they ran away
+as soon as they were let out of the barracoon, as fast as the rest.  The
+piratical crew, for such they really were, took their way up the hill,
+towards the king's residence, followed closely by the slaves and all the
+rabble who had escaped out of the fort.  Jack expected that his friends
+would have pursued, and should he escape the pistol of the old gentleman
+who had him by the arm, he hoped before long to be rescued.  They had
+not, however, got far up the hill when he saw flames burst forth from
+the barracoon, in which he knew, judging from those following, that a
+number of poor wretches had been left in chains, and he truly guessed
+that his countrymen were stopping to try and rescue them.  The flames
+burst fiercely, and blazed up high, as they caught the dry inflammable
+timber of which the building was composed.  Nothing could arrest their
+progress.  The gallant seamen, he knew, would be dashing in among them
+in spite of the hot smoke, and doing their best to rescue the
+unfortunate wretches, but he feared that few would be saved.  Even where
+he was he could hear their piteous shrieks, as the flames caught hold of
+them, chained as they were and unable to escape.  As was too likely the
+pirates had set fire to the barracoon on purpose to delay the English;
+this plan succeeded perfectly.  Often the same sort of thing has been
+done at sea, and when a slaver has been hard-pressed, blacks have been
+thrown overboard by the crew, to induce the English cruiser to stop and
+pick them up, and thus enable them to escape.  Jack was dragged away up
+the hill, through the gateway of the town, and into the king's palace.
+That worthy was seated where Jack had first seen him, and employed much
+in the same way--smoking a pipe.
+
+"Why have you brought him?" inquired his sable majesty of the little old
+Spaniard, whom Jack heard addressed as Don Diogo.
+
+"He will serve as a hostage--they have got some of our people," was the
+answer.
+
+"But will they give us back any of the slaves?" asked the king.
+
+"Not one--whatever we may threaten," replied the Don, grinding his
+teeth.  "They will not have got many, that is one comfort.  A
+considerable number came with us, and most of those we were unable to
+set loose have been burnt.  Our enemies have not gained much by their
+victory in any way, for we killed a good many of them, and destroyed
+some of their boats.  We have had a desperate fight of it, though."
+
+"It may be as well, then, not to kill the youngster, though it might be
+a satisfaction to you," said the king, looking at the Don.
+
+"Not for the present," said Don Diogo.  "We will keep him for a short
+time, and see how high his friends value him.  If they refuse to give
+enough in exchange for him, as he can be of no use here, we can then
+shoot him!"
+
+Jack, of course, could not understand all this conversation; but he made
+out enough to comprehend its tenor, which was certainly not of a
+character to enliven him.  After a little time he found himself hauled
+out of the king's presence and thrust into a small hut by himself.  A
+black, with a brace of pistols in his belt, and a musket which looked as
+if it would go off, was placed sentry over him.  He either would not, or
+probably could not, reply to any of the questions Jack put to him,
+whenever he thrust his head in at the door, apparently to ascertain that
+his prisoner was all safe.
+
+Thus passed the day.  Towards the evening Jack began to be very hungry
+and very sick, and to wonder whether he was to be starved to death.  He
+pointed to his mouth, and made every sign he could think of to show that
+he was hungry, but the sentry appeared to take no notice of him.  At
+last, however, another man opened the door and placed a bowl of farina
+before him.  It was not very dainty fare, but he was too sharp set to be
+particular, and so set to on it at once and gobbled away till he had
+finished it.  He was wondering whether he should have to sleep on the
+bare ground, when the same man appeared with a bundle of Indian corn and
+other leaves, and threw them down in the corner, making a sign that they
+were to serve him as his bed.  "Thank you, old fellow, I might go
+farther and fare worse."  His spirits rose somewhat, for he judged
+rightly that his captors would not take so much trouble about him had
+they intended to murder him.  He did not forget how mercifully his life
+had been preserved during the day, and he offered up his thanks on high
+before he threw himself on his bed of leaves to go to sleep.
+
+He slept as soundly as a top all night, and when he awoke he could
+scarcely remember what had occurred during the previous day.  Before
+long his former attendant appeared and placed another bowl of farina
+before him.  "If they were cannibals, I might have some suspicions of
+their intentions," he said to himself; "they don't propose to eat me;
+but I know that I shall grow enormously fat if I go on long ramming down
+such stuff as this."  However, as he was very hungry, he did swallow the
+whole of it.  Hours passed away; no one else came near him.  He fully
+expected to find the town attacked by the English, and waited
+impatiently to hear the sounds of the commencement of the strife; but,
+except that occasionally he heard tom-toms beating at a distance, and a
+few shots fired, everything in the town was quiet.  It was sometime in
+the afternoon when two armed blacks appeared, and marched Jack out of
+his prison up to the king's palace.  The king scarcely took any notice
+of him as he entered the reception-room.  Soon after Don Diogo appeared.
+
+"Will they give up the slaves?" asked the king.
+
+"Not a bit of it," answered Don Diogo.  "They say that if we kill that
+lad, then they will kill six times as many people of ours."
+
+"That can't be helped," observed the king.  "The people were born to be
+killed."
+
+"Certainly," answered Don Diogo; "but there are some Spaniards among
+them, and I require their services."
+
+"But is it not possible that they may come and burn my town?  I have no
+wish for that to happen, even for your sake, my friend," said the king.
+
+"Shoot the midshipman if they do," answered Don Diogo, turning a not
+very pleasant glance at Jack.  "At present, however, they do not seem
+disposed to attack us.  We have given them enough to attend to for the
+present.  We killed a good number, and the boats have gone back with the
+wounded and prisoners."
+
+"Then the young jackanapes of an officer may be shut up in prison
+again," said the king.
+
+Scarcely had the order been given when a Spaniard rushed with fierce
+gestures into the room.  "Those English have killed some of our friends,
+and we are resolved to have our revenge," he exclaimed, looking savagely
+at Jack, and handling his long knife.
+
+"Don't kill him yet, though," said Don Diogo, with his usual coolness;
+"it will be time enough when he is of no further use.  Take him away
+now."
+
+These were not exactly the words Jack heard used, but he made out that
+such was their tenor.
+
+Poor Jack!  He was thrust rudely back into his dark, dirty hut, and the
+only food he received was a bowl of the ill-dressed farina, of which he
+was getting heartily tired.  His spirits began to fall lower than they
+had ever before done.  He saw no hope of escape; for he was certain that
+should the English threaten to attack the town, that instant he would
+put be to death, even should he escape the long knives of some of the
+Spaniards who had evidently a hankering for his blood.  At last he fell
+asleep.  Midshipmen have a knack of sleeping under the most adverse
+circumstances.  His powers in that way were very considerable.  It was
+daylight when he awoke; but there were no sounds to indicate that the
+negro population was astir.  He could not help fancying that some
+attempt would be made by Captain Lascelles and Captain Grant to rescue
+him; but the day passed on, and no one except the man who brought him
+his insipid farina came near him.  If he had had any mode in which to
+employ himself, he could, he thought, have the better borne his
+imprisonment and the dreadful state of suspense in which he was placed.
+All he could do was to walk about or sit on his bed of leaves with his
+head resting on his knees.  Now and then, as the evening approached and
+his weariness increased, he jumped up and thought that he would force
+his way out and make a run for it: but then the feeling that he would
+most certainly be killed if he made the attempt, besides recollecting
+not knowing where he should run to, induced him to sit down again and
+chew the cud of impatience.  Night came again.  He was more melancholy
+than ever.  He thought that he was deserted, or that probably his
+friends fancied he was killed, and would not trouble themselves further
+about him.  He had no inclination to sleep even after it grew dark.  He
+listened to the various noises in the village, or rather city it should
+be called.  They amused him somewhat--the odd tones of the negroes'
+voices, the shouts, the laughter, the cries of babies, the barking of
+curs, the beating of tom-toms.  At last, however, even they ceased, and
+he dozed away till he forgot where he was and everything that had
+happened.  How long he had slept he could not tell; or rather, had he
+been asked he would have asserted that he had not been asleep at all,
+when he opened his eyes and saw by the light of the moon, which shone
+through a hole in the roof, the round face of a black boy looking down
+upon him with a friendly and compassionate expression.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+IN SEARCH OF JACK.
+
+Three of the _Archer's_ boats were manned, and under the command of
+Lieutenant Hemming, Murray having charge of one and Adair of the other,
+were about to shove off and proceed up the river to search for their
+missing shipmates, when a sail was seen from the mast-head standing down
+toward them.  She was quickly made out to be a large ship, and in a
+short time little doubt remained that she was an English frigate.
+Captain Grant, therefore, ordered the boats to delay their departure
+that a more powerful expedition might be forthwith despatched to compete
+with any enemies with whom they might fall in.  "Hurrah! she's our own
+ship the _Ranger_," exclaimed Adair, who had gone aloft to have a look
+at the stranger, and now came below to make his report to Hemming;
+"Captain Lascelles is just the man to back up Captain Grant; if he knows
+of any barracoons or slavers' strongholds of any description, he will be
+for going in and blowing them all up without a moment's delay."
+
+To prove that Adair was right, the _Ranger_ soon after made her number,
+and at the same time another sail appeared to the northward.  She turned
+out to be a brig-of-war, the _Wasp_.  Captain Grant immediately went on
+board the frigate.  Captain Lascelles entered fully into his plan, and
+instead of three, as soon as the _Wasp_ came up, fortunately ten boats
+started on the expedition.  Hemming was much gratified when Captain
+Lascelles declined to supersede him, assuring him that no one was better
+qualified to be entrusted with the command.  There is always something
+very exciting in an expedition, no matter what the object, but when
+there is some uncertainty and danger, and a prospect of fighting,
+everybody gets into the highest possible spirits.  Murray and Adair
+would have been in high spirits also had they not been anxious about
+Jack.  Not that they were very unhappy.  They had all so often missed
+each other, and been in difficulties and dangers, that they thought he
+would turn up somewhere before long.  The boats dashed over the bar, and
+pulled up the south branch.  As it was flood-tide they made rapid
+progress.  They had gone some way up when they saw some one on the bank
+of the river beckoning to them.  "A mere naked nigger," said Adair,
+looking through his glass, "not worth waiting for him I should think."
+Hemming seemed to be of the same opinion, for the boats continued their
+progress.  Seeing this the negro set off running as fast as he could go,
+and was soon lost to sight in the jungle.  Not long after they came to
+the end of a reach, and then it appeared that the river doubled back as
+it were on itself.
+
+"Hillo, there is something in the water ahead of us," sang out Adair to
+Murray.
+
+"It is a negro swimming off to us.  Do you see him, sir?" said Murray to
+Hemming, whose boat was near his.
+
+The negro lifted up his hand, as if trying to make a signal to them, and
+wishing to be taken into one of the boats.  Hemming told Murray to pull
+towards the negro, and ascertain what he wanted.  In a few minutes
+Murray had hauled a young negro lad into his boat.  "What is it you
+want, my lad?" asked Alick, in his usual kind way.  The poor negro
+evidently wanted to speak, but could not find English words enough to
+express himself, though he was very voluble when employing his own
+language.  No sooner, however, had Murray returned to the line of boats
+and retaken his place near Hemming, than the black lad's countenance
+brightened up.  "Ah, Massa Hemming, Massa Hemming," he exclaimed, trying
+to spring into the lieutenant's boat.  He would in his eagerness have
+jumped overboard, had not some of the seamen held him back.
+
+"He seems to know you, sir," said Murray.
+
+"Is, is--me know Massa Hemming; is, is, kind massa," exclaimed the young
+negro, eagerly catching at the words.
+
+"Let him come into my boat, and I'll hear what he has got to say," said
+Hemming, greatly to the delight of the negro, who clearly understood
+him.  No sooner was the black lad on board Hemming's boat, than he
+seized his hand and kissed it, and showed every mark of affection.  Then
+with evident eagerness and haste he made all sorts of signs, aiding them
+by such few words as he knew.  "Man come--bad, no, no," he said,
+pointing up the river.  Hemming understood that some one would come and
+try and mislead them, and that they were not to trust to him.  Then
+Hemming tried to ascertain the fate of the missing boat's crew.  His
+heart sank when the negro explained by signs that he could not mistake
+that they had all been murdered.
+
+"No one escaped?" he asked.
+
+The negro shook his head, no, not one survived, it appeared.  Murray and
+Adair were soon made acquainted with the information, and then indeed
+they began to fear that Jack Rogers, their gallant jovial companion, was
+lost to them for ever.  Grief and indignation, and a desire to punish
+the perpetrators of the deed, took possession of their hearts.  That was
+but natural.  It is difficult to distinguish between revenge, which is
+wrong, and a desire to punish evil-doers, when we ourselves are affected
+by their misdeeds.
+
+The young negro, after talking away and making signs to Hemming for some
+time longer, desired to be put on shore.  Murray was ordered to convey
+him there.
+
+"Good man--good man, Massa Hemming," he kept saying all the time.  "Take
+care, bad man come off shore."
+
+As soon as he landed, off he darted again through the mangrove bushes,
+and was lost to sight.
+
+"He seems to be an old friend of yours, sir," observed Murray when he
+got back.
+
+"Yes, I find that he is a lad I once, when he was a young boy, jumped
+overboard to save in the West Indies after he had been taken out of a
+slaver," answered Hemming carelessly.  "He made me out when we were in
+the river before taking the Spanish schooner, and has ever since been
+watching for an opportunity to speak to me.  I cannot make out exactly
+what he wishes to guard us against--some treachery, I conclude.  I could
+not fancy that he would have recollected me so long.  It shows that
+blacks have grateful hearts."
+
+Hemming sympathised much with Murray and Adair, for he knew of their
+attachment to Jack, and he fully believed that he had been lost with the
+rest.  Bitter and sad were their feelings.  "Oh, Jack, Jack!" muttered
+Adair in a tone of grief, "are you really gone?"  The flotilla of boats
+proceeded some way farther, when a large canoe was seen paddling out
+towards them from the shore.  A burly negro sat in the stern and made a
+profound salaam with his palm-leaf hat as he approached.
+
+"Me first pilot in dis river," he shouted with a stentorian voice, "take
+me board--me come show way."
+
+Hemming ordered his crew to cease rowing, and took him into his boat to
+hear what he had got to say for himself.  He had, however, exhausted
+nearly all his vocabulary in his first address, and there was some
+difficulty in understanding him.  In vain Hemming tried to gain some
+information about the missing boat and her crew.  The negro either knew
+nothing or was resolved not to tell.  At last he produced a book of
+certificates, and when Hemming had glanced over them he burst into a fit
+of laughter, and handed them back.  The big negro looked exceedingly
+indignant, and, striking his breast, repeated vehemently--
+
+"Me good man--me show way."
+
+Many of the certificates had been far from complimentary to the negro,
+but still Hemming thought that he might be useful as a pilot, till he
+recollected the warning he had just before received.
+
+"This is undoubtedly the very fellow I was to expect," he said to
+himself.  "No, no, you go on shore; we can do without you," he
+exclaimed, addressing the negro.
+
+The burly savage blustered and protested, but he was made to step into
+his canoe, which had been paddling alongside, and Hemming signified to
+him clearly that he must take himself off.  They observed him watching
+them for some way; then he hauled up his canoe, and taking a path
+inland, they saw no more of him.  They had pulled on for half an hour or
+more when Murray caught sight of a board floating in the water.  He
+could scarcely account for the impulse which made him steer towards it
+and pick it up.  His eye brightened as he looked at it.
+
+"Hurrah!" he shouted joyfully; "hurrah!  Jack Rogers is alive; here is a
+note from him.  There is no doubt about it.  It is short though--he
+says, `A prisoner.  Up south branch.  Jack R.'"  The shout was taken up
+by his own crew and the crews of all the other boats, and the banks of
+the stream rang with their loud hurrahs.  This brief notice instigated
+all hands to make still greater exertions to try and recover Jack,
+wherever he might be.  On they went; reach after reach of the winding
+river was passed, and they had got a long way up, higher than any of
+them had been before, when a shot, seeming as if it came out of the
+bank, flew over their heads.  Another and another followed.
+
+"We are just in front of the pirates' battery," exclaimed Hemming; "on,
+lads, on! we'll storm it without delay."  The seamen required no further
+encouragement.  A shower of rockets was first fired into the enemy's
+fort, and then on they dashed, in spite of the heavy fire of musketry,
+as well as of grape-shot and langrage, which was opened on them in
+return.  To their rage and disappointment, the boats stuck on the
+mudbank just outside the stockades, which they only then discovered.
+Many of the seamen leaped out of the boats and attempted to wade
+onwards, but they either at once sank into the mud or fell forward into
+the deep ditch, where several were shot down before they could be
+rescued by their comrades, while others were drowned or smothered in the
+mud.  It was horrible work.  An enemy whom they despised was close to
+them, and yet could not be got at.  Hemming, his heart burning with
+anger and grief at the loss of so many poor fellows and the almost
+hopelessness of success, ordered the boats to shove off, with the
+intention of making an attack on some other part of the fort.  The
+blacks continued firing away under cover without much fear of being hit
+in return.  It was melancholy to have to retire, and to see the bank,
+from off which the water had begun to recede, strewed with the bodies of
+those who a few minutes before were as full of life and energy as
+themselves.  Before getting to any great distance, Murray thought he saw
+a channel to the right, which must run near the fort.  He pointed it out
+to Hemming, who told him to lead the way.  He was right; the negroes had
+neglected to fortify it, and in a few seconds the boats were close up to
+the stockades.  Not a moment was lost in storming them and hauling them
+down.  In rushed the gallant bluejackets, led on by Hemming, Murray,
+Adair, and other officers, and at length they got their black enemy face
+to face.
+
+"There's Rogers, there's Rogers!" shouted Murray and Adair, for they
+both saw him at the same time.  They were certain of it, though his
+features were considerably begrimed with powder, smoke, and dirt.  This
+was incentive enough to make them push on with still greater haste, had
+they not been eager to punish the abominable slave-dealers and their
+crew of ruffians.  The brave fellows little knew the terrible trap
+prepared for them.  Murray and Adair had sprung on ahead, and believed
+that in another minute they would have rescued Jack from the grasp of
+his captors, when they felt themselves suddenly pulled back by Hemming
+and Will Needham.
+
+"Back, back, lads, back!" sang out the lieutenant.  At that moment up
+ascended right before them a mass of earth and stones and wood, with a
+dense cloud of smoke and dust, accompanied by a terrific roar, and they
+felt themselves lifted off their feet and sent heels over head, while
+down upon them came showering all the more solid portions of the
+above-mentioned materials about their ears, as they lay half stunned and
+stifled and vainly endeavouring to rise.  Another foot in advance, and
+they would have been blown to destruction.  Hemming had seen the old
+Spaniard fire his pistol into the tub, and guessed what was coming.
+Murray and Adair felt themselves very much hurt, so indeed were Hemming
+and Needham; while several poor fellows were maimed or killed outright.
+The two schoolfellows, after lying stupefied for a few seconds, lifted
+up their heads and began to crawl out from the mass of ruins which
+surrounded them.
+
+"Where's Jack?" exclaimed Murray.
+
+"Where's Jack?" cried Adair, getting upon his legs and helping Murray,
+who was hurt more than he was.
+
+These were the first words they uttered.  He had not been out of their
+thoughts, in spite of the dreadful commotion.  As the smoke cleared away
+they caught sight of the group of fugitives, among whom they supposed he
+was, ascending the hill which rose beyond the fort.  They were eager to
+pursue, but when they looked round and saw so many of their companions
+disabled, and Lieutenant Hemming himself on the ground, they could not
+help fearing that pursuit would be hopeless.  Still they were moving on,
+when Hemming, recovering himself, called them back.
+
+"It is of no use, lads," he cried.  "The scoundrels have escaped us this
+time.  See, see, too, we have work here," As he spoke, flames burst
+forth out of the barracoon, part of which had been blown up by the mine.
+The seamen who could stand, wounded or not, rushed forward, led by
+their officers, to help the miserable slaves.  They hacked away
+desperately to get them free of their manacles, trying to cut through
+the solid iron or the beams to which the chains were secured.  Meantime
+the hot flames were raging around them, and almost prevented them from
+performing their work of mercy.  Still, in spite of the fire, the heat,
+and the smoke, and the possibility of being again blown up, the
+undaunted fellows laboured on.  Numbers of the poor slaves had been
+liberated, and several children had been carried off who would otherwise
+have been left with their mothers to perish; but at last the terrific
+element gained the upper hand.  The seamen's clothes were literally
+scorched off their backs before they would quit the work of humanity on
+which they were engaged, but even they were at last obliged to retreat,
+leaving the miserable captives to their fate.  Again and again, however,
+now one, now another, would make a dash in among the flames, and try to
+haul out some poor burning creature whose imploring cries their tender
+heart could not withstand.  One gallant fellow was killed by the falling
+of a burning beam before they would desist altogether from their brave
+efforts.
+
+By this time the retreating slave-dealers had got completely out of
+sight, and when Lieutenant Hemming looked round and saw the number of
+men he had lost, and the disabled state of some of his boats, and of so
+many of his followers, he felt that he could in no way be justified in
+attempting to continue the pursuit.  An officer often shows his bravery
+and fitness for command as much by his discretion and by holding back as
+by pushing forward.
+
+Hemming was just one of these men.  If he thought a thing ought to be
+done, he did not stop to consider what others would say about it, he did
+it.  He now ordered his party to collect, and having conveyed some of
+the lighter guns to the boats, and spiked and turned the others over
+into the mud, and set fire to what would burn in the fort, he ordered
+all hands to make preparations for embarking with the rescued slaves, as
+well as with four Spaniards, three of whom were wounded, and several
+negroes who had been captured.  He had formed a plan which he hoped to
+carry out.  Some time, however, was occupied in repairing two of the
+boats; one was so completely destroyed that he could not carry her off.
+Before all these arrangements were concluded and the party were prepared
+to embark, it was late in the day.  Hemming wanted, by a show of
+retreating, to throw the slave-dealers and negroes off their guard; and
+then to make a sudden dash up the stream and to come upon them unawares,
+having previously sent down the river to the ships some of the boats
+with the captured slaves.  The rest of the officers agreed to the plan
+as soon as he propounded it to them, and Murray and Adair were consoled
+at the thought of soon being able to return and attempt Jack's rescue.
+The state, however, of his wounded men, and the difficulty of navigating
+the river in the dark, compelled Hemming to bring up sooner than he had
+intended.  A spot of high ground near the river which he thought might
+be easily defended induced him to land.  Some bamboos and young trees
+were cut down to form a stockade, fires were lighted, sails were spread
+to form tents, and every preparation was made for passing the night.
+
+"I only wish that Jack was here; he would enjoy this," observed Paddy to
+Alick.  "I say, by hook or by crook, we must get him out of the hands of
+those ruffians.  I've been turning the matter over in my mind, and I am
+resolved, if Mr Hemming does not think fit to go back and try and
+rescue Jack, that I will make the attempt myself.  I could very soon
+black myself all over, and a nigger's costume will not take long to
+extemporise.  I would soon frizzle up my hair, and with an old palm-leaf
+hat on the top of it, and my shirt with the tails hanging down, and tied
+round the waist by a piece of rope-yarn, I should look every inch of me
+a blackamoor."
+
+"Capital," observed Murray; "I'll accompany you if we find better
+measures fail; but still I fear that we should run a great risk of being
+discovered by the blacks."
+
+"Not a bit of it," answered Adair; "the very daring of the thing would
+throw them off their guard.  They would never expect that two white
+people could so speedily turn themselves into niggers.  Of course we
+must pretend to be dumb: though we can talk first-rate nigger gibberish
+in the berth, it won't pass current, I fear, among the natives of these
+parts."
+
+"Not very likely.  However, your idea of pretending to be dumb is good.
+I think I had better pretend to be an idiot," answered Murray.  "But the
+question is, who will they take us for? where do you fancy they will
+think we have come from?  My idea is that we should rather try and find
+where Jack is, without falling foul of any of the natives.  I want to
+set off directly it is dark, clamber up the hill where we saw him last,
+and cut him out.  It is to be done, I am certain, and Jack is well worth
+all the risk we should have to run."
+
+"That he is," exclaimed Adair warmly.  "There's nothing I wouldn't do
+for him, and I'm sure he would do anything for us."
+
+The subject was fully discussed, and then the midshipmen went to
+Hemming, and asked leave to put their plan into execution.  Hemming
+might on another occasion have been inclined to laugh at the proposal,
+but he was too anxious to get Jack out of the slavers' power, for he
+felt his hands tied somewhat with the fear of what the blacks might do
+to the midshipman should he attack their town.  He was, therefore, ready
+to try any plan, however desperate, to recover Rogers.  Having obtained
+the leave they wanted to put their plan into execution, Murray and Adair
+set to work to devise the details.  As they could only hope to carry out
+their scheme at night, they agreed that they need not be very particular
+as to the correctness of their masquerade.  There was no time to get any
+dye, but burnt cork well rubbed in with oil they agreed would answer the
+purpose.  It was too late, however, to take any active steps that night.
+It was settled that the next morning the flotilla, with some parade,
+should proceed down the river, while they, with Dick Needham and a
+picked crew, should lie hid in the smallest boat till dusk the next
+evening; then they were to land and try and find out where Jack was.
+
+Once discovering the locality of his prison, they fully believed that
+they could, as they called it, "cut him out as easily as many a rich
+Spanish galleon has in days of yore been cut out from an enemy's fort,
+even though protected by the guns of the fort."
+
+The night passed away quietly.  The party had expected an attack from
+the slave-dealers, but these gentry had received a sufficient notice of
+the warm reception they were likely to encounter, not to make the
+attempt.  In the naming, however, Murray, who had the lookout while the
+rest were preparing to strike their tents, observed a party approaching
+with a white flag.  He reported what he had seen to Lieutenant Hemming.
+
+"The impudent scoundrels," he exclaimed; "no flag of truce ought to
+shelter them.  However, while poor Rogers is in their power we must
+treat with them as we best can."
+
+The party soon arrived at the temporary encampment.  The most prominent
+person was the burly negro who had introduced himself down the river as
+a pilot, and there was a Spaniard and several blacks.  The big negro was
+spokesman, as he professed to know more English than any of the rest.
+Hemming received them in a very haughty way.
+
+"What is it you want?  Have you come to excuse yourselves for firing on
+my boats and killing my people?" he asked in a stern voice.
+
+It was difficult to understand exactly what the negro said in return,
+but Hemming made out that he knew nothing about firing on the boats, as
+he had not been at the fort, but that he had been sent by the king of
+the country to demand back some prisoners who had been taken while
+defending the territories of the said king against an unlawful attack
+made on them by the English boats.  Also, there were some Spanish
+cavaliers, his honoured allies, who must be likewise restored to
+liberty: there were some slaves too, who must be given up, or the king
+would visit the English with his intense displeasure.
+
+The long rigmarole speech, of which this was the substance, would have
+made Hemming laugh on any other occasion.  However, now he merely
+replied, "Listen.  Tell the king, or whatever he calls himself, that the
+English are here to punish evil-doers, to set slaves at liberty, to put
+a stop to the slave-trade, to encourage commerce, and to prevent wars.
+If the people we have caught are found to be pirates, as such they will
+be hung.  We keep no terms with people who, like him, support piracy and
+the slave-trade."
+
+Hemming said something more to the same effect.  The negro had, however,
+a last card to play, which he fancied would win the game.
+
+"Ah, then, if you kill our people, the king says he will kill a little
+officer we have of yours.  His life may not be worth much, but he shall
+die."  The negro grinned horribly as he said this.
+
+"If he does," exclaimed Hemming furiously, "tell the king that we will
+never rest till we have pulled him off his throne and his town about his
+ears, and burnt up all his country.  Now you have got my answer.  Go."
+Hemming wisely would not condescend to say another word after this.  He
+knew pretty well how to treat such barbarians.  The sable ambassador and
+his motley suite, finding that nothing more was to be got out of the
+English officer, took his departure.  Scarcely had he gone, when a
+figure was seen to creep out from among some bushes in the
+neighbourhood.  It proved to be the negro lad who had warned them of the
+black pilot's intended treachery.  He ran forward and threw himself at
+Hemming's feet, showing every sign of delight at finding him again.
+Hemming at once thought of asking him about Jack.  The very thing it
+proved he had come about.  He had heard of him, had gone and discovered
+where he was shut up, and understood that his captors talked of killing
+him should any harm befall their people who had been taken prisoners.--
+Hemming felt sure that he might be fully trusted, so did Murray and
+Adair.  They therefore explained their plan to him, and asked him to
+assist them.  This he at once joyfully undertook to do.  Very little
+change in their plan was necessary.  He agreed to act as their guide.
+They were to assume the character of slave boys belonging to a distant
+tribe whom he was conducting to his uncle, a chief of some influence in
+the country, and who was secretly favourable to the English.  Wasser,
+the negro lad, assured them that he was very glad they had not ventured
+to make the attempt by themselves, as their detection would have been
+almost certain.  Hemming delayed as long as he could before embarking,
+and he promised to wait for Murray and Adair some way down the river
+while they went on their expedition.  Their boat, with Dick Needham,
+their new friend Wasser, and three other picked men, all well-armed,
+shoved off with the other boats, and soon darting in towards a sheltered
+nook, which they had before observed, lay as they believed perfectly
+concealed from all passers-by.  Wasser, however, advised them to cut
+down boughs, and to fasten them in front of the boat.  This they did,
+and, as Paddy observed, they could not desire to pass the day in a
+pleasanter way than in a shady bower with nothing to do and plenty to
+eat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+A FLIGHT FOR LIFE.
+
+The time passed slowly by while the _Archer's_ boat, with Murray, Adair,
+and Dick Needham aboard, and the young African lad Wasser, lay hid under
+the bank of the river, waiting for the time when they might sally forth
+to the rescue of Jack Rogers.  Everybody was eager for the moment, for
+all longed to have him safe among them.
+
+Wasser's deep gratitude to Hemming was very remarkable, after a
+separation of so many years, as was also his recollecting him.  Murray
+felt sure that if any one could rescue Jack Rogers, Wasser was the
+person to do it.  The day at length passed away, and after the party had
+taken a supper, as soon as Wasser thought it was safe, they issued forth
+from their leafy bower, and with rapid strokes pulled up the stream
+towards the fort which had been the scene of contest.  Wasser remarked
+that none of the blacks would be venturing there at night, and that it
+would be the best place for the boat to remain at.  Murray and Adair
+only landed.  Needham had directions to wait for them till within an
+hour of daylight, and then, if they did not appear, to conclude that
+they were taken, and to pull down as hard as he could to inform Mr
+Hemming, and to bring him up to their assistance.
+
+Wasser led the way, Alick and Paddy following close after him.  Little
+would any of their friends have recognised in the two half-naked
+blackamoor lads the neat midshipmen who were wont to walk the deck of
+Her Majesty's ship _Ranger_, in all the pride of blue cloth, gold-laced
+caps, and gilt buttons.  Now, except a pair of scanty drawers, a shirt
+fastened round the waist with a piece of rope-yarn, and a tattered straw
+hat, clothes they had none.  Their feet were tolerably hard, from the
+custom in which they indulged, in common with most midshipmen, of
+paddling about without shoes or stockings when washing decks.  They were
+not however unarmed, for both of them had a brace of pistols and their
+dirks stuck in belts concealed by their shirts.  It was curious also to
+see one of the despised negro race taking the lead as Wasser did on the
+present occasion.
+
+They landed close to the fort, when without hesitation he led the way
+inland, and then after a little time they found that they were going up
+hill.  Up, up they went for a long distance, it seemed a mile or more,
+over a well-beaten path.
+
+It was not so dark as it had been.  The light was increasing, it was
+that of the rising moon.  They found that they had arrived in front of
+some palisades.  They formed the wall to the negro city.  Wasser
+signified that they must get over it to see their friend, and conducted
+them to the left, along the outside of the palisade.  At last they got
+to a spot where he showed them that they might climb over, and whispered
+that there were no houses near whose inhabitants might discover them.
+The moon, as I was saying, was rising, so there was no time to be lost
+in reaching Jack's prison before the light might render the approach
+more difficult.  Cautiously they crept on under the shadow of the
+houses.  The inhabitants appeared to be asleep.  Now and then a dog
+barked, but they saw no one.  At last, at the end of a street, they came
+to an open space, in which stood a solitary hut.  Wasser pulled up, and
+said, "Dere your friend."  How Alick's and Paddy's hearts longed to get
+at him!  Their impulse was to run across the square and to let him out,
+but at that moment a sentry appeared from the other side of the hut with
+a musket on his shoulder.  Though they did not fear the musket, they
+knew he might possibly let it off and alarm the town, so they stood
+under the dark shade of a wall, deliberating what was to be done.  They
+watched him for some time, and ascertained that, like a clockwork
+figure, he always made the same round at the same pace.
+
+"We shall have time to get across the square and to seize him before he
+makes his round," observed Murray.  Adair signified that he thought the
+same, as did Wasser.
+
+"Then," added Murray, "you and I, Paddy, will seize him, while Wasser
+lets Jack out of the prison, and he can come and help us bind and gag
+the sentry."
+
+"Now is our time," whispered Murray.  "One, two, three, and away!"  Down
+the square they dashed at full speed.  Paddy leaped like a wild man of
+the woods on a sudden on the astonished sentry's back, and pressed his
+hand tightly over his mouth, while Murray grasped his musket, putting
+his hand on the pan, to prevent it going off (he need not have taken so
+much trouble, as it had no flint in it), while Wasser climbed up to the
+top of the hut, where he had ascertained there was a hole.  It was his
+honest countenance Jack saw looking down upon him.  Jack little thought
+all the time how near his friends were, and what essential service they
+were rendering him.  Wasser put down his hand, and Jack catching it,
+Wasser, with a strong tug, enabled him to grasp some of the rafters.
+Jack very quickly was on the roof, and seeing two negro lads struggling
+with the sentry, guessing that they were in some way trying to serve
+him, leapt down to help them.  The sentry had very little chance against
+four stout lads, and so they soon had him down and gagged, and dragged
+inside the hut.
+
+"Now run, run," whispered Wasser, "no moment lose."
+
+Away they all ran as hard as they could pelt.  They reached the palisade
+and began to scramble over it.  Jack had not recognised any of his
+deliverers, but he was much obliged to the little black fellows for the
+help they had afforded him.  Just then a dog barked, then a man's voice
+was heard shouting, then another and another joined in the outcry.
+There could be no doubt that the town was aroused.
+
+The wild hubbub in the negro town increased.  The midshipmen and their
+sable ally had too much reason to fear that they should be captured.
+Wasser led the way over the palisade, Jack followed, Alick and Paddy
+brought up the rear.  Jack had not yet discovered his friends, as in
+consequence of their dread of being discovered no one had spoken.  Jack
+only thought that some negro lads, for some reason or other, had come to
+his assistance.
+
+"Run, run!" cried Paddy, as they jumped down on the outside of the
+palisades.  There was little necessity for his saying this though.
+
+"Who are you?" exclaimed Jack, the truth breaking oh him.
+
+"Alick--Terence," they answered.
+
+"Oh, capital! just what I should have thought you'd have done, if I had
+fancied it possible," said Jack.  "Then let's stop and fight them."
+
+"No, no," said Wasser, "too many men come to fight.  Run on, run on!"
+His advice was evidently the wisest, so run they did, and at a very
+great rate too.  It was clear that by some means or other the sentry had
+made himself heard.  He probably did not describe, in the most
+complimentary of terms, the people by whom he had been knocked down,
+gagged, and bound.  Some horrible fetish had done it, that of course he
+believed and asserted.  The blacks must have thought that their town was
+attacked, and very quickly tumbled up from their beds (they had not many
+clothes to don) and flew to their arms.  Shots were heard in different
+quarters, and the previous stillness of the night was rudely broken by
+shouting and hallooing of men, barking of dogs, and crying of children,
+and screaming of women to each other to inquire what it was all about.
+The noise, however, was not a thing to be much-dreaded.  It showed that
+the negroes were awake, but it was also pretty evident that they had not
+yet begun the pursuit, so Jack and his companions thought.  Wasser led
+them back into the chief pathway up the hill.  There was no other by
+which they could reach the boat.  They had, therefore, to pass very
+close again to the principal gate of the city.  There was a great chance
+of their being seen as they did so.  There was no help for it, so on
+they dashed.  Never had any of them ran faster in their lives, for they
+were running for their lives.  Down the hill they went.  They heard a
+shout; some men were rushing out of the gate of the city in pursuit.
+
+"On, on--mans come--neber fear," cried Wasser.
+
+"I should think not," observed Jack, but he did not slacken his speed.
+Their pursuers came on at a great rate.  They knew the ground and their
+feet were accustomed to it.  Alick and Paddy found theirs hurt horribly,
+while Jack, having on shoes, could not run as fast as the negroes.  It
+was a long way to the boat.  Happily, however, the path wound about a
+good deal, or probably their pursuers, who had arms, would have fired,
+that is to say, if the arms had locks and were loaded--slight points in
+which negro soldiers are not always very particular.  Luckily they had
+to go down the hill instead of up it.  At length they reached the
+bottom; still they had some way to go.  The voices of their pursuers
+grew louder and louder.  They fancied that they heard some Spaniards
+among them, uttering their usual horrid oaths.  They knew that those
+wretches were far more barbarous than their black brethren.  With the
+negroes they might have had some chance of escape, with the Spanish
+pirates none.  On they went.  They dared not look round.  There was a
+sharp report of a pistol--a bullet flew by them.  Another and another
+followed.  Happily, as their pursuers were running, they could not take
+steady aim; still they were getting dreadfully near.  Another enemy was
+added to the pursuers.  The midshipmen heard the baying of a bloodhound.
+There could be no doubt about the sound.  The brute was still at a
+distance though; probably let loose by some of the Spaniards not roused
+till late to join in the chase.  Murray and Adair remembered their
+pistols, and it was a satisfaction to feel that they might possibly
+shoot him before they were torn to pieces.  Not that the task would
+prove an easy one though.  Just then appeared before them through the
+dark foliage a sheet of silvery hue; it was the river.  The sight nerved
+their limbs afresh; they had need of something to encourage them.
+Scarcely thirty yards behind them came the savage rabble.  The fugitives
+had difficulty to keep ahead of them.  Fierce were the shouts of blacks
+and Spaniards, and more savage was the baying of the bloodhound.  Paddy,
+who brought up the rear, could scarcely help shrieking out, for he felt
+the brute close at his heels.  He cared much more for it than he did for
+the bullets.  He was certain that in another moment the animal would
+have hold of his legs, when up there started, just in front of the
+fugitives, honest Dick Needham and two seamen, well-armed with muskets
+and cutlasses.  Dick, springing forward, made a cut at the savage brute,
+which almost severed its head from its body, and then shouted, "Back,
+back, you villains, or we'll blow you into the sky!" and then, in
+another tone, he cried out, "Run for the boat, young gentlemen, we'll
+cover your retreat."  No one required to be told this a second time, and
+Needham and the seamen, facing the crowd of blacks, and firing as they
+retreated, kept the enemy completely at bay till the midshipmen and
+Wasser had reached the boat.  They were not long in jumping in after
+them, and, shoving off, away they pulled, shouting with delight at their
+success, and leaving their enraged pursuers swearing and grinning with
+rage on the shore.
+
+"A miss is as good as a mile," cried Paddy, as he seized one of the
+oars; but they were not altogether out of the fire.  Many of the people
+collected on the shore had muskets, and began blazing away at them,
+several of the shots striking the boat, and others coming uncomfortably
+near; this only made them pull the faster however.  While some of the
+slave-dealers' people were firing, others ran along the bank, and,
+launching several canoes, paddled off in pursuit.  This was much worse
+than their shooting.  The British boat, a light gig, pulled well, but
+the canoes would probably paddle faster.  Nothing daunted, however, Jack
+and Murray set to work to reload all the muskets and pistols, to make as
+good a fight of it as they could, should they be overtaken.  They could
+count the canoes as they appeared darting out from among the bushes on
+the banks--one, two, three, four, five, six, came out one after the
+other.  It was a long way down to the spot where Hemming had said he
+would await their return.  Before they could reach it the blacks must
+have overtaken them, unless Jack and Murray could manage to pick off
+some of their chief men, and so perhaps frighten them back; both said
+that they would do their best to effect that object, however.  Wasser
+sat quiet; he could do no more for the present--not all men even _can_
+sit quiet.  The canoes drew nearer and nearer.  However, a sailor feels
+very differently on the water and on shore, for even when compelled to
+run away on his own element, he can face his enemy and show fight: this
+Murray and Rogers now did to some effect.  The canoes had got well
+within range of their muskets: the sooner, therefore, they began to
+fire, the better chance they would have of stopping their pursuers.  Old
+Brown Bess, however, was never celebrated for carrying very straight,
+and neither Jack nor Alick did much execution.  At the same time, now
+and then, they saw the negroes bob their heads as the bullets whistled
+unpleasantly near them.  Some of the people in the canoes fired in
+return, but, as Dick Needham observed, they might as well have been
+firing at the moon for all the harm they did.
+
+The English boat pulled on, the canoes following.  A long reach was
+before them.  Surely and steadily the canoes were gaining on the boat.
+The greater portion of the distance to the end of the reach was got
+over, and now in another five minutes, perhaps less, the canoes would be
+up with her.  "While there is life there is hope;" so thought Jack and
+his companions, and so they continued making every effort to escape.
+The voices of the negroes chattering away in the headmost canoe, sounded
+very loud.  Jack and Murray had ceased firing--for the best of reasons--
+they had come to the end of their ammunition.  Perhaps it was fortunate;
+they could have done no good, and would only the more have enraged the
+negroes.  The latter also had not fired for some time, probably on the
+same account.
+
+"I feel somewhat inclined to squeak, as a hare does when a greyhound
+catches hold of her, but I won't," said Jack, as the headmost canoe got
+almost up to them.  "You two in the bows, Johnson and Jones, keep
+pulling, while all the rest lay about them to drive off the blacks.  We
+are not going to be beat by a parcel of pirates and niggers."
+
+The men cheered at Jack's address, and, grasping their cutlasses, stood
+ready to obey his directions.  Now came the tug of war.  The other
+canoes got up and crowded round them, but again the undaunted seamen
+cheered, and firing their pistols right and left among the pirates, laid
+about them most lustily with their well-sharpened cutlasses.  As they
+cheered, what was their surprise to hear their cheers answered, and at
+the same moment five dark objects on the water were seen coming round
+the next point.  Murray exclaimed that they were men-of-war boats.  They
+must have made out that their presence was much needed.  On they dashed
+towards the canoes.  The pirates saw them coming, and dared not stand
+their onslaught.  Before they turned to fly, they made a desperate
+attempt to capsize the boat, and to carry off some of the English as
+prisoners.  They very nearly got hold of Paddy, whom, in spite of his
+costume and colour, they had discovered not to be a negro; but Jack and
+Alick hauled him back, with the loss only of part of his shirt.  Poor
+Wasser was in the same manner saved by Needham; had they got him they
+would, to a certainty, have killed him.  The other boats, now dashing
+on, put them to flight, and off they went at a great rate up the stream.
+Hemming himself had come to their rescue.  He had felt some misgivings
+about them, and had returned, intending, if he did not meet them, to
+land and threaten to ravage the black king's whole territory with fire
+and sword if they were not given up.  Jack was received with warm
+congratulation by his friends; but there was not much time for
+compliments, as Hemming instantly went off in pursuit of the canoes.
+The canoes paddled fast, but the men-of-war boats pulled just then
+faster, and the negroes and their Spanish allies, finding escape
+problematical, ran the canoes in on the bank, and, leaping on shore,
+left them to their fate.  As they were undoubtedly employed to assist,
+directly or indirectly, the nefarious slave-trade, Hemming set fire to
+them all with the exception of one, which he carried off as a trophy.
+As it was important to get on board as soon as possible, Hemming pulled
+at once back to the place where the rest of the boats, with the
+prisoners and liberated slaves, had been left.  They were all safe, and
+by noon the next day the expedition returned once more to the ship.  Sad
+indeed was the loss they had to report--so many fine fellows cut down in
+a nameless fight with a band of rascally pirates.  The captives not only
+exonerated Hemming of all blame, but assured him that they believed he
+had done all that a man could do under the circumstances of the case.
+Everybody on board both ships welcomed Jack, and poor Wasser was highly
+delighted with the way he was received and praised for the assistance he
+had afforded in rescuing him from the slave-dealers; nor did Murray and
+Adair fail to get their meed of applause.
+
+"I am much obliged to you for all what you have to say," answered Paddy,
+laughing, "but I wish some of you would tell me how to wash a blackamoor
+white.  I have heard that it was a difficult operation.  The burnt cork
+would have come off by itself, but Dick Needham rubbed in the oil and
+grease so hard that soap and water won't do it."
+
+Doctor McCan, when applied to, looked rather grave, and, after he had
+heard the circumstances of the case, delivered a long lecture to prove
+that black powder rubbed in in that way, in such a climate, when the
+pores were open, would take root and become ineradicable.
+
+Terence saw a twinkle in the doctor's eye, which made him suspect a
+quiz, and the laughter of Jack, Alick, and some of his other messmates
+who stood round, confirmed this suspicion.  At first he felt that he
+ought to be very indignant, but his good-humour seldom kept away many
+seconds together, and he quickly joined in the laugh against himself.
+He then accompanied Alick into the hospital, where, in a tub with some
+hot water and soap, and some alkali the doctor gave them, they very soon
+got washed white, and returned on deck as spruce-looking midshipmen as
+they usually appeared.  Theirs and Jack's great regret was, that as
+Alick had to go back to the brig, and they must join the frigate, they
+would again be separated.  Rogers and Adair were once more or board the
+_Ranger_, with Lieutenant Hemming and Needham, and the rest of the
+people who had escaped the various dangers to which they had been
+exposed since they quitted her.  Captain Lascelles was of opinion that
+it would be necessary to inflict a severe punishment on the
+slave-dealing king and his white allies, and accordingly resolved to
+send another expedition up the river without delay, to burn his town and
+any other barracoons which might be in the neighbourhood; or to induce
+him to break off all intercourse with the Spanish slave-dealers.  The
+Commodore was able to carry out his object even sooner than he expected,
+by the arrival of two other brigs, the _Rambler_ and the _Tattler_.
+Jack and Terence were very much disappointed when they found that they
+were not to go.  To their earnest request to be allowed to volunteer,
+Captain Lascelles replied, "I admire your spirit, my lads, but as you
+are not made of iron, and I cannot afford to expend my midshipmen,
+others must take their share of the work.  You are both of you already
+as thin as thread-papers."
+
+Certainly by this time they had become very brown and wiry, and bore but
+a slight resemblance to the rosy, jolly-looking midshipmen they were
+when they left England.  Hemming, however, again went in command, and
+Wasser begged that he might accompany him as interpreter.  With somewhat
+of an envious feeling the midshipmen saw a considerable flotilla of
+boats cross the bar and pull up the river.
+
+The day passed away, and so did the greater part of the next, and still
+the boats did not reappear.  Captain Lascelles became somewhat anxious.
+Hour after hour went by.  "There they come, there they come!" was
+shouted by several who were on the lookout on deck.  Not only were all
+the boats seen, but several large canoes were in their company.  In one
+of the latter, as they drew near, Jack recognised his friend, the negro
+king, seated in the stern and dressed in the same magnificent uniform in
+which he had appeared in his own palace.  He seemed perfectly happy, and
+was smoking a pipe with true regal dignity.  The side was manned to
+receive him, and with a grand air he stepped on deck, making a profound
+bow and a wide flourish with his cocked-hat.  Captain Lascelles, on
+this, went forward to meet him, and, ordering up some cushions from the
+cabin, begged him to be seated and to continue smoking his pipe, while
+he ascertained from Hemming the particulars of the expedition.  The
+expedition had proceeded up the greater part of the way towards the fort
+without meeting any one.  When near it a canoe appeared approaching
+them.  In it were the stout pilot, Jack's friend, and three other blacks
+rigged out in what they considered full fig.  They came, they said, as
+ambassadors from the king.  He wished to inform the English that Don
+Diogo and the rest of the Spanish slave-dealers had gone away overland,
+to the south--he could not tell where--and that, as he wished to be
+friends with everybody, he hoped that no further harm might be done to
+his country.  Hemming replied that he was very glad to hear this, but
+that profession was not practice, and that he must have stronger proofs
+of his sincerity.  The pilot said the king hoped all the English would
+visit his capital.  Hemming answered, that half would go and half would
+stay to look after the boats.  Whether treachery was intended or not,
+the idea was, it appeared, abandoned, and Hemming, with thirty of his
+men well-armed, proceeded up the hill to the king's capital.  They found
+it to be a tolerably strong place, and though they might have taken it
+by storm, not, perhaps, without difficulty and loss.  The king received
+them very courteously, and seemed to be really a sensible fellow,
+perfectly alive to his own interests.  During a long palaver, Hemming
+explained to him that if he persisted in carrying on the slave-trade,
+the English would destroy his barracoons, and injure and annoy him in
+every possible way; but that if he abandoned it, and refused to have
+anything to do with slave-dealers, but would engage in commerce,
+encourage agriculture, well treat his people, and act like an honest
+man, they would assist and encourage him in every possible way; that the
+Queen of England would be friends with him, call him her well-beloved
+brother, and send him presents of far greater value than any he got from
+the Spaniards.  So eloquently, indeed, did Hemming put the case before
+him, that his negro majesty expressed his eagerness to come off to the
+good queen's big ship and ratify the treaty, which he desired might
+forthwith be drawn up.  Captain Lascelles lost no time in clenching the
+matter.  All sorts of presents were bestowed on the black sovereign; a
+gun, some crockery, a pair of boots, a tooth-comb, a pair of epaulets,
+and half a dozen gaily coloured pocket-handkerchiefs, the pilot and the
+other chiefs coming in for a share of the good things, the captain
+hinting that this was only a forestalment of what they might expect if
+they behaved well.  Highly pleased with all that had occurred, under a
+salute of eleven guns from the frigate, and more than half-seas over,
+the negro potentate and his great ministers of the realm, and other
+followers, betook themselves to the shore.
+
+"They are slippery as their own skins," observed the Commodore; "we must
+have a sharp look on them, to keep them to their engagements."
+
+The _Ranger_ had captured several slavers, and sent them away to Sierra
+Leone for adjudication, and had driven many more off from the rivers
+into which they were bound to take in their cargoes, when, being under
+easy sail, about six miles off the coast, a large schooner was seen
+in-shore of them.  Though all sail was made in chase, as the schooner
+increased her distance, Captain Lascelles ordered two boats to be manned
+in order to pursue her.  To their great delight Jack got command of one,
+the cutter with eight men, and Adair of the other, a gig with six, many
+of the other officers being away in prizes.  Their chief object was to
+come up with her before the setting in of the sea-breeze.  Both boats,
+however, pulled badly, being soddened from having been so constantly in
+the water, besides which they leaked not a little.  However, Jack and
+Paddy had learned that perseverance conquers all difficulties.  Hot, as
+usual, was the sun.  "Another warm day, Jack," cried Terence, as they
+pulled away; "I wonder how much marrow we shall have left in our bones
+and how much fat outside them when we get home."
+
+Two hours and a half passed before they got up with the chase.  The gig,
+from pulling best, was ahead.  Jack did not grudge his messmate the
+honour, though he liked to be first when he could.  The schooner, with
+all her sweeps out, as the boats neared her, put her helm up, and tried
+to run them down, opening at the same time a sharp fire of musketry.
+They, however, were too quick for her, and, pulling on either side, each
+man seized his musket and let fly in return.  Loading again with the
+greatest coolness, as they passed her, they poured in another volley.
+The sweeps being rigged out, prevented them from climbing up by the
+chains.
+
+"Never mind," cried Jack, "let us try the quarters."  He pulled up to
+one quarter, Adair to the other, and before the slavers knew where they
+were going, the boats had hooked on, the seamen, led by their two
+gallant young officers, were springing over the low quarters of the
+schooner.  Adair, however, got a severe lick on the shoulder, which
+would have sent him back into the boat had not one of his men given him
+a shove up; while Jack got an ugly gash on his arm from a cutlass, and
+would have had his head laid bare, had not Dick Needham's trusty weapon
+interposed to save him.  All this time the slaver's crew were firing
+away down into the boats.  One of the cutter's men was shot, and fell
+over.  A messmate, Brown, attempted to lift him up, but he sank down
+like a piece of lead.
+
+"It's all over with him," cried Brown, springing over the bulwarks, and
+resolved to avenge him.  It was too true.  He had been shot through the
+heart.  A like fate befell one of the gig's crew.  Still, with
+diminished numbers, the British fought on, but the odds were fearfully
+against them.  They had, however, gained a footing on the slaver's deck,
+and as they had cutlasses and pistols in their hands, which they well
+knew how to use, they felt themselves to be on equal terms with six
+times their number of the sort of mongrel wretches who made up the
+slaver's crew.  The latter at the same time seemed in no way daunted,
+and fought on with the greatest desperation.  Hitherto neither Jack nor
+Adair had made out who were the officers of the wretches opposed to
+them, for the smoke hung so thickly over the deck, crowded as it was
+with people of every hue and every variety of costume, that it was
+difficult to distinguish one from the other.  At last Jack caught sight
+of a little man, urging on his companions.  The voice too he had heard
+before.  A puff of wind cleared away the smoke: Jack recognised his old
+enemy, Don Diogo.  The Don knew him also.  "Ah, ah, have you come to be
+killed?" sang out the little man, with a horrid grin.  "Cut him down,
+cut down the little spy, my men.  He was one of those who destroyed our
+barracoons and deprived us of our property.  The sea-breeze will soon be
+up to us, and we may laugh at the frigate.  Revenge, revenge!"
+Instigated by these shouts from their fierce chief, the slaver's crew,
+uttering loud imprecations, made a desperate rush against the English,
+and Jack, in spite of the gallant defence made by those around him,
+found himself brought on his knee to the deck.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+ABOARD THE PRIZE.
+
+Don Diogo and his companions did not know what Englishmen were made of
+if they thought that they were going to win the day without a hard fight
+for it.  Adair, wounded as he was, threw himself before Jack, and, aided
+by Needham and some of his best men, pistoled some of the Spaniards and
+cut down others, hurrahing so loudly, and charging so fiercely, that the
+rest, in spite of the little Don's exhortations, gave way before them.
+They pushed on till they reached the mainmast, where a resolute stand
+was made by the slaver's crew.  During this time Jack recovered
+sufficiently again to join in the conflict.  The little Don, seeing how
+things were going, rallied a number of his people around him, evidently
+prepared to make a stand to the last, and Jack, from what he had
+observed of his character, was fully convinced that he would make some
+desperate attempt to destroy them, even perhaps by blowing up the
+schooner and all on board.
+
+Fortunately the hatches of the schooner's decks were open to give air to
+the unfortunate slaves confined below.  They all the time were uttering
+the most fearful shrieks and cries, not knowing what was going to
+happen.  Pressed backwards, several of the pirate's crew were tumbled
+down the hatchways among the negroes, adding to the confusion and dismay
+below.  Others, pressed by Jack, who was fighting his way forward on the
+starboard side, leaped overboard, and, to avoid the cold steel of the
+avenging British, found that death from the ravenous sharks to which
+they had consigned so many of their black fellow-creatures.  Although
+some gave way, others kept rallying round the mainmast, and so Adair had
+to keep them engaged to prevent them turning and attacking Jack in the
+rear.  So hotly was he engaged, however, that he had no time to look
+about him.  A loud shout made him turn his eyes for a moment forward,
+and then he saw Jack, who had gained the forecastle, waving his cutlass
+in triumph.  The Spaniards, who had hitherto shown a bold front, on
+hearing the shout, and seeing that their chance of victory was gone,
+threw themselves pell-mell down the hatchways among their companions,
+who had by this time regained their legs.  What was bad, they had also
+kept possession of their arms, and began to fire upon the English.  The
+seamen could easily have shot them, but the cowardly scoundrels
+retreated among the chained slaves, believing that their enemies would
+not dare to fire, for fear of wounding the poor blacks also.  They
+counted, however, without their host.  Never was there a cooler fellow
+than Dick Needham, and, getting his musket ready, he ran forward, and
+judging where the Spaniards had stowed themselves, picked out a couple
+of them from the very middle of the blacks; then leaping down, cutlass
+in hand, followed by three of his shipmates, they very soon made the
+rest of the wretches cry out for quarter.  When Jack and Terence looked
+around the deck they found it cleared--not a little to their surprise.
+What had become of Don Diogo?
+
+"The villain must have gone below, and will be blowing us all up!"
+exclaimed Terence, rushing aft.
+
+Forward he certainly was not, or Jack would have seen him.  They both,
+pistol in hand, rushed into the cabin, expecting to have a desperate
+encounter with the fierce little Spaniard.  The door gave way before
+them.
+
+"Hillo! the fellow is not here," cried Jack.
+
+"Then he's concealed somewhere," answered Paddy.  "It's very unpleasant
+to feel that any moment he may be sending us up like rockets into the
+sky.  I wish that we could rout him out before he commits any mischief."
+
+Just then they were recalled on deck by the shout of one of their men.
+They hurried out of the cabin, and, looking over the quarter, they saw
+what they would have perceived before had they looked in the right
+direction.  The Don, with six or seven of his followers, had jumped into
+their own gig, and was pulling away with might and main towards the
+shore.  Jack and Terence at first thought of following him in the
+cutter, but then there was the danger of the Spaniards left on board
+rising, and overpowering the rest of the English.  He also would
+certainly not yield without a most desperate resistance.
+
+"The Don will say that exchange is no robbery," exclaimed Paddy, "we had
+better let him go.  He has got our gig, and we have got his schooner,
+and a very magnificent craft she is, with 400 or 500 slaves on board.
+We can well spare him the gig."
+
+Jack agreed to this, but suggested that if the sea-breeze reached them
+soon, they might still catch the Don by the ear.  Meantime they set to
+work to secure the slaver's crew.  Many of the villains had stowed
+themselves away among the slaves, and were endeavouring to let them
+loose, telling them that the English had come to murder them, and that
+their only chance of saving their own lives was to rush upon deck and to
+murder the English instead.  Happily the attempt was discovered before
+many of the negroes were set at liberty, and the slaver's crew were all
+knocked down and, having both hands and feet lashed together, were
+brought on deck and placed in a row under the bulwarks.
+
+Jack saw the breeze coming, and gave an order to trim sails to take
+advantage of it so as to go in pursuit of the gig with Don Diogo in her.
+The frigate lay about eight miles off and of course had not perceived
+the escape of the Don.  She being more in the offing, would get the
+sea-breeze first.  Jack and Terence watched her trimming sails, and then
+her white canvas began to bulge out, and on she came gliding proudly
+towards them.  Not long afterwards they got the breeze.  To tow the
+cutter would have impeded them, so they dropped her to be picked up by
+the frigate and stood after the gig.  Don Diogo had got a long start,
+but still, from the gig pulling heavily, as they knew to their cost,
+they did not despair of overtaking her.  Everything was done to increase
+the schooner's speed, as it was important to get hold of one of the most
+daring slave-dealers and slave-captains on the coast--a man whose head
+had grown grey in the vile traffic in which he was engaged, and who had
+already spent half a dozen fortunes made by it.
+
+"Paddy, I believe we shall catch the Don after all," exclaimed Jack, who
+had been watching the gig through a glass, and at the same time
+inspecting the coast beyond.  "I can make out no creek for him to run
+into, and if he attempts to beach that boat he will be swamped to a
+certainty."
+
+"And serve him right too," answered Terence.  "But, hillo, what is that
+for?"  As he spoke a shot fired from the frigate came whizzing over
+their heads.  Another and another followed in rapid succession.  One of
+them flew directly between their masts.
+
+"I don't like to heave-to, or we shall lose our chance of catching the
+Don," observed Jack; "but this is getting rather too serious to be
+looked upon as a joke."  It was, indeed, for in another second, three or
+four more shot came crashing through the sails and against the spars of
+the schooner, one of which, the foretop-gallant yard, was shot away.
+
+"We must signalise them, and beg them to be aisy," cried Terence.  "But,
+hillo, I say, Jack, who could have left that abominable flag flying at
+the peak?"  There, sure enough, at the peak of the schooner flew out the
+often disgraced flag of Spain.
+
+"We'll haul it down, and settle that point afterwards," said Jack,
+suiting the action to the word and hauling down the flag.  He was but
+just in time to save the schooner from a tremendous peppering, which the
+frigate, now ranging close up astern, had prepared for her.  Jack ran up
+the rigging nearest the frigate, and pointed ahead to show that he was
+chasing something; indeed, by that time the gig when looked-for must
+have been seen clearly from the deck of the frigate.
+
+"I am glad we did not fire into you, my lads," shouted Captain Lascelles
+through his speaking-trumpet.  "You've done well--very well, but why did
+not you haul down the slaver's flag?"
+
+"We'd so much to do, we never saw it, sir," shouted Jack in return.
+"There's the slaver's captain--we're after him."
+
+"Stand in as close as you can, but don't get on shore, though," cried
+the captain.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Jack, well pleased to follow the orders given.
+
+The frigate stood on for some distance after the gig, but she had to be
+hove-to that the depth of water might be ascertained, and this gave the
+Don an advantage of which he did not fail to profit.  Though guns were
+continually fired at him, the gig was too small an object at that
+distance to enable even the best of marksmen to hit her with any
+certainty.  When the frigate hove-to, the schooner once more passed her.
+Nearer and nearer she drew to the shore.
+
+"We must take care not to wreck our well-won prize," observed Jack to
+Terence, and a lead and line having been found, he wisely sent a hand
+into the chains, to heave it as soon as he had rounded the schooner to.
+Well was it that he did so, for in a very few minutes more the schooner
+would have been on shore.  It was provoking, however, to see the wicked
+old Spaniard pulling on triumphantly.  They watched the gig as long as
+they could with their glasses.  She disappeared amid a cloud of foaming
+surf, which seems ever, even in the calmest weather, to be breaking on
+that shore.
+
+"The old fellow has escaped us now, but we will still have him some time
+or other--depend on that," said Jack, shutting up his glass.  "However,
+we have destroyed his barracoons, and now we've captured his schooner--
+that's one consolation.  He can't love us, though."
+
+Truly, indeed, did Don Diogo nourish a bitter desire for revenge against
+the British generally, and the officers and the crew of the _Ranger_
+especially, which he was one day destined to have an opportunity of
+gratifying to the full.  The frigate's studding-sails being rigged in,
+she, with her prize in company, shaped a course for Sierra Leone.  Both
+Jack and Terence had been so severely handled when boarding, though they
+did not feel much of their wounds during the excitement of chasing the
+Don, that it was necessary for them to return on board the frigate to be
+under the doctor's hands, while another officer was put in charge of the
+prize.  This was a great disappointment, but Captain Lascelles promised
+them that they should have command of the next prize the frigate might
+take.  Having seen the prize some way on her course, the _Ranger_ stood
+back to her cruising ground to the southward.  In consequence of
+head-winds and calms she made but slow progress, and thus some weeks
+slowly passed away after the events I have described, before her people
+had much work to do.  This was a great advantage, as it enabled Jack and
+Terence and the sick and wounded men to recover, away from the noxious
+air of the coast.
+
+At length it became advisable to communicate with King Bom-Bom, whose
+prisoner Jack had been, and as both he and Terence knew the river, they
+were ordered to proceed up it, to deliver the message, and to return as
+soon as possible.  I ought to have said that Wasser had attached himself
+to his old friend Hemming, and had entered regularly as a seaman on
+board the frigate.  A very steady and careful lad he was too.  He now
+went with the expedition to act as interpreter.  The boat crossed the
+bar safely.  Several traders were in the river, exchanging Manchester
+goods and cutlery for palm-oil, ivory, gold-dust, and other articles of
+value.  King Bom-Bom received the midshipmen most politely, and gave
+them a handsome feast, though, as Paddy remarked, the cookery was rather
+dubious.  He then frankly assured them that he was growing far richer as
+an honest trader, keeping a monopoly of the chief articles himself,
+by-the-by, than he had by all his connexions with the slave-dealers,
+taking into account the occasional burning of his barracoons, and the
+hot water in which he was continually kept.  Of course King Bom-Bom was
+a sensible fellow, and saw things in their true light.
+
+"What we have heard from our regal friend fully reconciles me to all the
+hard work we have to go through on this coast," observed Jack, as he and
+Terence were talking the matter over on their return down the river.
+"One thing is clear, this abominable slave-trade must be put down, and I
+believe that we are setting the right way to work to do it.  First make
+it unprofitable and very dangerous, and then show the natives the
+advantages of civilisation and commerce."  When the boat reached the
+mouth of the river, the frigate was nowhere to be seen.  "Then, Paddy,"
+exclaimed Jack, clutching his rifle, "let us have a cruise on our own
+hook.  You remember the prize you took among the Ionian Islands, old
+fellow?"  How merrily they laughed at the recollection of that early
+freak of theirs.  Paddy, of course, was delighted to join in any scheme
+of Jack's.  They could not tell in which direction the frigate had gone.
+They, at a hazard, steered to the southward.  They had a good supply of
+provisions in the boat, and King Bom-Bom had given them still more.  All
+that day they looked out anxiously for a sail, but sighted none.  The
+greater part of the next passed much in the same manner.  They were
+growing impatient.  It is not pleasant to have to sit cramped up in a
+small boat under a burning sun off the coast of Africa with nothing to
+do.
+
+At last the sea-breeze set in, and soon afterwards Paddy jumped up and,
+in his delight, almost toppled overboard, exclaiming, "A sail! a sail!"
+As the stranger approached, Jack made her out to be a long, low, black
+brig; he ordered the boat's sail to be lowered, and the people to lie
+down in the bottom of the boat, and to cover themselves up with the
+sail.
+
+They both thought that the approaching brig was a slaver, but to make
+more sure they called Wasser to them.  He crept along under the sail,
+and put his eyes up over the gunwale: "Yes, big slaver, no doubt," he
+observed; "but no get slavie in yet."
+
+"Then we'll follow and board her," cried Jack.  "If she won't heave-to,
+we'll make her."
+
+This seemed rather a vaunting boast for two midshipmen and six men in a
+small boat to make, but Jack was perfectly in earnest about the matter.
+The men had their oars all ready to ship at a moment's notice.  The brig
+stood on till she was within about 400 yards of the boat, and Jack, who
+was watching her from under the sail, thought that he should have to get
+out of her way to prevent being run down.  Suddenly she changed her
+course, and hauled more off the land.  Perhaps her people suspected a
+_ruse_.  In an instant, as Jack gave the order, up sprang his men, out
+went their oars, and away after the brig they pulled.  The character of
+the brig was soon shown, for no sooner did her crew see that they were
+pursued than they began peppering away at the gig, while a gun was run
+out at a port on her quarter, which opened a fire of round and
+grape-shot.  Her low bulwarks afforded no protection to the crew working
+the gun, so Jack stood up, and taking deliberate aim, shot one of them
+just as he was about to fire.
+
+"Terence, give me your rifle, and reload mine," he exclaimed.  Terence
+did as he was bid.  Another of the gunner's crew fell; a third and a
+fourth shared the same fate.  The slaver's people could not understand
+how this had happened, but terror seized them, and they refused to go to
+the gun.  This, however, did not save them, for the unerring rifle
+picked out several on different parts of the deck.  The breeze was
+freshening, and the slaver made all sail away from the boat.  But as a
+thresher pertinaciously pursues a whale till it has destroyed it, so did
+the little gig follow the large brig, which looked large enough to
+destroy a hundred such pigmy cockle-shells.  Jack felt that everything
+depended on his coolness and the steadiness of his aim.  Aided by
+Terence, well did he do his work.  The astonished crew of the slaver
+must have fancied that they were pursued by evil spirits rather than by
+men.  Once more they kept away dead before the wind, and, crossing the
+bows of the boat, stood towards the coast, it became evident that their
+intention was to run the vessel on shore and abandon her.  Jack and
+Terence had no fancy that they should do that, as they did not wish to
+lose their prize.  The breeze, however, increased so much that they
+could hardly keep way with her.  Still they followed, firing as rapidly
+as before.  At last Jack found that his shots were no longer telling,
+and as he was afraid of expending all his ammunition, he ceased firing,
+but still followed hard after the slaver.  A sandy little bay was ahead,
+sheltered somewhat by a reef of rocks from the roll of the Atlantic.
+Towards it the slaver was steered.  She grounded in smooth water.  A
+boat was lowered, and into it some of her crew tumbled, while others
+appeared to be swimming on shore.
+
+By the time they got up to the brig's quarter and climbed on board, all
+the crew had escaped with the exception of two men, one of whom was
+dying, the other was dead.
+
+"Oh, Terence," exclaimed Jack, as he looked at them, "this is very
+dreadful!"
+
+"What?" asked Adair, surprised.
+
+"That my hand should have done that," answered Jack, gravely; "to know
+that one has been killing people is bad enough, but to see them
+afterwards--oh, I wish that I hadn't done it!"
+
+"Then, you see, Jack, the slaver would have got off, and taken 300 or
+400, or more, poor black people away from their homes and families, a
+third of whom would have probably died miserably on board, and the rest
+would have been destined to spend their lives in abject slavery, and to
+become the parents of a race of slaves.  Those Spaniards, or Portuguese,
+or whatever they are, have brought about their own deaths.  Every shot
+you fired contributed to prevent a vast amount of wretchedness and
+suffering."
+
+Leaving the wounded man to Wasser's care, they went below to examine
+their prize.  They found that she was fully equipped for carrying 700 or
+800 slaves, instead of only 300 or 400, as Terence had supposed.  She
+had two brass guns, an ample supply of arms and ammunition of every
+sort, so that she was as well able to act the pirate as the slaver.
+They could not decide what to do with her.  They feared if they left her
+that her crew would return and burn her, while at the same time they
+were anxious to get back to the frigate.  After waiting some time their
+course was decided by seeing the _Ranger_ in the offing.
+
+"Terence," said Jack, "you must go off to her.  Leave me and the rifles,
+with Dick Needham to load them; and if the pirates appear I will keep
+them at bay till you return."
+
+In vain Terence expostulated.  Jack would have it so, and he was
+compelled to obey.
+
+Thus were Jack and sturdy Dick Needham left alone on board the stranded
+vessel.  They watched the gig as she pulled away, till she was lost in
+the distance.
+
+"Now, Needham," said Jack, "if the pirates come back, which is more than
+likely, we must be prepared to give them a warm reception.  See you load
+the rifles and I'll fire them."  Jack very quickly got over his scruples
+about killing his enemies.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Dick, not at first quite comprehending what a
+warm reception meant.  "But, sir, as they've left plenty of ammunition
+on board and these two brass guns, besides no end of muskets, we might
+give 'em a warmer still.  If you think fit, sir, we'll load the guns
+with langrage, and range the muskets along the deck; and then any spare
+moment when you are using the rifles I might be popping them off."
+
+Jack highly approved of Dick's notion, and only wished that the slaver's
+crew would come back, that he might carry it into execution.  They both
+had been so busy that they had not thought of the poor wretched
+Spaniard.  Suddenly Jack recollected him.  He had been placed in the
+shade, under the poop-deck.  He was still breathing.
+
+"_Eu moro de sede_ (I die of thirst, I die of thirst)," groaned the
+miserable man, showing his glazed eyes.  His parched lips showed how
+much he was suffering.
+
+"Dick, bring some water for this poor fellow," cried Rogers.
+
+"Oh! senhor, you are very kind.  I am a wretch, I know; but, as I hope
+to be forgiven, I forgive the man who shot me."
+
+These were very nearly the last words the Spaniard uttered.  A cry from
+Needham called Jack out on deck.  There appeared on the beach the whole
+crew of the slaver, and in addition some twenty or thirty others, white
+men and negroes.  They evidently did not perceive that anybody was on
+board, and began deliberately to launch the boat by which they had
+reached the shore, and which Terence had neglected to tow off before he
+left the brig.  Jack waited till they had shoved off.
+
+"Now, Dick," said he, creeping to one of the ports, "stand by to load,
+and hand me the rifles while I--do my duty."  He was going to say, "pick
+them off."
+
+Shot succeeded shot, and three men were hit before the pirates knew
+where their enemies were concealed.  The boat was seen to put back, the
+people in her leaping in a desperate hurry on shore.
+
+"It won't do to let them fancy that they are safe yet," cried Jack.
+"Hand me another rifle."  He continued firing away, seldom failing to
+hit the man he aimed at.
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted Needham.  "They are running off, they are
+running off."  So they were, but they had not gone far before a man was
+seen galloping up on horseback.  Jack thought he looked remarkably like
+Don Diogo.  He began striking right and left with a sword at the
+fugitives, and was evidently urging them to make an attempt to regain
+the brig.  At last he succeeded in inducing another party to embark, but
+he himself remained on shore.  Several times Jack had aimed at him, but
+he seemed to bear a charmed life.  None of the bullets took effect.
+Jack was afraid of firing at him again, for his rifle ammunition was
+almost expended.  Finding the firing cease, the pirates gained courage
+and pulled boldly towards the brig.
+
+"Now's the time for our dose of langrage, sir," cried Needham.  Jack
+nodded his consent.  Dick ran out one of the guns.  Jack pointed it and
+fired.  Then they sprang to the other, and fired that.  Shrieks and
+cries followed, and the boat in a sinking condition put back to the
+shore.  Don Diogo got off his horse, and stamped with rage.  He could
+not make it out, but the men would not make another attempt.  In a
+minute more they had all disappeared.  As soon as they were clear off
+Jack and Needham set to work to examine the vessel more minutely, in the
+hopes of discovering some small quantity of water, or other liquid which
+they could drink.  Vain again was their search, but on opening a locker
+Jack observed a box thickly bound with brass.  He tried to pull it out,
+but could not move it alone, so he summoned Needham to his assistance.
+It was very heavy.
+
+"We'll see what is in it," said Jack.  Perhaps had he reflected, he
+might have waited to deliver it over unopened to Captain Lascelles.
+However, this did not occur to him at the moment.  A cold chisel and
+hammer were soon found, and on the chest being forced open rolls of
+glittering gold coin lay exposed to view.
+
+"Here is a mint of gold," cried Needham.  "I wonder them pirate chaps
+didn't try to walk off with it."
+
+"It shows what a fright they must have been in to leave it behind if
+they knew it was here," answered Jack.  "However, we must shut the box
+up again.  It is lawful prize-money, and will be divided in due
+proportions among all hands, that's one comfort."
+
+"By-the-by, Needham," said Jack, after the box had been closed, "it
+strikes me that old Don Diogo must have known that the gold is on board,
+and that makes him so anxious to get hold of the vessel to recover it.
+Oh, how thirsty I am.  For my part, just now, I would rather have a
+quart of water than that box of gold."
+
+"So would I, sir," answered Needham; "may be, though, we shall find it
+cooler on deck, where there is a breath of air."
+
+Fortunately Jack took Needham's hint.  On looking towards the land the
+whole beach was covered with men carrying among them six or eight large
+canoes, while the little Don appeared as before on horseback, directing
+their movements.  Jack, knowing the incentive which was influencing his
+enemies, and seeing the preparations made to attack the brig, might well
+have despaired of successfully resisting them.  He and Needham were not
+people to sell their lives cheaply.  As before, they loaded the brass
+guns, and all the muskets and rifles.  He waited, however, to fire till
+the canoes were launched.  Then he immediately opened on them.  The
+canoes came on.  Don Diogo was in one of them.  He was eager probably to
+secure his gold.  Jack took a steady aim at him, down he sank to the
+bottom of the canoe.  Still that same canoe came on, and Jack fancied
+that he could see the old man's arm lifted up and still pointing at the
+brig.  He could not bring himself to fire at him again, as he thus lay
+wounded and almost helpless.  Needham, however, had marked the canoe;
+and, pointing his gun at her, let fly a whole shower of langrage about
+the heads of the negroes paddling in her.  Many were knocked over; and
+the remainder, turning her round, made the best of their way to the
+beach.  The other canoes stopped and wavered.  Jack plied them well with
+bullets.  The people on shore seemed to be beckoning them back.  Jack
+bethought him of taking a glance seaward to ascertain if assistance was
+at hand, and there he saw the _Ranger_ under full sail, standing towards
+him.  His danger was not yet over.  The pirates made another desperate
+attempt to regain the brig, but were as gallantly repulsed as before,
+the negroes not being able to withstand the hot fire kept up on them.
+Jack and Needham set up as loud a cheer as their parched throats would
+let them give, when, in a short time, they saw Hemming in a boat and
+Adair in another, approaching the brig.  Fortunately she had taken the
+ground so softly that she was hove off that very evening.  Adair,
+however, in consequence of the exertions he had gone through, was too
+ill to accompany Rogers in charge of her to Sierra Leone; and so Jack,
+much to his regret, had to go by himself, not forgetting his faithful
+rifle.
+
+Meantime the _Ranger_ stood to the southward.  Adair had got almost
+well: he was on the lookout aloft, when his eye fell on a dark object
+floating on the water.  At first he thought it might be a rock, then a
+dead whale.  At length he felt convinced that it was a vessel, either
+capsized or with all her canvas lowered.  He descended below, and
+reported the circumstance to Captain Lascelles.  The ship was steered
+towards the object, and his last conjecture was found to be the right
+one.  As they got close to the vessel, a small schooner, one person only
+was seen walking the deck.
+
+"That's a midshipman, sir," said Adair to Mr Hemming.  "And I can't
+make him out quite, but he looks very like Alick Murray."
+
+The frigate was hove-to, a boat was lowered, in which Adair went; and
+sure enough, Alick Murray was the person seen.  He looked ill and thin.
+
+"My dear fellow, how do you come to be this in plight?" asked Terence,
+as he jumped on board the little craft.
+
+"It's a long story," said Murray.  "We took her to the southward off
+Benguela, and Captain Grant put me in charge of her to carry her to
+Sierra Leone.  She had the fever on board, I have no doubt, at first.
+It broke out the other day after we parted company with the _Archer_,
+and one after the other my poor fellows died.  A black man and boy, whom
+we took in the prize, are the only survivors, and they are still below
+sick with the disease.  I have been waiting in hopes of their getting
+well and strong enough to make sail to proceed on my voyage.  I'll give
+you a fuller history another time."
+
+"The best thing you can do is to let the little craft go her own way,
+and come on board us," observed Adair.
+
+"What, Paddy, would you counsel such a course?" exclaimed Murray.
+"Captain Grant put me in charge of the vessel to carry her to Sierra
+Leone, and while I've life in me that is what I am bound to do."
+
+"Then, old fellow, I'll go with you, if Captain Lascelles will let me,"
+answered Terence, warmly.  "That's settled; I'll go on board and get
+leave, and bring Dr McCan to have a look at your people, and to leave
+some physic for them to take."
+
+Away went Terence.  He had a hard battle to fight with his captain, who,
+however, expressed his admiration of the spirit evinced by Murray.
+Needham and Wasser, and another man and a boy, were directed to go on
+board to act as crew.  Dr McCan came on board the schooner: and having
+prescribed for Murray and his two negroes, and pronounced them in a fair
+way of recovery, took his departure.  Murray then made sail and shaped a
+course for Sierra Leone, much happier than he had been for a long time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+AN ADVENTUROUS VOYAGE.
+
+Who would not rather command a gunboat, or even a despatch vessel or
+fire-ship, than be a junior lieutenant, mate, or midshipman on board a
+line-of-battle ship or the smartest frigate afloat?  Such were Murray's
+feelings as he and Adair paced the deck of the somewhat unseaworthy
+little schooner of which he had been placed in charge by Captain Grant.
+While he stood away towards Sierra Leone, the _Ranger_ continued her
+course to the southward.
+
+"I can't say much for your accommodation," observed Terence, after they
+had stood watching the fast-receding frigate, and Murray had shown him
+over his craft.
+
+"I won't boast of it, and if I had to fit out a yacht, I should choose
+something better," answered Murray, laughing.  The whole cabin was only
+eight feet long, and though it was five high in the centre, under a
+raised skylight, it was scarcely more than three at the sides, which
+being right aft, it decreased rapidly as the stern narrowed.  There was
+a fore-peak, in which the two poor negroes lay, but there was no room in
+it for more people, so that the rest of the crew were obliged to live in
+the after-cabin.  Adair certainly did not know the discomforts to which
+he was subjecting himself when he undertook to accompany Murray.  Not a
+particle of furniture was there in the cabin, the beams and sides were
+begrimed with dirt and cockroaches, and a considerable variety of other
+entomological specimens crawled in and out of every crevice in the
+planks, and found their way among all the provisions, as well as into
+every mess of food cooked on board.
+
+The schooner was laden with tobacco and monkey-skins, which latter she
+had taken on board at one of the ports, in exchange for some of her
+tobacco, the remainder of which she was about to barter for slaves.
+
+"Negro-head for negroes," as Paddy remarked, when Murray gave him the
+account.
+
+Several days of the voyage had passed with light winds and smooth sea,
+and not unpleasantly, though but little progress had been made, when as
+Adair, who had the first watch at night, was walking the deck, thinking
+that all was right, he heard a roaring noise on the port quarter.  He
+looked astern.  A long white line of curling foam came rolling up at a
+rapid rate towards them.
+
+"Lower the peak, slack away the main halyards, in with the mainsail,
+brail up the foresail!  Murray, Murray! on deck here; all hands on deck!
+In with the jib and down with the fore-staysail!"
+
+The sudden quick jerking of the little vessel would soon have awakened
+all the watch below had his voice not done so.  The sails were not
+lowered a moment too soon.  On flew the schooner under bare poles, the
+seas roaring up on either side, and often breaking over her.  Every man
+had to hold on for his life; away, away she flew; every instant plunging
+more and more, while the foaming seas seemed still more eager to make
+her their prey.  Murray, attended by Wasser, disappeared below.  He soon
+returned.
+
+"Paddy," he said, touching Adair on the shoulder, "I've bad news.  We've
+sprung a leak, and I fear that the vessel is sinking."
+
+Both Murray and Adair had gone through so many dangers, that neither of
+them were inclined to despair, even when they found themselves on board
+a little rotten vessel, plunging along through terrific seas with a leak
+in her bottom, which was letting in the water at a rate which must
+speedily send her far down to the depths of old ocean.  Away flew the
+little craft under bare poles, the dark seas, with thick crests of
+white, rolling up on either side of them, with loud roars, and
+threatening to come right down upon the deck and swamp them.  Tumbling
+about as the vessel was, it was no easy matter even to get the pump
+rigged in the dark.  That task, however, was at length accomplished, and
+all hands set to with a will in the hopes of clearing the vessel of
+water.  At first it seemed to be rushing in as fast as it gushed out.
+
+"I believe after all it was only the water which got down the hatches
+when the first sea broke aboard of us," said Murray, and with this idea
+both he and Terence were much comforted.  Drearily and wearily drew on
+the dark hours of that tempestuous night.  Daylight came at last, and
+only exhibited the scene of wild commotion around; the leaden sky, the
+dark grey waves broken into strange shapes, leaping and rolling over
+each other, and covered with masses of white foam.  Off that strange
+African coast, storms and calms succeed each other with but scant
+warning.  By seven o'clock the wind suddenly dropped, and in another
+hour the sea went down, and the lately wave-tossed bark lay perfectly
+becalmed.
+
+"Terence," said Murray, "look over the side of the vessel; doesn't she
+strike you as being much lower in the water than she was?"  Terence
+feared so.  The well was sounded, and three feet of water was found in
+the hold.
+
+"Man the pump!" cried Murray.  This was done, but before many minutes
+had passed the pump broke.  The damage was considerable; but Needham was
+a handy fellow, and could manage nearly any work.  The two young
+officers lent him a hand.  All sorts of devices were thought of, all
+sorts of things were substituted for those which were wanting; but with
+the quantity of water in the hold, and in the way the craft was tumbled
+about by the swell, the operation took much longer time than might be
+supposed.  It is very exciting to read of a ship sinking with the pumps
+out of order, and half a dozen leaks in her bottom; but the reality,
+though it may also be exciting, is very far from pleasant.  People under
+such circumstances are inclined to labour away rather in a hurry, and
+not to stand on much ceremony as to what they do.  Night was coming on
+rapidly.  They laboured and laboured away.  It was difficult enough to
+do it with daylight: it was a question whether they could make any
+progress at all in the dark.
+
+"There, sir!" exclaimed Needham, giving a hearty blow with his hammer,
+and relieving his pent-up feelings by a loud outletting of his breath
+between a groan and a sigh; "I hope that will do."  Without stopping a
+moment, he and Wasser, with White, the other seaman, seized the break,
+and began labouring away with all their might.  To the great joy of all
+hands a clear full stream came gushing upon deck, and ran out through
+the scuppers.  The blacks, and all not immediately engaged in mending
+the pump, had been baling away all the time with buckets.  They pumped
+and pumped away, and after half an hour's toil they found on sounding
+that they had much lessened the water in the hold.
+
+"Huzza!" shouted Needham; "we'll do now, never fear, lads!"  Nearly
+three hours, however, passed before the vessel was completely cleared of
+water.  It was Adair's watch.
+
+"I shall sleep more soundly than I have done for many a day," said
+Murray, as he prepared to turn into his horrible little berth.  "We have
+been so mercifully preserved that I trust the same Almighty hand will
+protect us to the end of our voyage.  Paddy, my dear fellow, do you ever
+pray?  I never see you on your knees."
+
+"Pray!" answered Adair, with some hesitation, "of course I do; that is
+to say, sometimes--when I recollect it.  I dare say I ought more than I
+do."
+
+Murray took his shipmate's arm as they stood together near the taffrail
+of their little craft, looking out over that heaving ocean whose smooth,
+glass-like undulations reflected ever and anon the bright stars which
+glittered in the dark sky above their heads.  "Tell me who but One whose
+hand is powerful to save could have preserved us from the numberless
+dangers into which our duty, but how often our thoughtlessness, has led
+us.  Were it not by His mercy, we should even now be sinking beneath
+those glassy but treacherous swells on which our vessel floats securely;
+then should we not, my dear Adair, pray to Him, not only now and then,
+when we may think of it, but at morning and evening, when we rise and
+when we sleep, and oftentimes during the course of the day?  Remember
+what the Bible says, it tells us to pray always."
+
+"You are right, Murray, you are always right," answered Adair, with a
+sigh.  "I know, too, that you practise what you preach, or I would not
+listen to you.  I'll try to follow your advice.  I'll pray when I turn
+in by and by.  I'll thank God that we have not gone to the bottom, and
+I'll pray that we may be saved as we have been all along in the dangers
+we may have to encounter."
+
+"Why not pray at once?" exclaimed Murray.  "All on board here have been
+equally preserved.  The same God made us all, the same God will hear our
+prayers."
+
+"Yes, yes, all right--I'll do what you like," said Adair.
+
+The young midshipmen called the crew around them, after Needham took the
+helm.  They and Wasser and the other seamen knelt on the deck, and
+though in no set phrases, offered up their hearty thanks for their
+preservation from the dangers which had threatened them; and earnestly
+did they pray that they might be carried in safety through those they
+might yet have to encounter.  Murray was one of those people who could
+think well, and when he wrote had no difficulty in expressing himself,
+yet when he came to speak aloud, and more particularly to pray aloud,
+found that the exact words he might have wished to use were not
+forthcoming.  The two poor blacks who, perhaps, had never in their lives
+seen white men praying before, stood by astonished at what was taking
+place.  They asked Wasser what it was all about.  He was rather more
+enlightened than they were.  He told them to the best of his knowledge.
+They listened attentively.  They said that they should like to know more
+about the matter, and he promised them that he would ask Mr Murray to
+speak to them on the subject.  Thus was a way opened into the hearts of
+these two benighted sons of Africa to receive the good seed of the truth
+by this unpremeditated act of the young midshipmen.  How many other
+midshipmen might do the same, with the most blessed results, if they
+themselves did but feel the importance of performing boldly and
+fearlessly their duty as Christians.
+
+With the return of daylight the weather promised to be fair, and, making
+sail, they again shaped their course for Sierra Leone.  As may be
+supposed, even in calm weather they had no very great amount of
+enjoyment.  When the sun shone they were almost roasted by its burning
+rays, and when it was obscured they were pretty well parboiled.  Do all
+they could, also, they could not keep the cabin clear of cockroaches and
+numberless other creeping things.  A meal was anything but an easy or
+pleasant operation.  The only chance of not having half a dozen live
+creatures sticking to each mouthful was to keep not only the dishes but
+the plates covered up.  Disagreeable as it was, Murray and Adair could
+not help laughing at each other as at every mouthful they had to pop in
+their forks under the covers, which were instantly clapped down again,
+and what was brought out thoroughly examined before it was committed to
+the mouth, while, as Adair remarked, the soup was more properly "beetle
+broth" than anything else.  The schooner rejoiced in the name of the
+_Venus_, though, as the midshipmen agreed, she was the very ugliest
+Venus they had ever seen.  She had, besides tobacco, a quantity of
+monkey-skins on board.
+
+They were sitting at dinner one day, for the sun was too hot to keep on
+deck, and they had no awning.
+
+"I say, Murray, is there not a somewhat disagreeable odour coming out
+from forward?" observed Adair, sniffing about.  "Tobaccoish, I find it."
+
+"Rather," answered Murray, laughing.  "I have perceived it for some
+days.  It is enough to cure the most determined smoker of his love for
+the precious weed.  It is from the tobacco we have on board.  After
+being thoroughly wetted it has now taken to heating.  However, we may
+hope for the best, at present it is bearable."
+
+A bright idea struck them soon after this.  They might turn the
+monkey-skins to advantage.  They had needles and a good supply of twine,
+so they set to work and neatly sewed them together till they had
+manufactured an awning sufficiently large to cover a good part of the
+deck.  They could now take their meals and sleep occasionally, when the
+weather was fair, in fresh air, which was a great luxury.  At length
+Wasser, who had the lookout one morning, shouted, "Land! land!--land on
+the starboard bow!"  Everybody in a moment jumped up.  After
+examination, Wasser declared his conviction that it was somewhere off
+the Gold Coast, not far from Cape Coast Castle.  Still Murray and Adair
+agreed that it would be far better to stand on, because if they could
+manage to weather Cape Palmas they might have a quick run to Sierra
+Leone.  The schooner was soon afterwards put about.  No one complained,
+though they might have cast a wistful eye at the harbour they were
+leaving astern.
+
+"We are doing what is right, depend upon it," observed Murray.  "If so,
+all will turn up right in the end."
+
+The provisions had, they knew, been running short.  They now carefully
+examined into their stock, when, to their dismay, they found that they
+had only a supply remaining for three or four days.
+
+"Never mind," was Murray's remark.  "We will go on half allowance.  In
+three or four days at most we shall weather the cape, and then we shall
+have sufficient provision to keep us alive till we get in."
+
+No one even thought of complaining of this arrangement, but took with
+thankfulness their half allowance of food.  Murray was much pleased with
+the way the men bore their privations.  He never thought about himself,
+and took less than any one.
+
+"I remember hearing an account given by some friends of ours of the
+behaviour of their servants during a famine in England many years ago,"
+observed Murray.  "Corn was very scarce, and bread being consequently at
+an enormous price, they determined to put their household on an
+allowance, and to allow so many slices to each servant in the day,
+giving them rice and other things instead, not stinting them, therefore,
+in their food.  This excessively enraged the pampered menials, and their
+old butler, who was the most indignant, ate so much meat and puddings of
+various sorts, and drank so much beer, that he actually brought on a
+surfeit, and died from it.  How angry most of the fellows at school
+would have been if told that they could not have butter, or sugar in
+their tea.  Never mind if the butter was not to be procured, and the
+sugar had by chance not come from the grocer's.  How differently do
+these poor seamen and the ignorant blacks behave.  Not a grumble is
+heard, not a look even of annoyance is seen."
+
+Day after day they stood on, thinking that they must sight Cape Palmas
+before many hours had passed, and then, after making the land, they
+found that they could not be many miles farther to the west than they
+were before.
+
+"Still we might do it, if we could but get a stiffish breeze," observed
+Murray.  "I think the wind is drawing out more from the north-west and
+east.  What say you, Paddy?"
+
+"Let's keep at it to the last moment.  I'm ready for what you are?"
+answered Adair.
+
+The schooner was once more put about with her head to the westward.
+
+Everybody whistled as they walked the deck--even the blacks did so--
+though they did not know the reason why.
+
+The breeze did not come a bit the faster on that account.  However, at
+night it blew pretty strong off the land, and their hopes again revived.
+But as the sun rose, it backed once more into its old quarter, and once
+more they had to tack.  On making the land, there were the identical
+hillocks and clumps of trees they had before seen.  Murray and Adair
+agreed that there must be all the time a strong current setting them to
+the eastward, and this, on running in closer, heaving-to, and trying the
+bottom with the lead, they found to be the case.  Provisions for two
+days, and less than half allowance, was all they had now got.  Murray
+and Adair consulted together.
+
+"We shall have to make for the nearest port, I fear, after all, or run
+the chance of starving," said Adair.
+
+"There is no alternative," answered Murray, with a sigh.  "We have done
+our best."
+
+"That we have," replied Adair quickly.  "There is no doubt about that.
+You have, that is to say--I should have given up long ago.  The sooner
+we shape a course for Cape Coast Castle the better."
+
+The schooner was kept away to retrace her steps to the eastward.  But
+now the wind fell altogether, and they began to fear that after all they
+should get nowhere.  The little food they had left was very bad.
+Gradually it disappeared, and at length they literally had nothing
+eatable on board.
+
+"We must take a reef in our waistbands, and suck our thumbs," said
+Paddy.  "I see no other remedy for it."
+
+He said this in the hearing of the men, to encourage them as much as he
+could.
+
+"We cannot be far off Cape Coast Castle, that is one comfort," added
+Murray.  "We will keep a sharp look out for it at all events."
+
+The day passed, and so did the next, and still the calm continued.  They
+searched about in every part of the vessel, in the hopes of discovering
+a store of farina or rice, but nothing could they find but the rotting
+tobacco and the monkey-skins, and, starving as they were, they could not
+manage to eat them.  Even when reduced to this extremity the young
+officers themselves did not despond, nor did their men, who looked to
+them for example, do so either.  Murray calculated that if they could
+but get a breeze, they might reach the port for which they were steering
+in less than twenty-four hours.  It was very tantalising to be so near
+it, and yet not to be able to get there.  Had they had any fish-hooks,
+they would, they thought, be able to catch some fish, but none were to
+be found, nor had they a file with which to manufacture any out of old
+nails, as they had often heard of being done.
+
+"Necessity is the mother of invention," exclaimed Adair suddenly.
+"Here's a piece of tin.  I have some scissors in my dressing-case, and I
+think I could manage to cut out a hook or two before they are quite
+blunted.  Let's try, at all events."
+
+The scissors were produced, when, to their great delight, a file for
+finger-nails was discovered at the back of the blades.  Not only were
+two tin hooks cut out, but three more were manufactured out of some
+nails before the files were rendered completely useless.  Bait was the
+next thing to be procured.  As there was nothing eatable on board, how
+was it to be got?  That was the question.  Adair solved it by trying one
+of his hooks without any.  "Hurrah!" he exclaimed in less than five
+minutes, "I have a bite.  Hurrah!"  Up came a curious-looking monster in
+the shape of a fish.  It was a question whether or not it was poisonous.
+A fire was made and a pot put on to boil, into which the creature, part
+of it being cut off for bait, was immediately popped.  They would rather
+have caught a young shark, with whose character they were acquainted;
+but starving men are not particular.  Before the pot had begun to boil,
+a fresh breeze came in from the offing, and away flew the little
+schooner with more liveliness than she had displayed for many a day.
+The lines were hauled in.  Murray and Adair agreed not to touch the
+strange fish.  They also advised the men not to eat of it.  The sun went
+down, and all night they ran on at a fair rate.  The next morning land
+was in sight.  They hoped that it might be near their destination.
+Adair had just relieved Murray, who had turned in to go to sleep.  He
+observed the black man looking very miserable, and presently the black
+boy complained of being very ill.
+
+"What have you been about, Sambo?" asked Adair, looking into the
+caboose.
+
+"Oh! massa, massa, me eat fish," groaned the poor lad.
+
+"It ought to have been thrown overboard, to have removed temptation out
+of your way," observed Adair, taking the pot with the intention of
+suiting the action to the word, but on lifting the lid he found it
+empty.  The negroes had eaten up every particle of the fish.  They
+groaned and rolled about for some time evidently in some pain and in
+considerable alarm.  It was no wonder they were ill, but it was evident
+also that the fish could not have been of a very poisonous character, or
+they would have been much worse.  Indeed they speedily forgot all their
+sickness on hearing Wasser exclaim, "Dere, dere! dose hills above Cape
+Coast Castle!"
+
+The words indeed had a great effect on all on board.  Murray, who had
+been there before, the instant he came on deck pronounced Wasser to be
+right, and in a short time the schooner was running in towards a
+collection of conical and wooded heights, with the strong and
+formidable-looking fortress of Cape Coast, built on a mass of rock, in
+front of them, with the sea washing round a considerable part of it.  It
+looked a very large fortification; indeed it covers several acres of
+ground, mounts upwards of a hundred guns, and is kept in the most
+efficient condition.  The old castle stands in about the centre of the
+fortress, and is four storeys in height.  The Governor and his suite, as
+do most of the public officers, find ample accommodation within its
+walls.  It is garrisoned by black soldiers, chiefly from the West
+Indies, but their officers are all Englishmen.  As soon as the
+schooner's anchor was let go, Murray and Adair hurried on shore to
+report themselves to the Governor, and to obtain his assistance.  The
+moment he heard of the state of the schooner's crew he sent off
+provisions, insisting on the midshipmen remaining to dine with him, that
+they might relate their adventures.
+
+"But you young gentlemen are probably hungry, and would rather not wait
+for dinner," observed the Governor.
+
+"Slightly so," answered Adair, "seeing that nothing has passed our lips
+for the last two days.  We were in a hurry to get food for our people,
+so had no time to eat before calling on your Excellency."
+
+The remark in a very few minutes procured the midshipmen an ample
+luncheon, to which they did full justice, and would very likely have
+done more than justice, had not the good-natured Governor stopped them,
+and hinted that they would spoil their appetites for dinner.
+
+"No fear of that, sir," answered Adair, laughing, "midshipmen make it a
+rule always to be ready to eat two dinners if called upon to do so in
+the way of duty.  However, I dare say we can hold on now till
+dinner-time."
+
+Murray and Adair had no intention of spending the interval in idleness.
+Though they would have gladly gone to sleep, or taken a bath, they again
+hurried on board their craft, to ascertain that the provisions had
+arrived, and that their men were made comfortable.  Needham had done all
+that they could wish, and was very proud of being left in charge of the
+schooner while they were on shore.  The first thing to be done was to
+refit their vessel before she would be in a fit state again to put to
+sea, and to effect this they without delay took the necessary steps to
+procure rope and other stores.  On returning to the port the Governor
+received them with the greatest kindness and hospitality, and as they
+sat in the cool dining-room in the castle, they agreed that it was a
+perfect paradise compared with their stuffy little cabin when the
+noonday sun was striking down on the deck.
+
+"All things are by comparison," observed Adair sententiously.  "Some
+people now at home would not think this old fort on the African coast
+much of a paradise."  Several guests, merchants, and others were
+present, and they had to recount their adventures to all the party.  On
+returning on board, having moored the vessel in a safe position, they
+turned in and slept as midshipmen thoroughly worn out with anxiety and
+fatigue, with good consciences and a comfortable dinner inside them, can
+sleep.  The next morning all hands set to work with a will to refit the
+schooner.  By heaving her down they got at what they believed to be the
+chief leak, and caulked it, and in four days they considered their craft
+once more ready for sea.  The Governor supplied them with provisions for
+forty days, and very kindly sent them some extra luxuries for
+themselves.  By the Governor's advice, they took one entire day's rest
+for themselves and their crew.  Then, in high spirits, anticipating no
+further difficulties, they once more put to sea.  They had arms and
+powder, and a six-pounder gun which had belonged to the schooner, and,
+as compared to their previous condition, they felt themselves in a
+condition to encounter any gale of wind or any enemies they were likely
+to meet with.  When they went to pay their farewell respects to the
+Governor, he said that the state of their little vessel had been
+reported to him, and that he would really advise them to give up the
+attempt to take her to Sierra Leone, and to wait till a man-of-war
+should call off the castle to receive them on board.  Murray's answer
+may be supposed, though he thanked the Governor for his advice.  The day
+was remarkably sultry and close.  There was a haze, but not sufficient
+to obscure altogether the sun's beams, while the only wind which blew
+came off the hot sands in the interior.  They agreed that they would be
+better off at sea than roasting on shore, and so, getting on board, they
+hove up the anchor and made all sail to the westward.
+
+"Paddy," said Murray, as they were walking the deck after dinner, almost
+gasping for breath, "I don't quite like the look of the weather; what do
+you think of it?"
+
+"That we should stand by to shorten sail at a moment's notice," answered
+Adair.  "See that white line of foam curling away over the glassy
+surface of the water out there.  Here it comes."
+
+"I see it.  All hands shorten sail!" shouted Murray, as he and Adair ran
+to help execute the order.  They were but just in time when the tornado
+came thundering down upon them.  The main and peak-halyards were let go,
+and the mainsail was handed while the topsail and jib-sheets were let
+fly, and round spun the vessel, almost capsizing as she did so, for the
+foresail was not yet brailed up.  It was hard work to brail it up,
+fluttering as it was in the gale, but at length away she flew before the
+gale.  Some people have an idea that the climate on the coast of Africa
+is all sunshine and heat.  Hot enough it is, but at the same time the
+sky is often dark, lowering and gloomy in the extreme.  Nothing can have
+a more depressing effect than the atmosphere at such times on all not
+thoroughly acclimated to it.  Everything was made snug on board, but for
+three entire days they could scarcely show a stitch of sail, while the
+little vessel tumbled about so much that it was with difficulty they
+could light a fire for a short time in the caboose.  They got some salt
+beef boiled, and then a sea came in and put the fire out, and though
+they tried hard, they could not light it again.  However, the beef was
+pretty well done, and lasted them some days.  Murray and Adair passed
+the time as they best could.  They had but a small supply of books.  The
+cabin was so close and hot, and on the deck the wind blew so hard, that
+it was a somewhat difficult undertaking to attempt to read.  They did
+not manage therefore to add much to their stock of knowledge during the
+period of the gale.  The vessel, however, happily held together, and at
+the end of three days the weather gave signs of moderating.
+
+"That's a comfort," exclaimed Adair, as once more they were able to make
+sail, and the schooner, with everything she could carry, was put on her
+proper course; "it will be hard if we do not reach Sierra Leone before
+long now."  They, however, on taking an observation, found that they
+were much farther from their destination than they were when at Cape
+Coast Castle.  At it again they went, however, but the wind fell, and
+for several days they made but very little progress.  Still they were
+going in the way they wanted, and that was something.  For about a week
+they stood on thus, with the wind not only light but very scant.  One
+afternoon Wasser's sharp eye discovered a sail to windward.  Murray went
+aloft with his glass to have a look at her.
+
+"What do you make her out?" asked Adair.
+
+"A brig or brigantine; a two-masted vessel of some sort," answered
+Murray.  "She is standing this way.  I do not altogether like her looks.
+She has a widespread of white canvas, and so, if she is not a
+man-of-war, she is a slaver, of that I have little doubt."  The crew
+heard what was said.  Murray remained some time longer aloft.  When he
+came down he looked grave and determined.  "My lads," he exclaimed,
+after exchanging a few words with Adair, "I have very little doubt that
+the craft in sight is a slaver or pirate, and that at all events she
+will treat us with scant ceremony.  We must beat her off.  I know that
+you all will do your best to do so."
+
+"That we will, sir, never fear," answered Needham, in the name of the
+rest.
+
+"I know that, my men; there's no time to be lost in getting ready
+though," said Murray.  "Hand up the arms, and we'll try to give the
+fellows, whoever they may be, a warm reception if they attempt to molest
+us."  All hands were instantly employed in getting ready for the enemy.
+The gun was loaded, and several shot placed in a rack near it; the
+muskets and pistols were also loaded, and cutlasses were buckled on.
+They had no boarding-nettings, and their only hope of victory was by
+showing so bold a front at first, that the enemy might be driven off
+without coming to close quarters.  As the stranger drew near she was
+seen to be a most wicked, rakish-looking brigantine, and neither Murray
+nor Adair had any longer the slightest doubt in their minds that she was
+a slaver.  They hoisted the English ensign, but she showed no colours in
+return.
+
+"We shall have to fight for it," observed Murray to Adair; "but though
+the odds are fearfully against us, I have a strange feeling of
+satisfaction in contemplating such a contest.  I cannot help trusting
+that we shall come off victorious, in spite of the apparent strength of
+our enemy."
+
+"I am sure I hope so," said Adair, who did not quite understand the
+thoughts which were pressing through his messmate's head.  "We will
+fight away as long as we have hands to fight with and an ounce of
+gunpowder for our muskets.  It was a craft like that brigantine out
+there captured poor Hanbury, and murdered him and his boat's crew.  I
+only wish that we had a few more guns and men, and if that is the very
+pirate, we might avenge his death."
+
+"No, no, do not talk of vengeance, Adair," said Murray gravely;
+"vengeance does not belong to man.  It would be our duty, if we had the
+power, to take the miscreants and to bring them to justice; as it is, I
+trust that, though with infinitely inferior force, we may beat them off.
+But we must not, as Christians, allow ourselves for a moment to indulge
+in the idea that we are avenging the death or the wrongs of even the
+dearest of our relations or friends."
+
+"I had not seen the matter in that light," answered Adair.
+
+"Then, my dear fellow, try and do so.  It is the true light depend on
+that."
+
+Who would have supposed, when looking at the two vessels, that those on
+board the little half-crippled schooner could for a moment have
+contemplated with confidence a conflict with the well-found, powerful
+brigantine?  But there was just this difference.  The midshipmen felt
+that they were, to the very best of their means, performing their duty,
+and they felt a perfect confidence in Heaven's protecting power, while
+they knew that the slaver was engaged in the most nefarious of callings,
+and that the most abandoned miscreants composed her crew.  On she came,
+as though triumphing in her strength.  Hitherto the little wind blowing
+had been to the northward and east.  As Adair was looking out to the
+northward, he observed a dark blue line coming rapidly along over the
+water.  He pointed it out to Murray.  "Trim sails," was the order
+promptly given.  In another minute the little schooner, close hauled
+with her sails like boards, was standing away to the westward, while the
+brigantine lay dead to leeward at the distance of at least two miles and
+a half.  Some minutes passed even before she felt the breeze, and when
+she did it was pretty evident that it would take her many a weary hour
+to catch up the schooner.  The midshipmen agreed that with the
+opportunity thus afforded them of getting away from the slaver, it would
+be the height of rashness to wait and encounter her.  They felt grateful
+for having been thus preserved, and when the brigantine was seen to fill
+and keep away on her course, they could not help joining their men in
+giving vent to their feelings in a shout of joy.  They stood on all
+night.  Eagerly the next morning they looked out--not a sign of the
+brigantine was to be seen.  For several days after this they were
+knocking about, making often very little way, and sometimes drifting
+back again during a calm double the distance they had made good during
+the last breeze.
+
+"I do hope, sir, as how this voyage won't last much longer," observed
+Needham to Adair, pointing to numberless rents and torn places in the
+sails.  "I don't think this here canvas would stand another stiffish
+gale without flying into ribbons.  I've been hunting about, and I've
+found a spare boat's sail and some other stuff to mend them.  To my
+mind, it's the best thing we could do before another squall catches us."
+
+Needham's advice was immediately taken, and the wind being very light,
+the sails were lowered, and all hands set to work to mend them in the
+best fashion they could.  Needham having once belonged to the
+sailmaker's crew, was a very fair hand at the work, but the rest were
+anything but expert.  However, all used their needles to the best of
+their abilities.  Adair pricked his fingers very often, and, as he
+observed, he left indisputable traces of his industry.  So important was
+it to get their sails set again before night, that they scarcely allowed
+themselves time for their meals.  Having done little else than drift
+about all day, it was with no little relief to their minds, that, just
+as the sun went down, they once more got the sails bent and hoisted.
+Murray's sextant had been broken, and as he was leaving the _Archer_, a
+shipmate offered him his quadrant.  It was a very indifferent one at
+best, and in one of the gales to which the _Venus_ had been subject, it
+had received yet further damage, so that it was often ten or even twenty
+miles out of adjustment.  Murray and Adair never lost an opportunity of
+taking an observation, while they kept their reckoning with the greatest
+care; but, after all, they often could only guess at their position.
+The weather, too, was very uncertain.  Day after day down came torrents
+of rain--not merely English spring showers--but, as Adair observed,
+regular bucketsful, which compelled them to open the ports to let the
+water run off the decks, for fear of swamping the vessel.  No people
+could behave better than did their little crew.  Murray allowed no one
+to be idle.  They were employed either in cleaning their arms, mending
+their clothes, repairing the rigging, and, when the sea was sufficiently
+calm, in fishing.  Needham kept up his own spirits, and did his best to
+keep up that of his messmates.  However, they were to be again severely
+tried.  One evening, early in October, scud was seen flying rapidly
+across the sky, while thick masses of cloud banked up densely in the
+horizon.  It was Adair's first watch; Murray had been about to turn in.
+He cast his eyes around.
+
+"Depend on it, Adair, we are going to have a heavy blow, a regular
+tornado will be down on us before long, and the sooner we make
+everything snug the better."
+
+Adair doubted whether there would be anything more than a squall.  Just
+then the sails flapped ominously, and there was a perfect calm.  The
+flame of a candle brought on deck would have ascended straight upwards.
+
+"Adair, I tell you it will be down on us in a few minutes, and with
+terrific force too," exclaimed Murray.  "All hands shorten sail!"  Not a
+moment was to be lost; Needham and the rest saw that.  With the
+exception of the fore-staysail every sail was lowered and carefully
+stowed; the topmasts were struck, and everything on deck was lashed and
+secured.  All the time a dead calm continued, the atmosphere was
+dreadfully close, so that even on deck at times it seemed difficult to
+breathe, while all around became darker and darker.  Suddenly a sound,
+like heavy thunder, was heard in the distance.
+
+"It is the beginning of the strife--the first gun fired in action.  Look
+there, what do you say to that?"  He pointed to a bank of foam which was
+seen rolling up through the dense gloom towards the devoted little
+vessel.
+
+"Why, I suspect that we shall find ourselves in the midst of a sea which
+will pretty nearly swamp us," answered Adair.
+
+On it came, rolling and leaping, as if eager to destroy the little
+craft.  No sooner did her head feel the force of the gale than off, like
+a sea-bird on the wing, she flew before it.  The fore-staysail was now
+stowed, for, from the fury of the tornado, it would either have been
+torn out of the bolt-rope or run the vessel under water.  On flew the
+little craft, the sea every instant getting up and the wind freshening.
+
+"Hold on, all of you; hold on for your lives!" sang out Murray with
+startling energy.
+
+The caution was not ill-timed.  On came a monster sea, roaring astern.
+High above her quarters it rose, and down it rushed on her decks,
+wellnigh swamping her.  All the hatches had before been secured; but,
+had not the ports been open, so as to allow the water immediately to run
+out, it would have swamped her.  The half-drowned crew shook themselves
+as they once more emerged from the weight of water above them.  Happily,
+none were washed away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+IN PERILOUS CONDITION.
+
+The little half-sinking schooner dashed on amid the raging seas, now
+lifted up to the summit of one surrounded by hissing foam, now sinking
+down into the gloomy hollow between others which seemed as if they were
+about instantly to engulf her.  Again another sea struck her; and had
+not every one held on tight to the rigging or bulwarks, her deck would
+have been cleared, as it made a clean wash fore and aft.
+
+"We must not run this risk again!" exclaimed Murray.  "All hands go
+below; one on deck is enough.  I'll take the helm.  No expostulation,
+Adair; remember, I am commanding officer.  I am determined to do it."
+
+Adair, with a bad grace, was obliged to obey with the rest.  They all
+went below, and Murray battened down the hatches.  Lashing himself to
+the helm, he alone remained on deck through that fearful gale.  The sea
+roared around the little vessel, the wind whistled through the shrouds,
+fierce lightnings darted from the dark heavy clouds, the thunder rattled
+in deafening peals, while deluges of rain and spray flew about his head
+and almost blinded him.  Yet, undaunted as at the first, he stood like
+some spirit of the storm at his dangerous post.
+
+Those below tried to sleep, to pass away the time, but so fearful was
+the tumult that sleep refused to visit even the seamen's eyes.  Hour
+after hour passed by.  Still, by the noise and the movement of the
+vessel, it was too evident that the gale continued.  Adair calculated
+that it must already be almost day.  Just then the vessel became more
+steady, and the noise of the storm considerably diminished.  Adair was
+surprised that Murray did not take off the hatches.  He was anxious to
+go on deck to relieve him.  He knocked and knocked again on the
+skylight.  He called and called out again and again.  There was no
+answer.  With frantic energy he attempted to burst open the skylight.
+The dreadful idea seized him that Murray, his brave and noble friend,
+had been washed overboard and lost.
+
+He and his companions again knocked several times.  Still there was no
+answer.  They themselves were almost stifled with the heat of the
+atmosphere and the odour of the rotting tobacco and monkey-skins.  "This
+will never do," exclaimed Adair, becoming more and more alarmed for
+Murray's safety.  "We must force the hatches off, or break our way
+through the skylight."  They groped about and found a handspike which
+had been chucked down below.  "Now, lads.  Heave he!" cried Adair, and
+getting the end under the skylight, with a loud crash they prized it
+off, and one after the other sprang on deck.  There stood Murray lashed
+to the helm, and looking more like a man in a trance than one awake.
+
+"Hillo, where am I?" he exclaimed, gazing wildly around.
+
+"On the deck of the _Venus_, old fellow," answered Terence, taking him
+by the hand.  "Right gallantly you steered us through the gale, and as
+soon as it fell calm you dropped asleep, and small blame to you.  We did
+the same below, and I cannot tell you how glad I am to see you safe: we
+all thought you had fallen overboard."  Murray was very much surprised
+to find that he had slept so long and so soundly, but he soon gave
+evidence that he had not had enough rest, for Adair had a mattress
+brought up and stretched under an awning on deck, and the moment he
+placed his head on it he was off again as soundly as before.
+
+"We must turn to at the pumps, sir," observed Needham, coming from
+below.  "If we don't bear a hand, I fear the craft will sink under us."
+Such it appeared would probably be the case, but no one was daunted.
+All set to work and laboured away as manfully as before.  When Murray
+awoke he found that the schooner was again almost cleared of water.  The
+last man to leave the pumps was Wasser.  He was still labouring away,
+when down he sank on the deck.  Murray and Adair ran to lift him up.  He
+could scarcely open his eyes, and looked thoroughly worn out.  They
+lifted the poor fellow to the mattress from which Murray had just risen,
+and as soon as the fire, which had gone out, could be lighted, they made
+some beef broth, which they poured down his throat.  They also gave him
+a little rum.  Alick and Terence differed as to which was the best
+restorative, but, unlike doctors in general, they agreed to administer
+them alternately.  Paddy wanted to give them in equal proportions--that
+is to say, for every cup of broth Alick gave, he wanted to give a glass
+of grog; but fortunately to this arrangement Murray would not consent.
+He argued that one tumbler of grog, half and half, was stronger than a
+dozen basins of broth, and he would therefore allow only half a tumbler
+in the day.  When Wasser was at length able to speak, to Adair's
+astonishment he declared in favour of the remedy of the rival
+practitioner, and Murray and his broth carried the day.  In spite of the
+heat, Wasser had to be carried below, and all who could were glad to
+take shelter there, for down came the rain with terrific force, and
+continued without intermission, almost swamping the little vessel.  Her
+crew had work enough to do all their time in keeping her clear of the
+water, which poured in through the leaks in bucketsful.  For days and
+nights together no one had on a dry jacket.  By such observations as
+they could manage to make, Murray and Adair began to suspect that all
+their seamanship was set at nought; for though they at times made some
+way through the water, they as quickly lost all the ground they had
+gained, and thus it became evident that there was a strong current
+against them.
+
+"This is dreadfully trying," exclaimed Terence, after they had become
+convinced of this disagreeable fact.  "Let us try and make the land
+again, and see whereabouts we are.  Perhaps by hugging the shore we may
+be able to get round Cape Palmas after all."  Murray agreed to this
+proposal, although he was not very sanguine of success.  He knew that
+the currents were probably as strong in-shore as where they then were,
+but he hoped that they might possibly get a slant of wind off the land,
+which would enable them to stem the current, and help them along round
+the Cape.  Murray had been making his calculations on paper.
+
+"I could scarcely have believed that we could have been so unfortunate,"
+he observed, looking calmly up.  "For the last six days we have not made
+good more than four or five miles--perhaps scarcely so much.  _I_ have
+no wish to pay another visit to Cape Coast Castle, though I dare say the
+old governor would be as kind to us as before."
+
+"I agree with you," answered Adair.  "Let us stick at it.  We must get
+the wind in our favour some day or other It does not always blow from
+the nor'ard, I suppose."
+
+Like true British sailors they did stick at it.  Such is the spirit
+which has animated the numerous brave voyagers who have explored the
+arctic regions, the southern seas, and the wide-spreading Pacific.  At
+length the land was made.  It was a long way, however, to the southward,
+or rather to the eastward of Cape Palmas.  The wind fell soon
+afterwards, and slowly they drifted in toward the shore.  Their glasses
+as they approached were directed at it, and they could see a number of
+blacks collected on the beach and evidently watching them.  The part of
+the coast they were now off is called the Ivory Coast.  As far as the
+eye could reach it was flat and monotonous, but along its whole extent
+appeared rich groves of cocoa-nut trees, extending a considerable
+distance inland.  Here and there, embosomed by the cocoa-nut groves,
+they could see small villages and separate buildings, the cottages with
+high conical roofs, thatched with palmetto leaves.  To the east appeared
+a long thin spit of sand, separated from the main beach by a lagoon,
+into which several rivers and streams appeared to fall.  As they
+approached the shore a terrific surf was seen rolling in towards it, and
+breaking with a loud roar on the sand.
+
+"What will become of our little craft if we get in among those
+breakers?" said Adair.  "She will have hard work to swim, I suspect."
+
+"I doubt if she will ever float through them," answered Murray.  "If she
+does, and we are stranded, which is the best fate we can then hope to
+happen to us, I fear that those black gentry on the shore will not give
+us a very friendly reception.  They are flourishing their spears as if
+they would like to dig them into us."
+
+"We shall be completely in their power, and, what is the worst, we have
+not the means of showing fight," said Adair, watching the people on the
+shore through his glass.  "They have some big canoes hauled up on the
+beach, and they seem disposed to launch them, and come in chase of us,
+should the rollers not send us to them."
+
+"I wish that there was a chance of that," exclaimed Murray; "I should
+have very little fear of them if they came to attack us.  Ah! there's a
+puff of wind off the shore.  Our blacks have discovered it.  They are
+wetting their fingers and holding up their hands.  We may yet be able to
+stand off the land."
+
+The minutes passed slowly by.  They were full of the most anxious
+suspense.  Now the promised breeze died away, and the little vessel
+floated helplessly in towards the dreaded surf.  Now it came on again,
+and she was able to get a little farther off, again to be left to drift
+back towards the land.  Then, just as her case seemed hopeless, another
+puff would come, and once more her sails would fill, and all on board
+hoped that she would make a good offing.  Had they possessed sweeps,
+with the help of the transient breeze, they might have got to a safe
+distance from the land.  As to anchoring, that was out of the question.
+Even had there been bottom to be found with such an inset, their cable
+would not have held them for an instant.  When the schooner got near
+enough to the shore, they saw that the natives were still watching them
+eagerly, and no sooner did the breeze return, than preparations were
+made to launch several of their canoes.  From the gestures of the
+blacks, Murray and Adair agreed that their intentions did not appear to
+be friendly, and therefore it would be wise to avoid them altogether if
+they could, and at all events to be prepared to receive them warmly,
+should they overtake the schooner.  Her progress was very slow, and
+there appeared too great a prospect of their doing this.  Every
+preparation was therefore made for such a contingency.  The wind was
+light, but it appeared to be increasing, and by degrees it was evident
+that the little craft was forging ahead more and more rapidly through
+the smooth shining ocean.  The negroes on shore must have seen that
+their chance of overtaking her was every moment lessening, and they were
+observed to make several strenuous efforts to launch their canoes
+through the surf.  The first two were capsized and sent back on the
+beach, which the people in her (or rather out of her) very easily
+regained, as if perfectly accustomed to that mode of proceeding.  Again,
+however, the canoes were righted and launched, and this time four gained
+the open sea.  The fifth was driven back, and probably received some
+damage, for she was not again launched.  Four large canoes full of
+strong active negroes, completely armed according to their own fashion,
+were antagonists not to be despised; still it was evident that they had
+not firearms, or that if they had, they must have been rendered
+completely useless from the thorough drenching they must have got.
+Night was drawing on.  The wind in a few minutes drew more round to the
+eastward, and gave signs of once more dropping.  Of course every inch of
+canvas the little _Venus_ could carry was set on her, so that unless the
+breeze, increased it was impossible to make her go faster than she was
+doing through the water.  As yet she was keeping well ahead of the
+canoes.  The two midshipmen anxiously watched the proceedings of the
+latter.  The blacks in the stern-sheets were standing up and
+gesticulating, and flourishing their clubs and lances, and encouraging
+their companions.  The sun at length went down, and with the last gleam
+of light shed by his rays they could see the canoes still in pursuit.
+Darkness, however, now rapidly rose over the deep, and hid them from
+their view.  Murray wisely bethought him of altering the schooner's
+course more to the southward for a short time.  Nearly an hour passed,
+and there were no signs of the canoes.  They had therefore little
+apprehension that they would overtake them.  The schooner was hauled up
+again on a wind.  The night passed away, and when morning broke neither
+the canoes nor the land were in sight.
+
+"If the breeze lasts we may hope to regain the ground we lost last
+night," observed Murray.  But it did not; and when once more they
+reached in towards the land, they found that they had made as little
+progress as before.  Again, too, their provisions were running short.
+Though they might catch some fish, the supply was uncertain.
+
+"We shall have to bear up again for Cape Coast Castle after all, I am
+afraid," observed Adair to Murray.  "And really, Alick, if I were you, I
+would leave the old craft there, and let us find our way as we best can
+to Sierra Leone.  Yet, of course, if you resolve to continue the voyage,
+I'll stick by you.  You'll not think I hesitated about that point."
+
+"I know full well that you'd not desert me, Paddy, even if things were
+ten times as bad as they are," answered Murray.  "But you also know me
+well enough not to suppose that I would disobey my orders and abandon
+the schooner while she holds together.  If she gets a slight repair,
+with a fresh supply of provisions, she will be as well able to perform
+the voyage as she was at first.  There is no use starving, though; and
+as we have scarcely anything left to eat on board, we'll keep away at
+once for Cape Coast Castle."
+
+The order to put up the helm was received with no little satisfaction by
+Needham and the rest, and in less than three days the schooner was
+riding safely at anchor before the old fort.  The Governor received the
+two midshipmen with the greatest kindness.
+
+"Well, my lads," said he, "I suppose you have had enough of this
+knocking about in your rotten old tub, and will not object to leave her
+this time.  We shall soon have a man-of-war here, which will carry you
+up to Sierra Leone, and I will bear you free from all blame with your
+captain or any one else.  You should no longer risk your own lives or
+those of your people in such a vessel."
+
+"I am much obliged to you, sir," said Murray.  "I've made up my mind
+long ago on the matter, but I am willing to let any of the people leave
+me who wish it, and will try to get others in their stead."
+
+The Governor, who really was anxious about the safety of the young
+officer, whose perseverance he very much admired, the next day went on
+board the schooner, hoping to persuade the crew to abandon her; and
+expecting to gain his point under the belief that no other people would
+be obtained to go in her.  They assembled on deck.  The Governor
+addressed them.  Murray said nothing.
+
+"I sticks by my officers," said Needham, touching his hat and going
+behind Murray.  Not another word did he utter.
+
+"So do I, sir," said White, doing the same.  Wasser and the other
+blacks, grinning from ear to ear, and scratching their woolly pates,
+followed Needham and White.  Murray felt much gratified.
+
+"There, sir," said he to the Governor, "you see that my men will not
+desert me or the ship.  We are bound to continue the voyage."
+
+"I give up all hope of preventing you," said the kind-hearted Governor,
+with a sigh.  "However, as go you will, we will try to make you as
+comfortable as we can."
+
+The Governor was as good as his word, and provisions and stores of all
+sorts were sent on board.  There was little chance of their starving
+this time, though that of their going to the bottom was not much
+diminished, as few means were procurable of giving anything like a
+substantial repair to the little craft.  Among other gifts Alick and
+Terence received a couple of parrots and a monkey.  The first two were
+presented to Murray, the latter to Adair.  The little craft was once
+more pronounced ready for sea.  They had been employed all day in
+setting up the rigging, and in bending sails, when one of the men
+proposed a swim overboard, to cool themselves after the heat to which
+they had been subject.  In an instant all hands were in the water
+swimming about round and round the vessel.  The boat was in the water on
+the starboard side.  Murray, intending to bathe afterwards, was alone on
+deck.  Suddenly he saw the ill-omened fin of a shark rising above the
+water at no great distance off, and then his snout appeared, and his
+wicked eyes were visible surveying the scene of action.  Murray shouted
+to Adair and the rest of the people to come on board.  No one lost an
+instant in attempting to obey the order.  Wasser alone was on the port
+side at the moment, and nearest to where the shark had appeared.  He was
+a good swimmer as he had before shown, and instead of singing out for a
+rope with which to climb up on that side, he struck out to pass round
+the schooner's stern.  It was a fatal resolve.  Murray was watching the
+ominous fin.  It disappeared.  "Swim towards the stern! swim towards the
+stern! splash about with your legs, Wasser!" he cried out, running aft,
+and heaving the poor negro a rope.  "Catch hold of this, my lad, catch
+hold of this!"  Wasser made a spring at the rope, for instinctively he
+was aware what was behind him.  He had half lifted himself out of the
+water, when he uttered a fearful shriek.  The monster shark had seized
+him by the legs.  In vain he struggled; in vain Murray hauled away to
+drag him out of the water; the ferocious fish would not let go his hold;
+the poor negro shrieked again and again.  By that time Terence and
+Needham had climbed on board, and, coming to Murray's assistance, they
+leaned over the counter, and seizing Wasser by the arms, pulled him up
+still farther out of the water, and then White, joining them with a
+boat-hook, drove the point into one of the monster's eyes, when he at
+length opened his jaws, and retreated to a short distance, still,
+however, watching his writhing prey, as if ready to make another attack.
+It would be too horrible were I to describe the dreadful condition in
+which the shark had left poor Wasser's legs.  One foot was entirely
+gone, while the other leg was bare to the bone.  A mattress was got up
+on deck, and Murray and Adair, with all the skill they could command,
+set to work to doctor the negro lad, while they sent off to the port for
+assistance.
+
+"No use, thank ye, massas," said Wasser, shaking his head.  "Doctor no
+do good.  My time come.  Me die happy.  Once me thought fetish take me,
+now me know where me go--who wait for me."
+
+He pointed solemnly upwards as he spoke.  The deathbed of that poor
+black lad might well be envied by many a proud white man.  Wasser's
+predictions proved not unfounded.  When the doctor came on board he
+pronounced his case utterly hopeless, and as Wasser himself entreated
+that he might not be sent on shore, he was allowed to remain where he
+was.  All night the two midshipmen and Needham sat up watching him, and
+doing their best to relieve his pain.  At daybreak they were to get
+under weigh, and with the dying lad on board they once more left Cape
+Coast Castle and shaped a course for Sierra Leone.  The wind still
+continued light, and in order to keep them from gloomy thoughts or
+apprehensions, Murray set all hands to work to fish.  They had plenty of
+lines and bait this time, and as they sailed along the sea seemed
+literally alive with fish of every description.  There were bonettas,
+and dolphins, and skipjacks without number, all affording sport and very
+pleasant provender; while the seaman's arch-enemies, the sharks, cruised
+round them as if they had made up their minds that they were to become
+their prey.  Poor Wasser had lingered on from day to day, it appearing
+that each hour would prove his last, when, just at daybreak on the
+fourth morning, after leaving harbour, he called Murray, with a faint
+voice, to his side.  "Me go, massa! me go up dere, good-bye," he
+whispered, and with his hand pointing upwards, he fell back.  His arms
+dropped by his side, and Murray saw that the faithful lad was dead.  A
+funeral at sea is often an impressive ceremony.  That of poor Wasser was
+short, for though there were few in attendance it was not the less sad;
+for by his gentle and obliging manners, and his coolness and courage in
+danger, he had won the affection and respect of all with whom he had
+sailed.  The body was sewn securely up in his blankets and hammock, with
+such heavy weights as could be spared fastened to the feet; and when
+launched overboard, after Murray had read the funeral service, it shot
+quickly out of sight.
+
+"Well, Tom, I don't think as how Jack Shark will be able to grab the
+poor fellow before he gets safely down to the bottom."
+
+I do not know exactly what sort of a notion sailors have of the bottom
+of the ocean, but I rather think they have an idea that it is a
+comfortable sort of a place, where people can spend their time
+pleasantly enough, if they can but once contrive to reach it without
+being caught by a shark or other marine monster.
+
+When they had got over the feelings produced by Wasser's death, the
+little crew managed to amuse themselves tolerably well.  Murray taught
+his parrots to sing and whistle, and to talk, till they became
+wonderfully tame and fond of him; while Paddy contrived to instruct his
+monkey Queerface, as he called him, so well, that he fully rivalled his
+old friend Quirk on board the _Racer_.  Paddy used to observe that as
+Queerface could act like a human being, while the parrots could talk
+like one, their united talents would enable them to make a very fair
+representation of a young savage; or indeed of some of his acquaintance
+who considered themselves polished young gentlemen, but often acted no
+better than monkeys, and scarcely knew the meaning of what they were
+saying more than did the parrots.  There was no fear of the parrots
+flying away, so they were allowed full liberty, and in calm weather they
+used to sit on the rigging, nodding their heads and cleaning their
+feathers, and talking away with the greatest glee till Queerface, who
+had been watching them from the deck, would take it into his head to
+spring up the rigging after them and chase them from shroud to shroud,
+or they would keep out of his reach by circling round and round the
+vessel, completely laughing at his beard.  One day a huge shark was seen
+following the vessel.
+
+"I wonder what he wants with us?" exclaimed Paddy, gravely.  "If we do
+not catch him, perhaps he will catch one of us."
+
+"Such a notion is a mere superstition," observed Murray.  "However, we
+will try and catch him."
+
+A bonetta had just been caught, and that, it was agreed, would serve as
+a good bait for the shark.  There was no hook on board large enough to
+secure him, so another plan was adopted by Needham's suggestion.  The
+bonetta was secured to a small line, while with the end of the
+peak-halyards a running bowline-knot was formed and placed over it, or
+rather round it.  The fish was thus in the very centre of the hoop, or
+slip-knot it might be called, but a short distance before it, "We shall
+have the gentleman, no fear of it," observed Paddy, as he watched the
+shark dart forward towards the bait.  Murray managed the line with the
+bait, Paddy kept the bowline to draw it tight when the shark should get
+his head well into it.  Silently and cautiously the monster glided on,
+his cruel green eye on the bonetta, which Murray gradually withdrew till
+it was close up to the counter.  Then suddenly the shark, afraid of
+losing his prey, made a dart at the fish till the bowline was just
+behind his two hind fins, when Paddy, giving a sudden jerk to it,
+brought it tight round him.  The men, when they saw this, endeavoured to
+catch a turn with the rope to secure the monster, but, quick as
+lightning, he gave a terrific jerk to the rope and tore it through their
+hands.  Out flew the rope.  Unhappily, Paddy was standing in the middle
+of the coil, and before he could jump out of it a half-hitch was caught
+round his leg.
+
+"Hold on! hold on, lads!" he shrieked out; "oh, Murray, help!"  It was
+too late.  He was drawn up right over the gunwale, but just as he was
+going overboard he seized hold of the peak-halyards, where they were
+belayed to the side, and held on like grim death.  The shark tugged and
+tugged away terribly.  He could hold on no longer.  He felt his fingers
+relaxing their grasp, and in another moment he would have been dragged
+under the water with small chance of escape, when Needham seized him
+firmly by the jacket.  Ned, however, forgot that it would be necessary
+for him to get a grasp at something; but before he had done so, he found
+himself dragged over with Paddy.  At that moment White sprang up, and
+grasped hold of his legs just as they were disappearing over the
+gunwale; and at the same time Sambo, the other black, caught hold of
+White, who would inevitably otherwise have followed Needham, and thus
+poor Murray saw himself in a moment about to be deprived of his brother
+officer and crew.  He himself now sprang to their assistance.  All I
+have been describing took place within a few seconds of time.  With a
+boat-hook, fortunately at hand, he got a hold of Paddy's jacket, which
+considerably relieved Needham; and at the same moment, the shark coming
+up again towards the schooner, he and Needham were hauled on board
+again, his leg being happily released from the coil which had caught it
+without the necessity of cutting the rope.  Poor Paddy's leg was,
+however, dreadfully mangled; and, unable to stand, he sank down with
+pain on the deck.  Queerface was all the time chattering and jumping
+about in a state of the greatest excitement, evidently understanding
+somewhat of his master's danger; and no sooner did Adair regain the deck
+than he ran up, and, squatting down by his side, made so ludicrous a
+face that in spite of his pain Terence could not help bursting out into
+a fit of laughter, which, as he afterwards remarked, must wonderfully
+have relieved poor Queerface's mind.  The shark meantime was hauled on
+board, though when they had got him thus far he flapped about and
+struggled so violently that he almost took the deck from the crew.
+Little mercy had he to expect from their hands.  His enemies now
+attacked him with anything which first came in their way, but they made
+little impression on him while his head was the chief point of assault.
+Queerface chattered away and skipped about, taking very good care,
+however, to keep clear of him; and the parrots, Polly and Nelly, sang
+and talked as vehemently as if very much interested in the scene, till
+Sambo, the black cook, watching his opportunity, rushed in with his
+cleaver and gave the monster a blow on the upper part of his tail, which
+in an instant quieted him.  Not another flap did he give with tail or
+fin, his huge jaws closed, and he was dead.  After all their trouble, he
+was of no great use to them.  They cut a few slices out of him for
+frying; for seamen will often eat shark's flesh with much the same
+feeling that a Fejee islander or a New Zealander a few years ago used to
+eat their enemies taken in war.  His skin, however, was of some value,
+and that accordingly they took off and preserved.
+
+Poor Paddy suffered very great pain from his hurt.  The only remedy any
+one on board could think of applying was oil, and with that they
+continued to bathe it liberally, as it did just as well afterwards to
+burn in the lamps.  The wet season was not yet over.  Day after day they
+had torrents of rain, so that no one on board had a dry rag on their
+backs.  The schooner too grew more and more leaky and the cargo of
+tobacco more and more rotten, till the odour arising from it was
+scarcely bearable, and at length they were completely driven out of
+their cabin.  Often they wished to heave it overboard, but they dared
+not; for had they done so the vessel, already somewhat crank, would
+certainly have capsized.  Still, whenever the two midshipmen could get a
+glimpse of the sun they took their observations; and they found that
+they were making progress, though slowly, to the northward.
+
+"Can you believe it, Paddy?" exclaimed Murray, "you have been on board
+here upwards of three months, and four have passed away since I was
+placed in command of her.  Still my motto is `persevere,' and I intend
+to stick to it."  Right gallantly did the little crew follow his
+example.
+
+A few days after this, on taking their observations, they found that
+they had in this last twenty-four hours made good no less than forty
+miles, and two days after that they went over fifty miles of ground.
+This put all hands in good spirits; and Adair's leg getting better, he
+was once more able to move about as before.  They even began to fancy
+that all their trials were over, and that they should make an easy
+passage to Sierra Leone, but they were mistaken.  That very evening the
+sky gave signs of a change of weather.  The wind began to moan in the
+rigging, white crests rose on the summits of the seas, which increased
+rapidly in size as they rolled tumultuously around them.  All the canvas
+was closely reefed, when the gale came down upon the schooner.  She
+stood bravely up to it on her course till it increased in strength, the
+lightning darting from the clouds with a vividness, and the thunder
+rattling and crashing with a fury which no one on board had ever before
+experienced.  Sometimes so intense was the heat of the electric fluid as
+it passed round and about them, that they expected to be actually
+scorched by it if they happily escaped being struck dead.  The rain all
+the time came down in torrents, leaking through the deck and half
+filling the vessel, which was also letting in the water at every seam.
+They had thus not a moment for rest, for they soon found it necessary to
+keep the pumps going all the time.  At length the gale ceased; but it
+left them in a deplorable condition, with the leaks much increased and
+their sails in tatters.  All the canvas had been expended, and it seemed
+impossible to repair them, till they bethought them of the monkey-skins
+in the hold; and as soon as the wind fell they were lowered down, and
+all hands turned to for the purpose of mending them with this novel
+contrivance.
+
+"We shall do very well now," exclaimed Adair, when once more they were
+set.  "But my friend Queerface does not seem quite to understand the
+joke of seeing his brothers and sisters stretched out there before him,
+and I should say feels remarkably uncomfortable in his own skin lest we
+should some day think it necessary to make use of his hide in the same
+way."
+
+For three or four days they ran on to the northward, when down came
+another gale upon them, which gave every sign of being heavier even than
+the first.
+
+"I will have no man's life exposed unnecessarily to this fearful
+lightning," exclaimed Murray, as flash after flash darted vividly around
+them.
+
+Night had just come on.  Between the intervals of the flashes the
+darkness was such as could be felt.  Adair attempted to expostulate, and
+the rest would gladly have disobeyed orders; but Murray was firm, and
+insisted on being left alone as before.
+
+"Well, my dear fellow, mind you don't go to sleep," observed Adair, as
+with the crew, Queerface, and the two parrots, he dived down into the
+noisome little cabin.
+
+Hour after hour Murray gallantly stood to the helm, the little schooner
+dashing through the foaming seas, for he judged it better to keep her on
+her course than to heave her to.  Terrifically the thunder rolled.
+Crash succeeded crash almost without cessation, while the lightning
+darted from the sky and played with even more fearful vividness round
+the little vessel than on the former night.  Still Murray undaunted
+stood at his post with perfect calmness.  Though he scarcely expected to
+escape, it was not the calmness of despair or stoicism, but that which
+the most perfect trust in God's mercy and all-just government of human
+affairs can alone give.  "If He thinks fit to call me hence, His will be
+done," he repeated to himself over and over again during that dreadful
+night.  Several times Adair, anxious for his safety, lifted a little
+scuttle which had been contrived in the skylight, and inquired how he
+got on, and at times wondered at the fearless tone in which he replied.
+Still the danger of foundering was to be feared, for, what with the
+torrents of rain from the skies, and the opening leaks, the little
+vessel was rapidly filling with water.  Dawn was at length breaking and
+the wind was decreasing, when, as Murray looked around, he thought he
+saw a vessel to windward bearing down upon them.  Just at that instant a
+cry arose from below that the schooner was sinking, and Adair and the
+crew leaped on deck.  The pump was instantly rigged, and they worked
+away at it with a will.  Still the water appeared to be gaining on them.
+On came the stranger.  She was a large and fine schooner.  As the wind
+had decreased she was making sail; rapidly she neared them.  There could
+be little doubt from her appearance that she was a slaver.  To offer any
+resistance, should she wish to capture them, would be out of the
+question.  Their hearts sank within them.  Just then the glitter of some
+gold-lace on the cap of an officer standing on the schooner's poop
+caught Adair's eye.  He seized his telescope, and directly afterwards a
+cheer came down to them, as the schooner, shooting up into the wind,
+prepared to heave-to.  "Huzza! huzza!" exclaimed Adair.  "It's all
+right!--there can be no doubt of it!--There's Jack Rogers himself."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+SLAVE-HUNTING.
+
+The big schooner and the _Venus_ were soon hove-to, and while the two
+vessels were bowing and bobbing away at each other, a boat was lowered
+from the quarter of the former, which came dashing over the seas urged
+by four stout hands towards them.  Jack Rogers sat in the stern-sheets.
+He sprang on board and grasped Alick's and Terence's hands.  For nearly
+a minute he could not speak.  He looked at one and then at the other.
+
+"My dear fellows, you do look terribly pulled down," he exclaimed at
+length.  "Still I am glad to see you even as you are.  The truth is that
+it has been thought you were lost, when week after week passed and you
+did not appear.  Many of them gave you up altogether, and thought that
+you and the schooner had gone to the bottom, but I never entirely lost
+heart.  I couldn't have borne it if I had, and I was certain that you
+would turn up somewhere or other.  What have you been about?"  Their
+story was soon told.  "That's just like you," cried Jack, again,
+wringing Murray's and then Paddy's hand.  "You are right.  A fellow
+should do anything rather than desert his colours.  I am glad, indeed,
+that you've got safe through it.  But, I say, the craft seems to be
+moving in a very uneasy way.  What is the matter?"
+
+"If we don't keep the pumps going, she'll be going down in a few
+minutes," put in Needham, touching his hat.
+
+Jack called his crew out of the boat, and all hands set to work at the
+pumps.  It was high time, for the crazy little craft was settling fast
+down in the water.  Four fresh hands pumping away while the rest baled
+once more got the leaks under, and in a couple of hours, Jack returning
+on board his schooner, sail was made for Sierra Leone.  The schooner was
+a prize lately captured by the _Ranger_, and Captain Lascelles had put
+Jack in charge of her to carry her up to Sierra Leone, while the frigate
+continued her cruise to the southward.  He was to find his way back to
+his ship by the first man-of-war calling at the port.  Jack wished very
+much that he could remain on board the _Venus_, to keep up, as he said,
+his friends' spirits, but as he had two or three hundred slaves on board
+his prize, he had to return to her to preserve order.
+
+He promised, however, to stay by the _Venus_, come what might, and Alick
+and Paddy had no fear that he would desert them.  He lent them a couple
+of hands to work at the pumps, but even with this assistance they had
+the greatest difficulty in keeping the schooner afloat.
+
+"If another gale should spring up, I really do not think the craft would
+keep afloat an hour," exclaimed Adair, with a ruthful countenance, after
+he had been pumping away for an hour, till he was, as he said, like
+Niobe, all tears, or a water-nymph.
+
+"Then we must let her sink," answered Alick, calmly.  "We have done our
+best to keep her above water, though it would be hard to bear if, after
+all, we should be unable to carry her into Sierra Leone."
+
+"Never fear, Alick," exclaimed Paddy, warmly.  "As long as any of us
+have life in our bodies, we'll pump away, depend on that.  If pumping
+can do it, we'll keep the old craft afloat."
+
+Not the least anxious of the many anxious hours they had passed on board
+the _Venus_ were those they had now to endure.  Jack Rogers, however,
+kept close to them, so that they had no fear about their lives.  It was
+with no slight satisfaction, therefore, that at length they heard the
+cry from the foretopmast head of the _Felicidade_, Jack's prize, of
+"land ahead," and soon afterwards the high cape of Sierra Leone hove in
+sight.  They ran up the river above five miles, when they came to an
+anchor off Freetown, the picturesque capital of the colony.  It is
+backed by a line of lofty heights of different shapes and sizes, which
+are covered to their summits with trees, and add much to the beauty of
+the scenery, the Sugarloaf rising in the distance behind them.  The
+river immediately in front of the town forms a bay, which affords good
+anchorage to vessels of all classes.  The town rises with a gentle
+ascent from the banks of the river, and presents a very good appearance
+for nearly a mile long, and the streets are broad and intersect each
+other at right angles.  The town is open to the river on the north, but
+on the east, south, and west it is hemmed in by the wood-crowned hills,
+which are about a mile or so from it, the intervening space being filled
+up with undulating ground, forming altogether a scene of great beauty.
+Here and there in the distance could be seen the palm-thatched roofs of
+the cottages, which form several villages scattered about on the sides
+of the hills, and all united by good roads.
+
+"What a pleasant place this would be to live in if it wasn't for the
+yellow fever, and the coast fever, and a few other little
+disagreeables," observed Adair to Murray, as they stood on the deck of
+the _Venus_ waiting for Jack Rogers, who was coming to take them on
+shore.  Meantime Needham and the rest of the crew were still hard at
+work at the pumps, to keep the craft afloat.  The schooner's sails being
+stowed, Rogers was soon alongside.  With no little satisfaction they
+stepped into his boat.  Just as they were shoving off, Queerface, who
+had hitherto been looking over the side, chattering in the most voluble
+manner, made a spring and leaped in after them, and took his seat aft as
+if he thought himself one of them, as Paddy remarked.  He looked about
+him in so comical a way that they all burst into fits of laughter, and
+when they tried to catch him to put him on board again, he leaped about
+so nimbly, that they were obliged to give up the chase and allow him to
+accompany them on shore.
+
+"If Master Queerface was asked, I have not the slightest doubt but that
+he would say there were four of us in the boat now," said Paddy,
+laughing.  "Just see what a conceited look the little chap puts on; eh,
+Master Queerface, you think yourself a very fine fellow now."
+
+"Kack, kack, kack," went Queerface, looking about him in the most
+self-satisfied manner.
+
+"Hillo, who comes here?" cried Jack, as the boat was nearing the shore.
+He pointed at the _Venus_, whence two large parrots were seen flying
+towards them.
+
+"Those are my pets," exclaimed Murray, laughing.  "We should in England
+be looked upon as the advertising members of some travelling menagerie."
+
+When they got on shore Queerface walked alongside Paddy with the
+greatest gravity, except that he every now and then turned round to grin
+at the little negro boys who followed, making fun at him in a way he did
+not approve of.  One of them, more daring than the rest, tried to tweak
+him by the tail, when he made chase in so heroic a manner that he put
+them all to flight.  Meantime Polly and Nelly, the parrots, kept flying
+above their heads, and occasionally alighting to rest on Murray's
+shoulder.  Sometimes for a change one of them would pitch on the head or
+back of Master Queerface, with whom they were on the most friendly
+terms.  The dangers they had gone through together seemed to have united
+them closely in the bonds of unity.  Thus the party proceeded till they
+reached the governor's house.  They in vain tried to keep out Queerface
+and the parrots, but the governor, hearing the disturbance, desired that
+all hands should be admitted.  He was highly amused at the pertinacity
+with which the parrots and monkey stuck to their masters, and still more
+interested with the account Murray and Adair gave of their voyage.
+Indeed, they gained, as they deserved, great credit for the way in which
+they had stuck to their vessel.  All three midshipmen were treated with
+the greatest kindness by the residents at Freetown, so that they had a
+very pleasant time of it, and were in no hurry for the arrival of a
+vessel to carry them back to their ships.  They made friends in all
+directions, both among the higher as well as among the less exalted
+grades of society; indeed, they were general favourites.  Even Queerface
+and Polly and Nelly came in for some share of the favour they enjoyed,
+for although neither monkeys nor parrots can be said to be scarce in
+Africa, their talents were so great and of so versatile a character,
+that their society was welcomed almost, Adair declared, as much as that
+of their masters.  Queerface more than once, however, got into disgrace.
+The three midshipmen were spending the day at the house of a kind old
+gentleman a short distance from the town.  It was as cool and airy a
+place and as pleasant an abode as could be found under the burning sun
+of Africa, surrounded with broad verandahs, French windows, and Venetian
+blinds.  The hour of dinner arrived, and all the family assembled in the
+dining-room, but Mr Wilkie, the host, did not make his appearance.
+They began to get anxious about him, and some of the ladies hurried off
+to call him, when at length he came up the room laughing heartily with a
+white night-cap on his head.  "I must apologise, ladies and gentlemen,"
+he said, "but the truth is, I wear a wig, a fact you are probably aware
+of; but while I was taking my siesta somebody came and took my wig away.
+Sambo and Julius Caesar and Ariadne have been hunting high and low and
+on every side without success, and what is extraordinary my
+dressing-gown disappeared at the same time.  However, I hope that you
+will excuse me, for I thought it better to appear as I am than not at
+all; for, I confess it, I have but two wigs, and my other one has been
+left at the barber's to be refrizzled."
+
+Some dreadful suspicions came over Paddy's mind when he heard this, and
+his fears were not allayed when he heard a loud chattering, and
+presently Queerface, with Polly and Nelly, appeared at the open window,
+the former with the missing wig on his head and the dressing-gown over
+his shoulders.  In he popped, nothing daunted, and seeing an empty
+chair--the intended occupant had died of the coast fever that morning--
+he squatted himself down in it, and began bowing and grinning away round
+to all the company.
+
+Paddy began to scold him, but Queerface merely lifted a glass which
+stood near him and nodded his head at him in the most cool and impudent
+way, as much as to say, "We understand each other perfectly--we are both
+men of the world."  Then he turned to the master of the house, and
+steadfastly looking at his white night-cap, adjusted the wig he had
+stolen in the most comical manner.  Everybody present all the time was
+roaring with laughter, in which no one joined more heartily than did the
+master of the house.
+
+"Come, come, Master Queerface, I want back my wig," he exclaimed, at
+last; "my wig, old fellow--my wig--ha--ha--ha!"
+
+But not a bit of it.  Queerface was evidently too much delighted with
+the ornament on his pate to think of abandoning it, and the more
+vehement were the signs Mr Wilkie made the tighter did he haul it down
+over his ears.  As he sat up in a big chair, with the coloured
+dressing-gown over his shoulders, and the wig hanging down on each side
+of his head, Paddy declared that he looked exactly like a judge on the
+bench.
+
+"Will you or will you not give me up my wig?" at length exclaimed the
+owner of it--but Queerface held it tighter than ever.  "Take that,
+then!" cried Mr Wilkie, recollecting a well-known story of his youth,
+and seizing his white night-cap he flung it at Queerface.  The monkey
+was not slow to imitate the example, but whipping off the wig, he threw
+it at the owner with one hand while he caught the white cap with the
+other, and soon his ugly mug was grinning with delight from under it.
+Mr Wilkie, having delivered over his wig to one of his negro servants
+to be brushed and cleansed, begged his guests and family to begin
+dinner.  Adair and his brother midshipmen apologised for the behaviour
+of their companion, but he assured them that he would not have missed
+the fun on any account, and that his wig was not a bit the worse for
+having been worn by the monkey.
+
+After dinner they strolled out to see a monkey bread-tree, the baobab, a
+huge monster which Mr Wilkie asserted was three or four thousand years
+old.  It was not more than seventy feet high, but the stem was close
+upon thirty feet in diameter, with immensely long roots, while the
+boughs hung down to the ground, forming altogether a wonderful mass of
+verdure.
+
+"A jolly abode for the monkeys," observed Adair.  "I wonder whether my
+friend Queerface would like to take up his lodgings there, if I were to
+leave him on shore?"
+
+Queerface seemed to understand the remark, and jumping up on Adair,
+showed no inclination to leave him.  Murray had held up wonderfully
+during all the hardships he had undergone, and even after he came on
+shore he was able for some time to go about, but a few days after this
+the fever, which had been hovering about him, seized him.  He would have
+had to go to the hospital, but Mr Wilkie sent a litter for him, and had
+him carried to his own house, and nursed him as if he had been his son.
+Jack and Terence went there every day, and assisted in nursing him, but
+for long he appeared to be hovering between life and death.  Often his
+two messmates left him with sad and sorrowing hearts, believing that
+they might never see him again.  At last he rallied, and seemed to be
+getting better.  Now they longed for a ship, because they hoped that
+breathing again the pure sea air, unmixed with any exhalation from the
+land, might restore him.  He was at last able to accompany them about
+the town.
+
+Everybody will remember old Hobnail, the coloured boot and shoe-maker at
+Freetown.  What a jolly, good-natured, genial-hearted man he was!  Every
+naval officer was welcome at his shop, not because he wanted to make
+customers of them, for it seemed all the same to him whether they bought
+his boots and shoes, but really from his genuine kindliness of heart.
+He had a little room, cool and at the same time airy, with the last
+newspaper from England, and lemonade, or some other refreshing
+beverages, and not unfrequently a cigar of a quality rarely to be
+surpassed.  Hobnail's shop, as may be supposed, was often visited by the
+three midshipmen.  They were good customers too, for Murray and Adair
+had worn out their shoes before landing, and Jack very soon finished off
+his with walking about.
+
+The first ship which looked into the river was the _Ranger_ herself, and
+as it was very important for Murray's health that he should get afloat,
+Captain Lascelles carried him off, as well as his own two midshipmen,
+with, of course, Queerface and the two parrots.  The _Ranger_ went away
+to the southward, where she cruised without much success.  Those only
+who have been long on the coast know what dreary work it often is, how
+homesick many poor fellows become, how easily, when the coast fever gets
+hold of them, the destroyer gains the victory.  They had been some two
+or three weeks at sea, when a man-of-war schooner fell in with them, and
+handed a letter-bag from England, with some letters from Sierra Leone.
+Murray got several.  One from the latter place.  It was from no less a
+person than Mr Hobnail, who had taken a great fancy to him.  It ran as
+follows:--
+
+"Honoured and respected Sir,--You are a member of that profession which
+I deem the noblest and most praiseworthy of any in which man is
+employed, and more especially that branch of it which is engaged, like
+that of the squadron on this coast, in relieving suffering humanity, and
+thus I feel a great satisfaction in the privilege I enjoy of inditing a
+few lines to make inquiries respecting you.  I trust, dear sir, that you
+may now be enjoying that _seabreezetical_ health which a residence on
+the bounding billows of the free ocean is calculated to bestow.  May you
+soon again return to this truly charming and delectable, though much and
+unjustly abused town, when I may again have the pleasure of holding
+those agreeable conversations on subjects of interest which have formed
+the solace of many hours which might otherwise have been spent in the
+society of ungenial spirits, whose base-born spirits cannot soar to
+those exalted heights of poetical sentiment in which I, it must be
+confessed, with due humbleness, delight to roam.  Hoping soon to receive
+a response congenial to my heart, no more at present from your attached
+friend, if I may take the liberty of so calling myself,
+
+"Peter Hobnail."
+
+The worthy shoe-maker's epistle caused great amusement in the
+midshipmen's berth, and Murray lost no time in replying to it in a
+strain which he hoped would be congenial to Mr Hobnail's heart.  The
+ship was some way to the southward, and had stood in for the land at a
+place called Elephant Bay.  The boats were sent on shore to bring off
+water, the weather being fine, and the state of the surf allowing of a
+landing.  Paddy and one of the assistant-surgeons were in one boat.
+While the casks were being filled, they came to a shallow pool, where
+the medico discovered a quantity of leeches.
+
+"These will be most welcome on board," he exclaimed.  "We have been out
+of them for some time, and Dr McCan will be most thankful for a
+supply."
+
+Paddy had been carrying a jar for Frazer, the assistant-surgeon, for the
+purpose of holding any aquatic specimens of natural history they might
+fall in with.  They were all now turned out, and the jar filled with
+leeches.  They had got further than they intended, and when they
+returned to the beach they found all the boats gone, and only one canoe
+manned with Kroomen left to bring them off.  The surf had in the
+meantime got up; however, the canoe was as well able to pass through it
+as any of the other boats.
+
+"We must not run the risk of losing the leeches," observed Paddy.  "I
+will fasten the jar with a lanyard round my neck, and then, if the canoe
+is capsized, that will be saved at all events, as we can easily scramble
+into her again."
+
+This was done, and into the surf the canoe was launched.  She breasted
+the rising seas bravely, for she was very light, and her black crew
+handled her beautifully.  Both Adair and Frazer thought the last rollers
+passed, and were congratulating themselves on being certain to get on
+board without a ducking, when unexpectedly a white-topped sea rose
+directly upon them, and in a moment they found themselves rolled over
+into the water.  They clung to the canoe, and the black crew swam round
+her, and striking out before they attempted to right her, towed her away
+entirely from the influence of the breakers.  Paddy and Frazer had some
+unpleasant misgivings about sharks, but the blacks shouted and shrieked
+so loudly, that if there were any they were kept at a distance.  They
+were soon, however, again seated in the canoe; and as the frigate had
+stood in to meet them, it was not long before they were close to her.
+
+"I say, doctor, I feel some rather unpleasant sensations about my neck,"
+observed Paddy.  "I can't help thinking that some nettle-fish must have
+got hold of me in the water.  I feel the stinging all over me, right
+down my breast.  What can it be?"
+
+"Bear a hand there and get that canoe up alongside," sang out the
+officer of the watch from the deck of the frigate.
+
+The order was speedily obeyed, and the dripping officers and black crew
+were soon standing on the deck.
+
+"Hillo, Paddy, why what's the matter with you?" exclaimed Jack, who had
+been watching the canoe, "you are all streaming with blood."
+
+"It's a jelly-fish got hold of me, I conclude," answered Paddy; but
+looking down he saw the jar into which he had put the leeches dangling
+at his neck, but the cork was out, so were the leeches, and they, of
+course, had fixed themselves to the first body with which they had come
+in contact.  This was Paddy's neck.  They had just now begun to drop
+off, and streamlets of blood were running down from him in every
+direction.  Poor Paddy was indeed a most pitiable object, with his hair
+all lank and wet hanging down his face, for he had lost his hat, and he
+had on only a linen jacket over his flannel shirt, inside of which some
+of the greedy leeches had crawled, while the rest hung round his neck
+and throat, their black bodies quickly swelling out and looking like so
+many pendants of polished ebony.
+
+No sooner did Queerface, who happened to be up the rigging sunning
+himself, recognise his master, than down on deck he scuttled and hurried
+up to him.  He seemed very much astonished at the look of the leeches,
+and evidently could not make out what they were.  Adair held out his
+hand, when up he jumped, and thrusting his paw down his shirt pulled out
+a leech which had not yet fixed itself.  The monkey's first impulse was
+to put it to his nose, towards which the creature made a twist and fixed
+itself firmly.  Poor Queerface opened his paw, and not knowing what had
+happened, off he scuttled again up the rigging with the leech hanging to
+his nose, and apparently not liking the feel of it, he had not the
+courage to pull it off till it dropped off itself on the deck.
+Everybody laughed, so did Adair, in spite of the pain and annoyance he
+was suffering.
+
+"A pretty sort of a necklace for a nice young Irish gentleman of polite
+manners and respectable connexions," he exclaimed, still laughing away.
+"But I say, doctor, do bear a hand and get these brutes off me, for they
+are becoming remarkably troublesome."
+
+"That I will, my boy," answered Dr McCan, to whom he had spoken.  "You
+are suffering in my service, and I am bound to do my best for you."
+
+The doctor at once got Adair below, and by applying salt to the tails of
+the leeches made them let go.  And then a little cooling ointment set
+him all to rights, while the bleeding did him no particular harm.  It
+was many a day, however, before he got rid of the marks of the bites.
+
+As the appearance of the frigate off the coast put all the slave-dealers
+on the alert, Captain Lascelles adopted a plan which has frequently been
+successful.  Standing in-shore, he would suddenly make all sail away,
+either to the northward or southward, as if in chase of some vessel, and
+then when the ship could no longer be seen from the land he would
+heave-to and send the boats in-shore, when very frequently they would
+pounce upon slave-vessels totally unsuspicious of their presence.  While
+the boats were on shore watering, Hemming had with a few hands walked
+along the coast and ascertained that a number of blacks,
+prisoners-of-war they were called, were collected in the neighbourhood,
+and there could be no doubt that a vessel would soon be coming to take
+them off.  Accordingly the usual ruse was put in practice, and the
+pinnace, under the command of Hemming, with Jack Rogers and Adair, left
+the ship to watch for her.  Murray was still too unwell to engage in any
+such duty.  They left the ship in the evening, so that it was dark by
+the time they neared the land.  Hemming had fixed upon a spot among some
+high rocks where the boat might remain completely concealed either from
+people on the shore or from any one afloat.  The only difficulty was
+finding the way into it among the rocks at night, still he hoped to
+effect that.  There was a slight crescent moon, which shone on the calm
+waters and showed the white sandy breach and the tall wide-topped
+palm-trees rising up against the clear sky.  There hung also over the
+land a slight gauze-like mist, which somewhat distorted objects.  They
+rowed steadily on with muffled oars, making as little splash as
+possible.
+
+"Starboard a little," said Hemming to Jack, who was steering.  "I think
+that I can make out the opening I want to find; yes, that's it, I'm
+sure."  In a few minutes the boat glided in between high ocean-worn
+rocks, round from the waves of the Atlantic dashing against them for
+thousands of years past.  A grapnel was hove on to the rocks, and there
+she lay as snug as any on board could desire.  The boat was furnished
+with a little stove for cooking, and they had a good supply of eatables
+and drinkables on board, the latter being, however, more in the shape of
+tea, coffee, and cocoa, than spirits.  Having supped, all hands turned
+in to sleep except two, an officer and man, who sat up to keep watch.
+Jack, Adair, and Hemming succeeded each other, but though they kept
+their ears open not a sound could they hear to indicate the approach of
+any vessel.  At length the sun rose, but Hemming determined to remain
+where he was all day, hoping that, should a breeze spring up, the
+looked-for slaver might make her appearance.  Hour after hour passed
+pleasantly enough, however, for they had no lack of provisions, and
+books, and chess, and games for the men.  Captain Lascelles thought that
+his seamen, wearing out their days under the broiling sun of Africa,
+required being amused just as much as the gallant fellows who have been
+shut up for many dreary months amid the snow and ice of the Arctic
+regions.  The consequence of his care in that and in a variety of other
+ways, was that he lost fewer men than any other ship on the station.
+
+At last Jack suggested that it might be possible to make a lookout place
+from the top of one of the rocks.  He first ordered the men to cut a
+quantity of seaweed and to tie it up in bundles, and then getting on to
+one of the rocks he crawled along on hands and knees till he reached the
+outer edge, when he found a cleft which exactly answered his wishes.
+Hauling up the bundles of seaweed, he placed them before him, so that he
+could look out without being seen himself.  Without much difficulty he
+could crawl backwards and forwards to it from the boat.  He had gone
+several times, when at length, early in the afternoon, he made out a
+sail in the offing.  He watched her eagerly through his glass.  She was
+a felucca, and as she drew near he made her out to be a large vessel for
+her rig, and a most rakish, wicked-looking craft.  Her very appearance
+made him certain that she was engaged in no lawful calling.  At last,
+when he saw her stand into the bay and drop her anchor, he hurried back
+to give the information to Hemming.  Jack was for dashing out at once
+and capturing her, but his more cautious superior shook his head; "No,
+no, my boy, wait till she has got all her slaves on board and then we'll
+have her and them too."  The boat, therefore, remained snugly hid.
+During daylight Jack kept crawling up to his lookout place to see what
+was going forward.  At last he came back reporting that a raft had come
+off from the shore loaded with slaves, and that they were being shipped
+on board the felucca.
+
+"All right," observed Hemming, "it will take some time before they get
+their whole cargo on board, then we'll be up and at them."
+
+"Does it not strike you that they are a long time getting the slaves on
+board?" said Jack at last to his superior.
+
+"Why, yes, they are somewhat; but it is extraordinary how many poor
+wretches they will stow away between decks in those small crafts; but
+they take some time packing," answered Hemming, in a whisper.  "Probably
+too the raft is small and does not carry many at a time."  They waited
+some time longer till the former sounds continued, which showed that the
+raft was still going backwards and forwards.
+
+"I cannot make it out," muttered Hemming; "the villains are a long time
+about their work.  They little dream that we are close to them, or they
+would be rather smarter about it."
+
+Some time longer passed, and then Jack proposed returning to his lookout
+place, to try and make out what was occurring.  It was no easy
+undertaking, scrambling along over the slippery rocks in the dark, with
+a chance, if he lost his hold, of a tumble into some dark deep pool, or
+of getting jammed in some crevice, or perhaps being caught by some
+prowling ground shark or other monster of the ocean.  However, he
+reached the point as which he aimed, but he had not been there a minute
+before he heard that peculiar sound of heavy blocks working, _cheep,
+cheep, cheep_.  He made out clearly the tall pointed lateen sails of the
+felucca rising from her decks, and then the sound of the windlass
+working reached his ears; while a breeze, not felt below and every
+moment increasing, fanned his cheeks.  He hurried back as fast as he
+could to the boat.  As he sprang on board, he exclaimed, "The felucca is
+under weigh, and there's a breeze off the land."
+
+In a moment the crew threw up their oars, the boat was shoved off from
+the rocks, and emerging from their hiding-place, away she started in
+chase of the slaver.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+DESPERATE FIGHTING.
+
+On flew the felucca, urged by sails and oars.  The _Ranger's_ boat
+dashed after her.
+
+"Give way, my lads, give way," cried Hemming; not that his crew required
+the slightest inducement to pull as hard as they could lay their backs
+to the oars.
+
+The felucca had got considerably the start, and was going through the
+water somewhat faster than the man-of-war's boat; the more also she drew
+off the land the stronger she got the breeze.
+
+"There's no use longer attempting concealment," cried Hemming, "the
+chances are she has made us out already.  Get a blue-light ready, Adair.
+The frigate will see it by this time, and be on the look out for her.
+Rogers, see to the gun forward.  You may be able to send a shot into the
+felucca and knock away a spar, perhaps."
+
+These orders were promptly obeyed.  While Jack sprang forward to fire
+the gun, Adair's blue-light, blazing up, cast a lurid glare over the
+figures of the crew as they tugged at their oars, and which also
+extended far away across the surface of the ocean, while at the same
+moment the sharp report of the gun broke the hitherto almost perfect
+silence of the night.  Jack could not see whether his shot had taken
+effect, but he had some hopes that it had.  Again, at Hemming's order,
+he fired, while, as soon as the first blue-light had gone out, Adair
+lighted another.  Their eyes all the time were ranging the offing to try
+and discover the whereabouts of the frigate.
+
+"There is her light, sir," shouted Jack from forward, and when their own
+blue-light grew dim, hers was seen shining like a star floating on the
+water in the far distance.
+
+Thus they went on, burning blue-lights, at longer intervals though than
+at first, and firing shot after shot at the felucca.  The slaver bore it
+at first without attempting to return the compliment; but at length,
+when Rogers hoped that he had hit her, her captain seemed to lose
+patience, and she opened fire on the boat in return.  The latter,
+however, especially in the night, offered too small an object to be
+easily hit.  Still one shot came whistling over their heads, and another
+struck the water close to them, showing them, as Paddy said, that they
+were comfortably within range.
+
+"I think that I have winged her," shouted Jack; "if so, even should the
+breeze increase, and she escape from us, the frigate will get hold of
+her."
+
+Thus time sped on, the frigate and her boat showing at intervals their
+blue-lights, while the slaver, caught between them, continued pretty
+rapidly firing away at the latter.  Still Hemming, at all events, did
+not feel at all certain that the felucca would be caught.  Though the
+light on her deck could be seen, she was growing more and more
+indistinct as she increased her distance from them.  At last she ceased
+firing.  The breeze too was increasing.
+
+"Do you still see her, Rogers?" asked Hemming.
+
+"No, sir," answered Jack.  "She's vanished altogether into thin air."
+
+"Then there's no use firing at her, I suppose," said Paddy to himself.
+
+Some little time longer had passed, when Jack shouted that he again saw
+her light.  Away the boat pulled towards it.  The frigate, by sending up
+a blue-light, showed that she saw it likewise.
+
+"We'll have her this time, at all events," cried Adair, rubbing his
+hands.
+
+"Don't be too sure of that, Paddy," said Hemming; "still, towards the
+light we must pull."
+
+It was rather heavy work, for the people had been now some time at their
+oars without a moment's rest.  On they pulled, however, with renewed
+vigour, fully believing that they were about to pounce down upon the
+slaver.  Nearer and nearer they drew to the light.
+
+"The felucca must have hove-to," cried Adair.  "It's strange, after
+getting so well ahead she should have given in."
+
+What Hemming thought he did not say.  Some grave suspicions crossed
+Jack's mind.
+
+"There she is though.  Starboard a little," he sang out, "or we shall
+run into a tub with a light in it."
+
+"Oh, the scoundrels!" broke from many lips.  Jack was about to douse the
+light, but Hemming told him to let it burn on.  "It will serve as a
+beacon to us, and the felucca's people will not know whether or not we
+have been deceived by it," he observed.
+
+It now became a question in which direction the slaver had gone.  On
+they pulled, therefore, once more towards the frigate.  Hemming wished
+to let Captain Lascelles know what had occurred, that he might thus
+steer a course on which he was most likely to come up with the slaver.
+With the increasing wind the boat would have little chance of overtaking
+the felucca, but by staying where they were the lieutenant hoped that
+they might possibly cut her off.  The blue-lights and the flashes of the
+guns had dazzled their eyes, and the night seemed darker than ever.  In
+vain Jack peered for some time into the darkness to make out the
+frigate.  A thick bank of mist, blown off the land, lay upon the water.
+Suddenly, like a dark phantom stalking over the deep, the frigate's
+hull, with her tall masts towering up into the sky, appeared, and he had
+barely time to shout out, "Port the helm, pull round the port oars,"
+before the boat was close under her bows, very narrowly escaping being
+run down.  In another minute they were on the quarter-deck, and Hemming
+was reporting to Captain Lascelles all that had occurred.  He suggested,
+that while the frigate stood after the felucca in one direction, he
+should be allowed to cruise in an opposite direction, to double the
+chances of falling in with her.  All he wanted was a further supply of
+water, fuel, and provisions.  To this the captain consented, and the
+boat being furnished with what was required, Hemming and the two
+midshipmen again shoved off from the frigate's side.  Jack had of course
+his faithful rifle with him, and he felt pretty certain that, should he
+once get a sight of the enemy, he should be able to use it with good
+effect.  "I have not the slightest compunction about picking off those
+slaving scoundrels," he observed, as he was busily employed in loading
+his piece.  "They seem to be completely lost to all sense of what is
+right and just, such perfectly abandoned sinners, that there can be no
+hope of their reforming, so I only feel as if I was destroying a wild
+beast to prevent it doing further mischief."
+
+"All very right," observed Hemming; "most people act from more than one
+motive, and it's well that both should be good.  It's enough for me that
+it's my duty to kill the fellows if they don't give in."
+
+It wanted still nearly an hour to daylight.  The boat had lost sight of
+the frigate for some time.  She had made good way to the northward under
+sail.  At length, when the first faint streaks of sunlight were observed
+breaking forth over the land, Hemming ordered the sail to be lowered.
+By this they had a better chance of seeing the felucca without being
+seen.  The lieutenant stood up and slowly moved round, scanning every
+part of the horizon.  The land breeze had now completely died away, and
+there was not a ripple on the water, though the slow moving glassy
+undulations which came rolling in and constantly rocking the boat,
+showed that they were not floating on an inland lake.  Jack and Adair
+began to fear that the felucca was not in sight, when Hemming slowly
+sank down into his seat again, saying quietly, as he cast eyes on the
+boat's compass, "There she is, though; out oars.  Starboard the helm a
+little, Rogers, west-north-west.  That will do.  Give way, my lads."
+
+Away glided the boat, urged on by sturdy arms, in the direction
+mentioned.  After pulling some time the light increased, and the tops of
+the felucca's sails appeared above the limited horizon of the rowers.
+Once more Hemming stood up.  The slaver lay perfectly becalmed.  He
+ordered all hands to breakfast.  The cocoa was quickly heated, and the
+meal was soon despatched with good appetite.  Then he allowed those who
+wished it to smoke for a few minutes, and once more, the oars being got
+out, away went the boat in the direction of the slaver.
+
+Before long they themselves must have been seen from her deck; but, to
+his surprise, as Hemming looked at her through his glass, he saw that
+her sweeps were not got out, nor was any attempt made to escape.  There
+she lay rocking slowly on the slow undulating water, as if no human
+being was on board to rule her course.  As they drew closer still, only
+one person indeed was to be seen on her deck.  He was walking up and
+down it with a glass tucked under his arm, apparently scarcely noticing
+their approach.  Hemming naturally suspected treachery.  He well knew
+that the slavers were capable of the greatest atrocity.  He was,
+therefore, prepared for any emergency.
+
+"Why, sir," exclaimed Jack, as they got almost alongside, "I do believe
+that is my old acquaintance Don Diogo.  He'll do us a mischief if he
+can."
+
+"Be ready, lads, to spring on board the moment the boat touches her
+side," cried Hemming.  Just before this three or four other men came up
+from below rubbing their eyes as if lately awoke out of sleep.  The
+bowman the next instant hooked on, and the British sailors, led by their
+officers, sprang on board.  The slaver's people ran forward and aft to
+get out of their way, except the man at first seen, whom Jack had no
+doubt was no other than the old pirate, Don Diogo, as he called himself.
+
+"Good morning, gentlemen," said he, quite coolly, making the politest of
+bows to the lieutenant.  "May I request to know what brings you on board
+here at this early hour in the morning?"
+
+"You are known to be a slaver, and we have come to capture you,"
+answered Hemming, bluntly.
+
+"Ho, ho, ho," cried the Don; "there may be two opinions about that.  You
+British officers don't go upon surmises.  You want proofs, and you are
+welcome to all you can discover."
+
+The Don's coolness rather staggered Hemming and the two midshipmen.
+Jack was certain that he had seen the slaves carried on board in
+Elephant Bay, and he had no doubt as to the felucca being the same
+vessel he had seen in Elephant Bay.  To settle this point, they lifted
+off the hatches.
+
+"Don't disturb my poor men.  Some of them are asleep below," said the
+Don, in an ordinary tone of voice.
+
+Hemming, however, paid very little attention to his remarks, but ordered
+Jack and Adair to keep a sharp lookout on his movements on deck while he
+descended below.  Hemming looked round the dark hold of the supposed
+slaver, but there was no sign of a slave-deck, nor, after a careful
+search, could he find anything to warrant him in detaining her.  In the
+fore-peak a rather numerous crew for the size of the vessel were asleep,
+or pretending to be asleep, for some lifted up their heads even to have
+a look at the intruders.  At length Hemming returned on deck.
+
+"I told you so, gentlemen," said the Don, making another excessively
+polite bow.  "Suspicions, as I remarked, are not proofs.  I might now
+ask by what authority you ventured on board this craft and nearly
+frightened some of my poor men out of their wits; but we are honest,
+peaceably disposed people, and have no desire to quarrel with
+strangers."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you hadn't your vessel full of blacks last
+night, whatever since you have done with them?" exclaimed Jack, stamping
+on the deck with indignation, as he felt somewhat compromised in the
+matter.
+
+"Be calm, young gentleman," said the Don.  "As I remarked, suspicions
+are not proofs.  I am not accustomed to answer questions as to my
+movements, and therefore would advise you to be silent."
+
+There was no more to be done on board the felucca.  Although Don Diogo
+was known to be a slave-dealer and guilty of numberless atrocities, he
+could not be touched, nor could his craft be detained.  As the English
+returned to their boat he bowed and scraped, his mouth grinning, and his
+countenance wearing at the same time an expression of the most intense
+hatred.  "We may meet again, gentlemen, before long, but perhaps you may
+not find me in so placable a mood as at present."
+
+Hemming made no answer, but the Don was seen bowing away and nourishing
+his sombrero as long as they could see him.  Not a little vexed at the
+fruitless result of their expedition, Hemming and his companions pulled
+to the northward in search of the frigate.
+
+"I cannot make it out," observed Jack, after having been lost in thought
+for some time.
+
+"I can, though," said Hemming.  "I have not the shadow of a doubt that,
+somehow or other, the Don got notice that we were in the neighbourhood,
+and that, as the slaves were taken in on one side of the vessel, he sent
+them back again by the rafts over the other.  Had we made a dash at the
+felucca at once, we should have found some of them on board, and she
+would have been condemned.  We will be wiser in future."
+
+It was not till late in the evening that they fell in with the frigate.
+She kept cruising off the bay, and two other boats were sent in to watch
+for the felucca; but the old Don was too wary a bird to be thus easily
+caught, and nothing was seen of the felucca.  Soon after this a steamer
+hove in sight, and her commander, coming on board the _Ranger_, informed
+Captain Lascelles of an unsuccessful attack having been made on Lagos;
+at the same time delivering to him despatches from Mr Beecroft, the
+British Consul for the Bight of Benin, residing at Fernando Po, asking
+for further assistance.  Sail was instantly, therefore, made for the
+northward, and, the wind holding favourable, they were not long before
+they got off the slave-coast in the neighbourhood of the place proposed
+to be attacked.  Great was the satisfaction expressed by all hands, both
+in the gun-room and midshipmen's berth, and throughout the ship, at the
+prospect of some real work being done.  In the midshipmen's berth,
+perhaps, the satisfaction was more vehemently expressed.
+
+"There's nothing like getting a real enemy right before you, and having
+an honest slap at him," exclaimed Jack Rogers.  "It is all very right
+hunting down those slave-dealers and chasing slavers, but the scoundrels
+are such slippery fellows, it is difficult work to get hold of them."
+
+"Or to keep them if you have got a grip of them," observed Adair.  "But
+I say, does anybody know who it is we are going to fight, and what we
+are going to fight about?"
+
+"Something about the slave-trade," said Hobson, one of the mates.
+
+"The blacks hereabouts want a thrashing, so we are going to lick them,"
+remarked Lister, another midshipman, who was never very exact in his
+notions.
+
+Just then Murray, who had had the forenoon watch on deck, came below.
+He was, on the point I have mentioned, a great contrast to Lister.  He
+was forthwith applied to.  "As soon as I have taken the sharp edge off
+my appetite I will tell you all I know about the matter," he answered.
+The edge of people's appetites on the coast is not very sharp, in the
+dog-days especially, so Murray was soon in a condition to begin.
+
+"Now just look here," he commenced, collecting some crumbs and bits of
+biscuit, which he began to place about on the table.  "To the north and
+east of us is the slave-coast.  Inland, due north, or thereabouts, is
+Dahomey, the king of which is something like a king, for he can cut off
+his subjects' heads at pleasure; he has got several regiments of
+Amazons, who fight most furiously, besides other troops armed with
+matchlocks.  To the east is the Yoruba country, and to the south,
+further round the bay, is the kingdom of Benin.  The Yoruba country is
+between the other two I have mentioned.  Its chief river is the Ogun.
+At the mouth is Lagos, a large town, held by an independent chief or
+king of considerable wealth and power.  About seventy miles up is
+Abeokuta.  Abeokuta is a very remarkable place.  About twenty-five years
+ago the remnants of the inhabitants of a number of villages which had
+been broken up by the attacks made on them for the purpose of carrying
+away these people as slaves, betook themselves to a large cavern on the
+banks of the Ogun about seventy miles from the coast.  In this place of
+concealment they remained for some time undiscovered, living on roots,
+and berries, and other natural productions of the ground, till they were
+joined by other fugitives from the hated slave-dealers.  At length,
+their numbers increasing, they ventured forth from their cavern, and
+began to cultivate the ground and to build themselves houses.  They
+chose as their chief a liberal-minded, talented man, called Shodeke; and
+it is said that at present there are upwards of 80,000 people in their
+community.  They have built a large town, which they have called
+Understone, or, in their own language, Abeokuta, in memory of the cave
+under which they first took shelter.  Now, if the blockading squadron
+had never done more than what I am going to tell you about, they would
+have performed a very great and blessed work.  Among the thousands of
+negroes they have captured and liberated were many hundreds who had been
+taken from the Yoruba country, and who were settled at Sierra Leone.
+Here many of them had grown rich, and a considerable proportion had been
+converted to Christianity.  Among them was a man named in their language
+Adgai, but called in English Crowther.  He had been embarked as a slave
+on board of a slaver at Badagry in 1822.  That slaver was captured by
+one of our cruisers, and taken to Sierra Leone.  At that place he was
+well educated, was converted, and ordained as a minister of the Gospel.
+Now, several of the Yoruba natives I have spoken of, who had become
+possessed of property, purchased a vessel, and visited Lagos and Badagry
+to trade.  At those places they heard of Abeokuta and the stand it had
+made against the slave-trade.  On their return to Sierra Leone, from the
+accounts they gave of the new settlement, a considerable number of their
+countrymen resolved to go there.  Among the first was Mr Crowther.  He
+is, I am assured, a man of high intellectual powers, and of eminent
+piety.  He persuaded other Christian Africans to accompany him.  Nearly
+the first people he met on arriving at the new city were his mother and
+sisters, and they were his first converts.  The greater part of the
+inhabitants are now Christians, and Mr Crowther is engaged in
+translating the Bible into the Yoruba language.
+
+"The King of Dahomey looked with an evil eye on the growing power of
+Abeokuta, and led his army to destroy it; but he and his forces were,
+however, most signally defeated.  On this he instigated the King of
+Lagos to attack Abeokuta.  That chief has got a hundred war canoes,
+fully five thousand men all armed with muskets, and sixty guns.
+
+"Happily the old King of Lagos lately died.  He left his crown to a
+fellow called Akitoye, the younger of two sons, the elder, Kosoko, being
+a ragamuffin and banished.  Akitoye, on coming to the throne, recalled
+Kosoko; but, true to his character, the elder brother managed to bribe
+the army, and to turn poor Akitoye out of the country.  Akitoye took
+shelter in Badagry, which place Kosoko was preparing to attack, being
+promised a thousand men by the King of Dahomey.  If he succeeds he will
+undoubtedly attack Abeokuta.  To prevent this, Mr Beecroft applied for
+a naval force to bring Kosoko to reason.
+
+"Accordingly, the _Bloodhound_ and a squadron of boats was sent off to
+Lagos to reason with the usurper.  He, however, did not understand what
+they wanted, and, as they approached, opened a heavy fire on them from a
+number of concealed batteries, both with great guns and small-arms.
+Several poor fellows were killed and wounded, and at length the
+expedition had to retire, there not being enough men to hold the town
+had it been captured.  The commodore has now resolved to send one of
+ample strength to drive the slave-dealing sovereign, Kosoko, from his
+throne and his stronghold altogether.  This is the business we are
+called on to perform.  If we succeed, and there is no doubt about that I
+should hope, we shall preserve Abeokuta, and enable the Christian
+missionaries to labour on without interruption; we shall punish the
+usurper, and restore the right man to his government; we shall rout out
+a nest of slave-dealers, and put a stop to slave-dealing in Lagos; and
+we shall teach the King of Dahomey to be cautious, lest the same
+punishment we inflict on his friend there may overtake him.  All these
+things are well worth fighting for, you'll acknowledge."
+
+All hands agreed that it would be difficult to have a better object than
+that Murray had described for the proposed attack.
+
+"Yes, indeed, it is a truly satisfactory feeling, to be sure, that the
+cause you fight for is a righteous one," repeated Murray.  "Still I do
+not hold for one moment that it is not our duty to fight, as long as we
+remain in the service, whenever we are ordered by our superiors.  The
+difference is this, in one case we fight heartily, in the other we do
+only just what we are ordered; at all events we don't do it in the same
+hearty way we would like."
+
+"We'll fight heartily now, at all events," exclaimed Adair, with even
+more than his usual enthusiasm.  "If there is one cause more than
+another in which I would rather expend my life, it would be that of
+getting rid of this abominable slave-trade.  No scoundrels are greater,
+in my opinion, than the fellows who engage in it.  No country can
+prosper or be happy which allows it."
+
+The conversation was cut short by the announcement that several sail of
+men-of-war were in sight.  The ships began working away with their
+bunting, and, when they had collected, the commanders assembled on board
+the Commodore to arrange the plan of attack.
+
+The next day, by the evening, everything was ready.  The squadron,
+composed of steamers as well as sailing ships, brought up off the mouth
+of the Ogun river.  It has a bar across it.  Inside it, on an island
+about two miles in circumference, near the right bank, stands the
+slave-dealing city of Lagos, whose houses could just be distinguished
+peeping out among the cocoa-nut trees.  It was known that the place was
+strongly defended with stockades, some sixty guns, and from 1,500 to
+2,000 men with firearms, and gunners trained by the Spaniards and other
+slave-dealers to serve the artillery.  All hands watched eagerly for the
+signal to commence operations.  The three midshipmen were delighted to
+find that they were to be in the first squadron of boats.  Preceded by a
+steamer, they dashed across the bar, and then anchored inside, out of
+reach of shot from the town, to commence operations the next morning.
+Soon after sunrise men were seen assembling on the banks of the river,
+and, on pulling over to them, they found that Mr Beecroft, with the
+ex-king, Akitoye, had arrived, bringing with him 500 men from Abeokuta
+and Badagry.  That they might be known, they had white neckcloths
+distributed among them, with which the black volunteers were highly
+delighted.  A number of canoes were then discovered at a slave station
+on the left bank, and these having been brought off, the black auxiliary
+force, now considerably augmented, was passed over to the right bank.
+The steamer next dropped up the river with the tide to reconnoitre the
+fortifications, and it was found that, at all points where boats could
+land, stakes in double rows were driven in, while an embankment had been
+thrown up with a ditch in front of it, and that twenty-five guns were
+trained to guard all the narrower parts of the channel.  On the north
+side of the island were the houses of Kosoko and the slave-dealers, and
+it was here accordingly, as it was right that they should be chiefly
+punished, that the commander of the expedition resolved to commence the
+attack.  The following day being Christmas-day, he determined, in order
+that that holy day should be spent as quietly as possible, and be a day
+of rest, to wait till the 26th.  This it was, except that the
+slave-dealers wasted a large amount of ammunition by firing at the
+squadron, which was far beyond their range.  With infinite satisfaction,
+soon after daybreak on the 26th, the order was received to proceed to
+the attack.  The scene may be easily pictured.  Before them lay the
+island surrounded by stockades, with palm-trees, and the huts and houses
+of Lagos rising beyond them; the broad river in front full of shallows,
+narrow channels only between them.
+
+Towards the island the steamers and the squadron of boats now advanced.
+At first all was calm and smiling.  Jack and Paddy were in the same
+boat.
+
+"I wonder whether the scoundrels will give in without fighting,"
+observed the latter; "I shouldn't be surprised."
+
+"Not a bit of it," answered Jack.  "They want first to be taught a
+lesson or two which they cannot forget."
+
+"But what can these miserable black fellows do against us?  I should
+think that we should blow them and their town up into the sky in a dozen
+minutes or less," exclaimed Paddy, with a laugh.
+
+Scarcely had he spoken when, from the whole line of stockades, showers
+of round shot and bullets came rattling about the steamers and boats.
+On dashed the whole squadron, the steamers keeping up a hot fire from
+their great guns in return, though so well sheltered were the blacks
+that not one of them could be seen.  This sort of work continued for
+some time, several officers and men being hit, when one of the steamers
+grounded.  She then became, of course, a target for the enemy, and
+several people were wounded on board her.  The boats meantime had opened
+their fire to protect her, but so well were the batteries of the negroes
+concealed that it was difficult to find out a point at which to aim.  A
+division of the boats was now sent round to the north-east point of the
+island to ascertain the position and strength of the guns on that side.
+These boats, after a hot fight, during which they upset some of the
+enemy's guns, returned, and then made a gallant attempt to force the
+stockades in order to land and spike the guns bearing heaviest on the
+steamer.  Away they dashed; they could see the barrels of the negroes'
+muskets gleaming through the stockades, and a terrific fire was opened
+on them.  Still on they went, right up to the stockades.  Axe in hand
+the works were attacked, but in vain they hacked and hewed at the tough
+posts.  No sooner was one party of blacks driven from the defences than
+others took their places.  Many of the seamen were hit; some poor
+fellows sank never to rise again.  The British seamen cheered and loaded
+and fired as rapidly as they could; the blacks shrieked and shouted, and
+kept banging away in return.  Jack heard a cry close to him.  It came
+from the boat next to his.  He saw an officer fall.  His heart sank; he
+thought it was Murray.  He sprang into the boat to lift him up--but no--
+it was another gallant young midshipman, whom he had seen an instant
+before bravely cheering on his men.  Assistance was useless, he had
+ceased to breathe.  He placed him in the stern-sheets of his boat and
+regained his own.  Once more a desperate assault was made on the
+stockades, but without effect, and, with numbers wounded, the boats were
+compelled to haul off.
+
+What to do with the steamer on shore was now the question.  It was
+resolved, to avoid the necessity of blowing her up, to land with a
+strong force to destroy the guns annoying her.  Till the tide rose there
+seemed no prospect of getting her off.  Some little time was expended in
+arranging the expedition.  Again the signal was given, and in line they
+pulled gallantly up towards the stockade.  As they approached a fire
+from fully 1,500 muskets opened on them, to which they replied with
+spherical, grape, and canister shot.  Hotter and hotter grew the fire of
+the blacks, but on the boats steadily advanced till their stems touched
+the beach, when the men, springing on shore, formed in an instant, and,
+led by their officers, rushed up to the stockades.  Axes were plied
+vigorously--some seized the timbers and hauled them down, and a breach
+being made, in they rushed and drove the enemy before them.  The fort
+was gained, the blacks fled out of it into the thick bush in the rear,
+and all the guns were spiked.  While this work was being accomplished, a
+party of the blacks had come down and, attacking one of the boats, had
+carried her off along the beach, hoping probably to make their escape in
+her.  A party pursued them on discovering this for a considerable
+distance, when the blacks who had fled into the woods, seeing what was
+taking place, rushed from their concealment in the woods by swarms, and
+poured a crushing fire into the boats at pistol range.  One poor fellow,
+who had been left on board the boat, when he saw the enemy coming, made
+a desperate attempt to spike her guns, and was cut down while so
+engaged.  After all the boat could not be recovered.  The Krooman on
+board Mr Beecroft's boat by mistake let go her anchor directly in front
+of the enemy's lines, and had not an officer, in the most gallant way,
+cut her chain cable with a chisel, under a fearfully hot fire, during
+which he was several times hit, she also would have been destroyed.
+Everybody during the action behaved admirably, and no one deserved more
+praise than did the surgeons sent on the expedition, who, throughout the
+day, attended on the wounded, exposed to the hottest fire.  Disastrous
+in one respect had indeed been the result of the expedition, for upwards
+of sixty men and officers had been wounded, and thirteen men and three
+midshipmen killed.  When it was found that the boat could not be
+recovered, a mate of one of the ships and the gunner, in the most
+gallant way, pulled back to the cutter, and by throwing a rocket into
+her, so well-directed that it entered her magazine, blew her up,
+destroying at the same time not a few of her captors.  Towards the
+evening the steamer was got off, and the order was then given for the
+boats to return out of gun-shot for the night.  British seamen are not
+apt to indulge in low spirits or to give way to melancholy, but those
+engaged in the expedition might well have been excused had they done so.
+Had they been successful the case would have been different, but as yet
+nothing had been accomplished; still probably there was not a man who
+did not feel that before the end of another day something would be done,
+nor did any one dream of abandoning the enterprise.  Jack and Adair
+looked out anxiously for Murray.
+
+"Can he have been hit?" said Terence.  "It surely was not his boat that
+was taken."
+
+"I trust not indeed," answered Jack, anxiously.  "I'll hail the boats as
+they come up, to learn if anybody knows where he is."
+
+Boat after boat was hailed, but no information could be obtained of
+Murray.  They became seriously anxious about him.  Jack had several men
+wounded in his boat, and one poor fellow lay stark and cold in the bow.
+The other boats had also several wounded on board them, while the
+steamer had a still greater proportion.  The groans and cries of the
+poor fellows, as they lay racked with pain in the confined space which
+could alone be afforded on board the small vessels and boats, sounded
+sadly in the calm midnight air.  The surgeons all the time were stepping
+from boat to boat, or visiting the vessels in succession, and doing
+their utmost to alleviate the sufferings of the wounded.  Happy were
+those who could sleep, but many, among whom were Jack and Terence, could
+not close an eye.  How anxiously, as they leant back and looked up to
+the dark sky studded with its myriads of stars reflected in the calm
+glassy waters, did they wish for the morrow, though that morrow might
+bring death and wounds to themselves or their companions.  Happy,
+indeed, is it for all of us that we do not know what the morrow may
+bring forth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+PRISONERS.
+
+Battles and wounds, death and destruction, and all the other
+concomitants of warfare, may be interesting matters to read about, but
+the reality is very far from pleasant or desirable.  Even Jack Rogers
+and Paddy Adair could not help coming to this conclusion during the
+night they spent off Lagos, surrounded by their wounded, and dead, and
+dying companions.  They were also not a little anxious about Murray, of
+whom they could obtain no information.  The stars kept shining forth
+from the dark sky, the surface of the river was smooth as glass, on
+either side around them was the squadron of steamers and boats, while in
+the distance could be observed the lights of the black city, from which
+every now and then a flash might be seen as a negro took it into his
+head to fire off his musket, or perhaps, while handling it, let it
+explode unintentionally.  At length daylight returned.  Directly
+everybody was on the alert, but as yet no signal was made to recommence
+the attack.  Whatever heroes of romance might have done, modern warriors
+require rest and refreshment, so the men set to work to cook and eat
+their breakfasts.  While this was going on, a boat was seen approaching
+the squadron.  She was the gig Murray commanded.  He himself was on
+board.  His shipmates warmly welcomed him.
+
+"Where have you been?  What have you been about?  We feared you were
+lost," exclaimed several voices.
+
+"It is a somewhat long story," he answered.  "After the retreat was
+ordered yesterday I saw some negroes pulling off in a canoe to the
+northward of the island, and not thinking of consequences, I pursued
+them.  Away we went at good speed, but they paddled faster.  It did not
+occur to me at the time that they were making their escape from the
+town.  When I looked astern I found that our own boats had gone to the
+southward, and that between me and them was a large body of native
+canoes.  To attempt to pass them would have been madness, so I pulled on
+up the river.  The blacks were so engaged in the fight, that I was not
+perceived.  I therefore pulled up the stream till it was dark, and then
+lay hid for some time to rest and refresh my men.  I bethought me that
+having got thus far, I would employ myself profitably.  I therefore
+dropped an anchor, and let the men take a couple of hours' sleep; then
+once more getting under weigh, I dropped down, sounding as I came, and
+passed right round to the west of the island.  When abreast of it I saw
+dark objects moving across the channel, and found that they were canoes
+crossing and recrossing, and I have no doubt carrying off household
+goods and other property, and perhaps some of the inhabitants were
+making their escape.  At all events, it looks as if the natives were not
+very sanguine of success.  I had to wait till I had an opportunity of
+threading my way between them, and it was only just at daybreak that I
+was able to get clear.  I must now go and make my report to the
+captain."
+
+Not long after this the signal was given to attack, and the whole
+squadron was quickly in movement.  There was not a man engaged who was
+not resolved to redeem, if possible, the loss of the previous day.  The
+boats, as before, pulled round to the northward, where the houses of the
+king and his prime ministers, as well as of the European slave-dealers,
+were situated, while the steamers took up positions on either side of
+the town.  There was no mistake this time as to what was to be done.
+The sad loss of life which occurred on the previous day arose, it must
+be remembered, entirely in consequence of the grounding of the steamer.
+This made it necessary to land in the face of a hot fire and to storm
+the stockades, while it also brought about the subsequent disasters.
+The signal was given and the steamers and boats opened a steady and
+well-directed fire, which soon began to tell.  House after house was
+seen to be in flames.  The blacks returned it, but with very different
+spirits to the previous day.  They had fancied after the apparent defeat
+the English had suffered on the previous day, they would not again
+venture to attack them.  Steadily the boats fired away.  "Hurrah!
+hurrah! hurrah!"  A loud cheer ran through the line.  A shot had entered
+the house of Tappis, Kosoko's prime minister, and set it on fire.  He
+was one of the most determined supporters of the slave-trade, and the
+chief instigator of the first attack on the boats of the squadron.  Soon
+after the gun in a battery below his house was capsized, while the men
+working it were driven out by a well-directed rocket sent among them.
+House after house now caught fire.  Most of the non-combatants had
+before this fled, the rest were next seen hurriedly making their escape
+with cries of terror and dismay.  Still the garrison, with a bravery
+worthy of a better cause, held out.  The firing on both sides became
+more rapid, but the English redoubled their exertions.  Showers of shot,
+and shell, and rockets were flying into the devoted town.  Suddenly a
+fearful roar was heard.  Earth and stones, and fragments of timber mixed
+with human forms, were seen to rise up into the air.  One of the enemy's
+chief magazines had exploded.  From that moment the conflagration
+extended more rapidly and fiercely than before, till the whole city
+appeared to be in a blaze, the flames rising up in ruddy pyramids and
+supporting a dark canopy overhead--a fit funeral pall for those who had
+fallen in the strife.  There could be no longer any doubt that the fate
+of Lagos was decided.  A broad creek ran through part of the town.  This
+stopped the flames.  Kosoko's house was still standing.  A boat was
+directed especially to destroy it; but the commander of the expedition,
+influenced by truly Christian motives, resolved, before doing more
+injury to the town, to give Kosoko an opportunity of capitulating.  The
+next day was Sunday.  He resolved, should the blacks commit no act of
+hostility, to make it also a day of rest.  Recalling all the boats, he
+sent in therefore a flag of truce, by a friendly chief, to Kosoko,
+allowing him till Monday morning to consider his proposals.  Once more,
+therefore, on Saturday evening, the squadron retired from before the
+town; but very different were the feelings of those engaged from what
+they had been on Friday.  Now success appeared certain, then a heavy
+loss and defeat had been the termination of their day's labour.  Still,
+as the three midshipmen met on board Jack's boat, their conversation was
+far sadder than it was wont to be.  So probably was that of the
+commanders of the expedition.
+
+"To think that we should have spent all this time before a town
+fortified only by slaving rascals, and manned by blacks, and after all
+not yet to be masters of it!" exclaimed Jack, with some bitterness in
+his tone.
+
+"It comes very much of the common English fault of despising our
+enemies," observed Murray.  "We are apt to forget that though fellows
+have black or tawny skins, they have got brains in their heads."
+
+"Still we don't often find enemies who have the pluck of Britons," said
+Adair.
+
+"No, and that is the reason why we are ultimately so generally
+successful," answered Murray.  "But that does not prevent us from
+frequently, in the first place, meeting with defeat and disgrace, and
+losing numberless valuable lives.  I do not mean to say that what
+happened on Friday could have been avoided, but it is very sad to think
+of the poor fellows who have lost their lives, as well as of the many
+now suffering from their wounds; so we won't talk more about the
+matter."
+
+That night passed like the former ones, and Sunday was gliding
+tranquilly away, spent in most instances by the crews on board the
+vessels and boats, after the example of their commander, as a Sunday
+should be passed, when it was ascertained that the usurper and his prime
+minister, and the greater number of his troops, had abandoned the city.
+The English commander, therefore, sent to direct the negro auxiliaries
+who had accompanied King Akitoye from Abeokuta to escort him into the
+city, and to install him in his office.  This was done, and they took
+possession of the houses which had escaped the conflagration, while a
+small portion only of the British forces entered that evening and spiked
+the guns in the chief batteries turned towards the river.  The next
+morning fifty-two guns were destroyed or embarked.  Murray was among
+those who went on shore.  In his letter home he made the following
+remarks:--
+
+"The greater part of the stronghold of slavery is now little more than a
+heap of ashes; but enough of the works remain to show the cunning
+methods devised by the blacks for entrapping us into ambushes had we
+assaulted it.  In truth, the place is a great deal stronger than we had
+any notion of.  One thing I must say, that, in spite of the reverses we
+at first experienced, every officer and man engaged in the affair did
+his utmost, and behaved as British seamen always should behave; and it
+must be the consolation of the relations and friends of the gallant
+fellows who lost their lives, that a very important work has been
+performed, and that the capture of this stronghold of the slave-trade
+will prove one of the severest blows that hateful traffic has ever
+experienced.  It has done much also, I trust, to advance the cause of
+religion and civilisation in Africa, and will help, I hope, to wipe away
+the dark stain which is attached to many of the so-called Christian
+nations of the world.  Akitoye is now installed King of Lagos.  He
+professes great friendship for the English, as well as for the people of
+Abeokuta.  If he proves the stern enemy of the slave-trade and the true
+friend of Christianity, we shall not have fought in vain."
+
+On searching for the Spanish and Portuguese slave-dealers, by whom the
+Lagos people had been trained to arms, none were to be found.  They had
+fled, and as their property was completely destroyed, they have never
+since returned.  The midshipmen heard that their old acquaintance Don
+Diogo was one of those who had establishments there, but they could not
+hear anything of him, nor what had become of the felucca, on board of
+which he was last seen.  One thing was very certain, that his love for
+the English generally, or for them in particular, could not have been
+increased when he found that all his property in Lagos had been
+destroyed.  The squadron at length once more put to sea, and Lagos has
+ever since virtually been under the jurisdiction of the British
+Government, who retain it for the purpose of keeping in check the
+traffic in slaves.
+
+The frigate had been some weeks at sea before she at length fell in with
+the _Archer_, which Murray had then to rejoin.  All three of the
+midshipmen were beginning to look forward to the time when they might
+hope once more to return to England.  Still they were perfectly content,
+till the time arrived, steadily to go on in the performance of their
+duty.
+
+When Murray left the frigate he took with him his two parrots, Polly and
+Nelly, but Queerface remained, and Adair declared that under his
+judicious system of education he had become one of the most learned and
+sagacious of monkeys.  He said that it reminded him very much of Don
+Diogo, and so he and Jack amused themselves by rigging him out in a
+dress similar to that in which they had seen the old Don appear.  The
+imitation was so good that the moment Queerface sprang up on deck the
+likeness was recognised by all who saw him.  When Adair went away in
+boats he usually took Queerface with him to afford amusement to his men.
+The frigate had been for some time cruising on to the southward,
+without meeting with any success, when, there being every appearance of
+calm weather, Captain Lascelles ordered away two of the boats to cruise
+in search of slavers, one to the northward and the other to the
+southward.  Jack, to his great satisfaction, got command of the pinnace,
+and Adair, who would otherwise have remained on board, volunteered to
+accompany him with Queerface, to make sport for the crew.  Dick Needham
+was also of the party.  Away they pulled to the northward, and before
+sunset they were out of sight of the ship.
+
+"We must have a prize somehow or other," cried Adair; "it will never do
+to return without one."
+
+"Just such a one as you and I took in the Mediterranean when we first
+went to sea," said Jack, laughing.  "However, we'll do our best: what do
+you say to it, Master Queerface?"  There sat the monkey in the
+stern-sheets, dressed in a broad-brimmed straw hat, nankeen trousers, a
+light blue jacket, and a red neckcloth, just as Don Diogo had appeared
+when Jack had last seen him.  Queerface seemed in no way to disapprove
+of the hat and jacket, but his lower garments at times somewhat puzzled
+him; however, he altogether behaved himself very well.  There was so
+little wind that Jack did not even step his masts.  He thus hoped to get
+close to any slaver, should he see one, without being discovered.  He
+had his trusty rifle ready, and from frequently practising he was even a
+better shot than before.  Adair had picked up a very fair rifle at
+Sierra Leone, but he could not pretend to equal Jack as a shot.  They
+both well knew that they could not hope to take a prize without exerting
+themselves, and they were, therefore, constantly standing up and looking
+about on all sides in search of a sail.  They were off a part of the
+coast whence numerous cargoes of slaves were still embarked.  A short
+time before sunset they made the land.  Soon after this, as Jack was
+standing up on the stern-sheets, his eye fell on a white spark
+glistening brightly in the oblique rays of the departing luminary.  He
+brought his glass to bear on the subject.  Adair took a look at it, and
+so did Needham.  They all agreed that the sail in sight was a square
+topsail schooner standing off the land.
+
+"Then she must pass close to us," cried Jack.  "We'll be on the watch
+for her."
+
+Another look they all took before the sun sank below the horizon
+confirmed them in this opinion.  The last few hours of daylight were
+spent by the crew in examining their pistols, in seeing that their
+cutlasses were ready at hand, and everything prepared for boarding at a
+moment's notice.  All hands then turned to and had a good supper, after
+which, as they said, they were up to anything.
+
+The boat floated quietly on the almost calm waters, for though the men
+lay on their oars, they did not pull a stroke.  Not a word was spoken
+above the lowest whisper.  There were sounds, for the ocean itself is
+never, even in a calm, altogether silent.  Ever and anon there was a
+splash, sometimes caused by the boat as the smooth undulations rose up
+as it seemed from the depths below, and made her roll lazily for an
+instant from side to side, or some fish rose to the surface with
+wide-open mouths, or leaped up into the air, or one of the monsters of
+the unfathomed waters came to have a gaze at the strange thing which
+floated over their liquid home.  A slight mist came over the land with
+the night air, damp and unwholesome enough, but Jack and Terence little
+regarded that point, as it contributed much to conceal the boat from the
+approaching stranger, though they had little doubt that her more lofty
+sails would easily be seen above it.  Time passed on.  They calculated
+that the schooner must be drawing near them.
+
+Once more Jack stood up.  "There she is," he whispered, as he sank into
+his seat.  "Away to the northward.  Out oars, lads, as gently as
+possible.  In ten minutes we shall be alongside of her."  The oars had
+been muffled, and with the long, steady strokes made by the men,
+scarcely a splash was heard.  They might well hope to be up to the
+stranger without being discovered.  On glided the boat.  It was an
+exciting moment.  The sails of a large topsail schooner rose up out of
+the mist before them.
+
+Jack and Adair thought they saw a little beyond her the pointed tops of
+another craft slowly moving over the bank of fog.  If they should both
+prove enemies there would be fearful odds against them.  They numbered
+only eleven people in all--eight pulling, Needham, and themselves.
+Still they did not hesitate.
+
+"We'll take one, and then be ready for the other," whispered Jack.
+
+Adair nodded his assent.  Still discretion might have been the best part
+of valour in this case.
+
+"That further craft is a felucca," again whispered Jack.  "I can see the
+tops of her lateen sails above the mist.  Perhaps she's the old Don's
+craft.  Never mind, we'll be ready for him."
+
+In two minutes more they were close up to the schooner.  No notice had
+hitherto been taken of them by those on board.  They flattered
+themselves that they were not perceived.  They dashed alongside.
+
+"Who are you? who are you?" said a fierce voice in Spanish.  "Speak,
+speak, who are you?"
+
+"A boat of her Britannic Majesty's ship _Ranger_," answered Jack, who
+understood what was said.  "Heave-to, I want to come on board you."  He
+said this as the boat was hooking on, and he and Terence, followed by
+their men, were about to spring on deck, when again the same person who
+had before hailed, sang out, "Heave, heave, sink the boat and the
+scoundrel heretics.  Have no mercy on them."
+
+At that instant down came half a dozen round shots into the bottom of
+the boat, rattling through the planks, while pistols were fired in their
+faces, and pikes were thrust at them, and swords flourished above their
+heads.  They were prepared for opposition, so, in spite of this, cutlass
+in hand, they sprang up the side of the vessel without much difficulty,
+as her bulwarks were low, and attacked their assailants.  Jack had time
+to seize his rifle, for he saw the water rushing into his boat, and he
+felt that she was sinking under their feet.  Followed by Queerface, who,
+through fright, chattered away louder than ever, the English seamen
+gained the deck of the slaver.  Such undoubtedly she was, if not worse.
+Jack saw that they had nearly taken her by surprise, for but few men
+were at that moment on deck; but others, some only half dressed, were
+rushing out of both the fore and after cabins.  The first who had
+received them made so bold a stand that time was allowed for the whole
+of the Spanish crew to assemble.  They far outnumbered the English.
+Still the gallant young midshipmen and their followers fought on
+undaunted.  Suddenly Queerface, who had hitherto kept behind the rest,
+jumped up into the rigging and looked over them.
+
+"Don Diogo!  Don Diogo!" cried several of the slaver's crew; "how comes
+he to be with these men?  There must be some mistake."
+
+"Quacko--Quacko--Quacko," cried Queerface, and scud up the rigging out
+of harm's way.
+
+The Spaniards could not make it out.  The delay, however, was an
+advantage to the English, as it enabled them to cast their eyes around
+and see the state of affairs.  The greater number of their enemies were
+forward, so Jack and most of his party sprang on in that direction,
+hoping to dispose of them first.  The fellows stood their ground, firing
+their pistols and flourishing their swords, and two of the English were
+shot, and Jack got an ugly cut across his shoulder.  Still he pressed
+on, and compelled at length the Spaniards to take refuge in their cabin
+under the topgallant forecastle.  Meantime Terence was keeping the
+slaver's captain and officers in check, but he had lost a man, who was
+struck to the deck, and Needham too was wounded.  Matters were going
+very hard with Jack and his followers.  Still ten British seamen might
+well have hoped to conquer the whole of a slaver's crew.  The fight had
+now become desperate.  The Spanish captain had probably all his fortune
+embarked in the venture, Jack and his party had to struggle for life and
+liberty.  Again and again they made desperate rushes at the afterpart of
+the vessel, and at length they pushed the Spaniards so hard that they
+almost drove them overboard, when two sails were seen emerging from out
+of the fog and gliding up alongside.  In another instant, not Queerface,
+but the veritable Don Diogo himself was seen to spring on board,
+followed by a dozen or more villainous-looking ruffians.
+
+"What's all this? what's all this?" his harsh croaking voice was heard
+shouting in Spanish.  "Down with the English pirates, down with them!"
+
+Hearing the cry, the Spaniards, who had taken refuge forward, rushed out
+again, and though Jack called to Terence to fight to the last, and that
+they would sell their lives dearly, they found themselves literally
+borne down by numbers, and their cutlasses whirled out of their hands.
+
+"We have done our best, Paddy, we can do no more," exclaimed Jack, as he
+and Terence found themselves standing side by side, with their hands
+secured and lashed to the mainmast.  Needham and the rest of the people
+who were able to move were treated in the same way.
+
+"Why, my friend, you were very nearly captured by these picaroons," they
+heard Don Diogo remark to the other Spanish captain.  "But where is a
+lantern?--let me see whom we have caught."
+
+The lantern was brought, and the Don came round and held it up to their
+faces.
+
+"Ha! ha!" he exclaimed, with a most sardonic grin.  "Your obedient
+humble servant, gentlemen.  I told you we should meet again, and we have
+met.  What do you expect after all the tricks you have played me?"
+
+Neither Jack nor Terence deigned a reply.
+
+"Ah, speak, pirates," he exclaimed, stamping furiously on the deck; "the
+yard-arm, a sharp knife, or a walk on the plank?  Whichever you like.  I
+grant you your choice."
+
+Still neither of the midshipmen would reply.  What was the use of so
+doing?
+
+"We must kill every one of them," exclaimed the Don, speaking in
+Spanish, turning to the other captain.  "I have a long account to settle
+with these English generally, and these lads especially.  They have been
+the cause of nearly all my losses.  They cannot repay me, but I can take
+my revenge, and that is something."
+
+"Certainly, certainly, my friend," answered the other: "you can hang, or
+drown, or shoot them, as you think fit.  It is a matter of perfect
+indifference to me."
+
+These were the last words poor Jack heard as the two worthies entered
+the cabin.
+
+"We are in a bad case, Jack, I am afraid," said Adair, "though I could
+not exactly make out what the fellows said."
+
+"It was not pleasant," answered Jack, briefly.  "Terence, have you ever
+thought of dying?"
+
+"Yes, I have; that is to say, I have known that I was running many a
+chance of being knocked on the head or finished in some way or other,"
+answered Adair, with some little hesitation.
+
+"Then, Terence, my dear fellow, let us look at it as an awful reality,
+which is about speedily to overtake us," said Jack solemnly.  "These
+fellows threaten to at once take our lives; depend on it, they will put
+their threats into execution."
+
+"It is hard to bear, Jack dear," replied Adair; "I am so sorry for you
+and for all your brothers and sisters at home.  I don't think mine care
+much for me; that's one comfort.  But I say, I wish that the blackguards
+would let us have our arms free, that we might still have a fight for
+our lives."
+
+"Don't speak thus, Terence," said Jack, who was almost overcome by
+Adair's allusion to his family.  "Don't let us think of the past, but
+keep our thoughts fixed on the future world we are about to enter, and
+think how very unfit we are of ourselves for the glorious place we would
+wish to go to."
+
+Terence listened, and responded in the same tone to his messmate.  Much
+more they said to the same effect, nor did they forget to offer up their
+prayers for preservation from the terrible danger which threatened them.
+Then, with the calmness of Christians and brave men, they awaited the
+doom they believed prepared for them.  Such consolation as they could
+give also they offered to the survivors of their crew.  Two poor fellows
+had been killed outright; another was bleeding to death on the deck, nor
+would the brutal Spaniards offer him the slightest assistance, while
+they prevented his shipmates from giving it him.  Jack himself was
+suffering also much pain from his wound, while he felt so faint from
+loss of blood that he could scarcely support himself.  He had told
+Needham that the Spaniards threatened to kill them all.
+
+"Well, sir, they may do it if they dare, but they will be sure to be
+caught some day or other," answered Needham.  "I wouldn't change places
+with them.  We shall die having done our duty; they will be hung up like
+dogs.  If I knew their lingo I would tell them so."
+
+The English were not long left in quiet.  So many of the Spaniards had
+been wounded that some time was spent by them in bandaging up their
+hurts, and as soon as this was done they came on deck eager to wreak
+their vengeance on their captive foes.  They now came about them with
+their long knives, flourishing them before their eyes, and pretending to
+stab at them.  Some indeed, more brutal than the rest, actually stuck
+their knives into their flesh, but though blood was drawn, the seamen
+generally disdained even to utter a word, though one or two said, "I'll
+tell you what, you villains, if I can get my fists at liberty, I'll give
+it you."  At length Don Diogo and the captain of the schooner came out
+from the cabin.  They had apparently made up their minds what to do.
+The latter gave orders to reeve ropes to each yard-arm, while planks
+were got up and placed over the sides, secured on board by lanyards.  On
+these being cut, of course the end of the plank overboard would
+instantly sink down and let the person standing on it into the water.
+Don Diogo had, it seemed, taken upon himself the direction of the
+executions.  Jack and Adair had supposed that the Spaniards would wait
+till the morning to kill them, but the little Don evidently had no wish
+to delay his vengeance.
+
+"Cast the prisoners loose, and bring them aft," he cried out.  "Now, you
+scoundrel heretics, what have you got to say for yourselves?  Nothing?
+I thought so.  Well, I will be merciful.  You shall choose the mode of
+your death.  What shall it be--will you be hung or walk the plank?
+There are plenty of sharks alongside who will be happy to entomb you
+either way."
+
+No one replied to this address.
+
+"Speak, you heretics," he cried, stamping with rage.
+
+The two midshipmen cast their eyes about them to assure themselves that
+what was taking place was a reality; the whole scene appeared so like
+some horrid dream that they could scarcely believe it true.  As they
+looked up they discovered that a strong breeze had sprung up, and that
+the vessel was moving rapidly through the water.  The deck was crowded
+with seamen, many of whom held lanterns, so that the whole ship was
+lighted.
+
+"It is time to begin," cried the Don.  "Come, as you will not choose for
+yourselves, I must choose for you.  Here, seize that lad and run him up
+to the mainyard-arm."
+
+He pointed at Adair.  Several of the ruffian crew rushed forward and
+seized poor Terence, and dragged him up to the rope which hung from the
+yard-arm.  They were about to take hold of it to adjust it round Adair's
+neck, when down by it came gliding an apparition which, in the uncertain
+light cast by the lanterns aloft, looked so like old Don Diogo himself,
+that the superstitious Spaniards, believing that it was his wraith or
+ghost, let go the rope and sprang back to the other side of the vessel.
+The old Don was not less astonished than the rest, but not exactly
+recognising himself, it occurred to him that some spirit of evil had
+come on board to watch his proceedings.  Queerface, meantime, for the
+apparition was no other than him, seeing the confusion he had created,
+shinned up the rope again, and on reaching the yard-arm, finding it
+slack, hauled it up after him, and there he sat chattering away and
+wondering what the strangers were going to do to his master.  The wicked
+old Don, though astonished at first, was not altogether overcome, and
+soon recovering himself, began to get an idea of the true state of the
+case.  Once more he ordered the crew to go on with their cruel work, but
+no one would venture aloft to overhaul the whip, and Queerface showed no
+disposition to help them.  The Don began to swear and stamp with rage,
+calling them all by certain uncomplimentary epithets, in which the
+Spanish language is so rich.  The crew swore and abused him in return.
+In the midst of the confusion a voice hailed them through a
+speaking-trumpet.
+
+"What schooner is that?  Heave-to, or I will fire into you."
+
+"We are in the hands of a set of bloody pirates.  I'm Jack Rogers," sang
+out Jack, at the top of his voice.  Never had he sung out louder.
+
+"Take that for speaking," exclaimed the little Don, levelling a pistol
+at his head.  He pulled the trigger.  It missed fire, and before he
+could again cock the lock, Needham, who had been working his hands free,
+sprang aft, and with a blow of his fist levelled him with the deck.  It
+was the signal for the Spaniards to set upon them, and they would all
+have been cut down, but the next instant a loud crash was heard, and the
+dark hull of a man-of-war brig, with her taunt masts and wide spread of
+canvas, was seen ranging up alongside.  The next instant twenty or more
+stout English seamen, led by Alick Murray, came pouring down on the
+slaver's deck.  The brig which had thus providentially fallen in with
+them was the _Archer_.  She was on her passage to the northward with
+despatches for Captain Lascelles, recalling him and his frigate
+homewards.  The news was received by all hands with unmitigated joy.
+The tables on board the schooner were quickly turned.  The Spaniards
+were all handcuffed, and a strict guard set over them.  The midshipmen
+and their followers went on board the brig, where they were cordially
+welcomed, and their wounds looked to.  The felucca escaped, but as she
+was never again heard of, it was supposed that she was lost in a fierce
+gale which occurred two days afterwards.  The schooner was found to be
+full of slaves, and proved a rich prize.  Don Diogo escaped hanging, but
+was reduced to abject beggary, for he had not even the means of leaving
+Sierra Leone, and very soon afterwards was found dead on the beach.
+This was the last adventure either of the three midshipmen met with on
+the coast of Africa.  They were all three pretty well tired of it, and
+delighted indeed were they when they once more found themselves in sight
+of Old England.  The frigate and brig were paid off about the same time,
+and Alick and Terence accompanied Jack to that often-talked-of and
+well-loved home of his in Northamptonshire.  It must not be forgotten
+that they had in their train the most sensible of travelled apes.
+Master Queerface, who, by his amusing antics and performances, and
+extraordinary monkeyish sagacity, gained the admiration of the whole
+surrounding neighbourhood.  There they remained for some weeks, when,
+after Alick and Terence had paid a short visit to their own friends,
+they were all once more summoned afloat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+BOUND FOR CHINA.
+
+Her Majesty's frigate _Dugong_ was fitting with all despatch for sea at
+Portsmouth; so was her Majesty's brig-of-war _Blenny_, just commissioned
+by Commander Hemming, well-known, as the papers stated, for his
+gallantry on the coast of Africa, and on every occasion when he had an
+opportunity of displaying it.  The papers spoke truly, and well had our
+old friend won his present rank.  Both the frigate and the brig were
+destined, it was supposed, for the China seas; but this was not known to
+a certainty.  The _Dugong_ had been commissioned by Captain Grant, Alick
+Murray's old commander in the _Archer_, who had some short time before
+received his post rank.  Captain Lascelles, with whom the three
+midshipmen first went to sea, commanded at this time a line-of-battle
+ship on the Indian station.
+
+Who has not heard of the _Blue Posts_ at Portsmouth, to be found not far
+from the landing-place known as the Point, now sadly encroached on by
+new batteries and a broad wooden pier?
+
+One afternoon, at the time of which I am speaking, a cab stopped at the
+door of that well-known inn, with a portmanteau outside, and a
+cocked-hat case, a sword, a gun-case, and several other articles,
+including a young naval officer inside.  He nodded smilingly to the
+waiter and boots, who came to get out his things, as to old
+acquaintances, and then, having paid the cabman, entered the inn.  No
+sooner had he put his head into the coffee-room, than another young
+officer, in the uniform of a mate or passed midshipman, jumped up, and,
+seizing him by the hand, exclaimed--
+
+"I am delighted to see you, my dear Jack.  You've come to join the
+_Dugong_, I hope."
+
+"If you belong to her, Adair, I wish I was," answered Jack Rogers, for
+he was the new-comer.  "But I am not.  The fact is, Hemming has got
+command of the _Blenny_, and I applied and got appointed to her.  It
+can't be helped now.  Any news of Murray?  He wrote me word, some little
+time ago, that he expected to get appointed to a ship.  I wish that I
+could have had him with me; but we three have been on the same station,
+and mostly together all our lives, and we can scarcely expect the same
+good fortune to continue."
+
+"We tried to keep together, and we succeeded," answered Adair.  "There's
+nothing like trying, in my opinion."
+
+"You are right there, old fellow; there isn't a doubt of it," exclaimed
+Jack Rogers, who had been a little out of spirits, and inclined to take
+a somewhat gloomy view of affairs in general.
+
+No wonder, for he had just left as happy a home as any to be found in
+Old England.  It was a cold March day too, and he was chilled with his
+journey.  He took off his great coat, which, with his other things,
+Boots carried to his room, and then the two old messmates sat down
+before the fire.  They had been talking on for some time while their
+dinner was getting ready, when Adair observed a young man sitting at a
+table a little way off, narrowly observing them.  Terence looked at him
+in return.
+
+"Do you know, Jack, I do verily believe that there sits no other than
+Bully Pigeon," he whispered.  "What can he be doing down here?"
+
+The stranger, seeing them looking at him, got up, and approaching them
+with his hand extended, said--
+
+"What, do I see some old friends?  Rogers!  Adair!  Very glad to see
+you.  How de do?  How de do?  You remember me, surely.  I'm Pigeon."
+
+Thus addressed, it would not have been in the nature of either of the
+two midshipmen to have refused to shake hands with their old
+schoolfellow, bully though he had been.  They invited him to join them;
+and when they had dined they all three sat over their wine together,
+talking merrily of former days.
+
+"I'm going out to China in the diplomatic line," observed Pigeon, in his
+old tone.  "I have a notion that I shall be able to manage the
+Celestials.  There are few people who can deceive me."
+
+These, and a few other similar remarks, showed that Pigeon in one
+respect was little changed from what he had been in his early days.
+When or how he was going out to China he did not say.
+
+They had been chatting away for some time when another cab rattled up to
+the inn, and presently at the door of the coffee-room who should appear,
+to the delight of Rogers and Adair, but Murray himself.  They dragged
+him into the room, each eager to know what ship he was come to join.
+Paddy gave a shout of delight when he heard that he was appointed to the
+_Dugong_.  He told them besides that she was certainly under orders for
+China, to sail as soon as ready for sea, and that the _Blenny_ was also
+to be sent there.
+
+The old schoolfellows, as may be supposed, passed a very pleasant
+evening, their pleasure being heightened with the anticipation of being
+together in whatever work they might be engaged.  Even Bully Pigeon was
+sufferable (as Paddy observed), if he was not altogether agreeable.  He
+had a number of strange adventures to narrate, of which he was the hero.
+Although his accounts were not implicitly believed, it was agreed that,
+at all events, they were possible, which was somewhat in his favour.
+
+Two weeks after this, her Majesty's ships _Dugong_ and _Blenny_ were
+gliding under all sail across the Bay of Biscay.
+
+"The frigate looks something like a dowager with her small daughter
+following in her wake, sir," observed Jack, glancing his eye from the
+brig to her big consort, as he walked the deck with his captain.
+
+"We must try and make the little daughter win a name for herself out
+among the Celestials," said Captain Hemming in return.
+
+"That we will, sir, if we get the chance," answered Jack.
+
+"Ay, Rogers, but we must make the chance," remarked his captain with
+emphasis.
+
+"So we will, sir," said Jack warmly.  "There is not a man on board
+who'll not be glad of it."
+
+Captain Hemming had a sincere regard and respect for Jack, as Jack had
+for him.  They had both seen each other well tried and never found
+wanting, and they could thus converse frankly and without reserve.
+Neither Hemming nor Jack were people to talk without fully intending to
+perform.  Indeed, those who knew them felt sure that when dash or cool
+courage, or perseverance and intelligence, were especially required,
+they would show that they possessed them all.  Jack liked his ship and
+most of his brother officers, as well as his captain, and was a general
+favourite with them.  He had brought two companions, Adair's old African
+follower, Queerface, which he had given to Jack; and a fine Newfoundland
+dog, Sancho by name.  Jack had intended leaving Queerface at home, as
+Paddy remarked, to remind his brothers and sisters of him.  The
+compliment was somewhat doubtful.  But the monkey had played so many
+curious tricks, and had committed so much mischief, that no one would
+undertake the charge of him; and therefore, like a bad boy, he was sent
+off to sea again in disgrace.  As was natural, Sancho and Queerface
+became very intimate, though not at the same time perfectly friendly.
+Each, it appeared, was striving for the mastery.  Queerface, monkey
+though he was, gained the day; and one of his great amusements was to
+mount Sancho's back, and to make him run round and round the deck with
+him, whipping him on and chattering away all the time most vociferously,
+to the great amusement of the seamen, if not always to that of the first
+lieutenant.
+
+Jack had another charge to look after, a young midshipman, Harry Bevan
+by name, who had been especially committed to his charge.  The little
+fellow had been a petted somewhat spoilt child, an only son, yet go to
+sea he would; and his parents never had refused him anything, so they
+let him have his will, though it almost broke their hearts.  Jack
+promised to take the best care of him he could.  Harry was not exactly a
+pickle, but he had very little notion of taking care of himself; so Jack
+had quite enough to do to look after him, in addition to Queerface and
+Sancho.  Harry and Sancho were very great friends, but Queerface
+evidently looked upon him as a rival in his master's affections, and
+bore him no good-will.  This feeling of the monkey was increased by the
+tricks which the young midshipman played him whenever he had the
+opportunity.  At last he was never able to approach Queerface without a
+rope in his hand, which he held behind his back, or doubled up in his
+pocket.  The monkey, in the most sagacious way, would skip about till he
+had ascertained whether the weapon was there or not.  If it was there,
+as soon as he caught sight of it, he would spring up into the rigging
+and sit on a ratline, as quiet and demure as a judge, without attempting
+to retaliate.
+
+On board the frigate there was little to interrupt the usual routine.
+Murray had carried one of his parrots with him, and the sagacious bird
+afforded almost as much amusement as did Bully Pigeon, who soon showed
+that he was very little altered from what he had been in his youth.  He
+could not bully, but he could give abundant evidence of being still an
+arrant donkey.  Pigeon now called himself a philosopher, and used to be
+very fond of broaching his philosophical principles, as he denominated
+his nonsense.  One day, when dining in the gun-room, he began as usual.
+As he drank his wine he grew bolder and bolder in his assertions.  At
+last he declared that he did not believe that there was a place of
+punishment after death.  He had taken it into his head that the surgeon
+would side with him.
+
+"I'm sure, doctor, a sensible man like you will not assert that such is
+a fact?" he continued.  "What use would there be in it?"
+
+"I'll tell you what, ma laddie, there's one vary good use it will be put
+to, and that will be to stow away all such vicious, ignorant donkeys as
+you are," answered the doctor with great emphasis and deliberation.
+
+Pigeon was no way disconcerted at this somewhat powerful rebuke, but
+continued as before.  Indeed, nothing is so difficult as to make a
+conceited fool cease from talking folly.  At last the first lieutenant
+struck his fist on the table with a force which made all the glasses
+ring, as he exclaimed--
+
+"I'll tell you what, Mr Pigeon.  This ship belongs to a Christian
+Queen, and while I'm the senior officer present I'll not allow you to
+sneer against religion, or a word to be spoken which her gracious
+Majesty would not approve of.  Now, sir, hold your tongue, or I'll
+report your conduct, and have you put under arrest."
+
+The diplomatist, though looking very silly, began again, but another
+loud rap on the table silenced him.  It did not, however, silence
+Murray's parrot, who had found its way, as it often did, into the cabin,
+and the moment the voices ceased Polly set up such a roar of laughter,
+that Pigeon fancied that she was laughing at him.  The silly fellow's
+rage knew no bounds.  There was, however, nothing else on which he dared
+to vent it, except on the loquacious bird.  A bottle of port wine stood
+near.  He seized it by the neck to throw it at Polly, who, unconscious
+of the coming storm, only chattered the louder.  The stopper was out.
+As he lifted it above his head, a copious shower of the ruddy juice
+descended over his white shirt and waistcoat, and head and face, so
+blinding him that he missed his aim, but broke the bottle, while Polly
+gave way to louder laughter than ever, in which everybody most
+vociferously joined.  The wretched Pigeon had to make his escape to his
+cabin to change his dress, nor did he venture out again for the rest of
+the day, some of the time being passed in listening to the not very
+complimentary remarks made upon him and his so-called philosophy.  If
+anything would have cured him of his folly, that might have done so.  He
+had some glimmering suspicion that he was wrong, but he had no hearty
+desire to be right, and when that is the case a man is certainly in a
+bad way.
+
+Day after day the two ships sailed on in sight of each other.  The brig
+was very fast, and, though so much smaller, could outsail the frigate,
+which was not remarkable for speed.  Frequently, when they were
+together, Polly used to take a flight, to pay her old friend Queerface a
+visit, and he always seemed delighted to see her.  He exhibited his
+pleasure by all sorts of antics, though he could not express what he
+felt so fluently with his tongue as she did.  At length the Cape of Good
+Hope was doubled without the _Flying Dutchman_ having been seen, though
+the philosopher Pigeon kept a bright lookout for him.  One night he
+declared that he saw the phantom bark sailing right up in the wind's
+eye, but it was found to be only the _Blenny_ following the frigate
+under easy sail with a fair wind astern.  Pont de Galle, in the island
+of Ceylon, celebrated for the rich spices it exported, and supposed to
+be one of the most ancient emporiums of commerce, was visited, and at
+last the most modern and yet the largest emporium in the Indian seas,
+Singapore, was reached.  This wonderful city, which was founded as late
+as 1824 by Sir Stamford Raffles, on a spot where, though formerly the
+site of a Malay capital, at that time but a few huts stood, is now the
+most wealthy and flourishing on the shores of those eastern seas.  Here
+vessels bring produce and manufactures from all parts of the world,
+again to be distributed among all the neighbouring countries.  There are
+no duties levied of any sort or description, so that people of all
+nations are encouraged to come there with their goods.  The Chinese
+especially flock to the port, and great numbers are settled in the city
+and throughout the island, largely contributing by their persevering
+industry to its prosperity.  Who does not know the look of a Chinese,
+with his piggish eyes, thatched-like hat, yellow-brown skin, black tail,
+and wide short trousers?  The streets swarmed with them, ever busy, ever
+toiling to collect dollars, the most industrious people under the sun--
+yet the least lovable or attractive.  Their houses may be known by the
+red lintels of the door-posts covered with curious characters and
+designs; while at night the persevering people may be seen still working
+away by the light of huge paper lanterns covered with the strangest of
+devices.  The whole island is not larger than the Isle of Wight, but
+already there are a hundred thousand people living on it, collected from
+all quarters of the globe.  There are numerous very handsome houses in
+the town, mostly roofed with red-brick tiles, while the higher spots in
+the neighbourhood are chiefly occupied by the villas of the European
+merchants and other principal residents.  Such was the place before
+which her Majesty's ships _Dugong_ and _Blenny_ brought up, outside a
+fleet of strange-looking junks, with flags of all colours, devices, and
+shapes flying at their mast-heads, while in different part of the
+extensive roads were ships belonging to nearly all the countries in the
+world, English, American, and Dutch, however, predominating.
+
+Although just then the British and Chinese empires were linked in the
+bonds of peace, the ships of war of the former had plenty to do in
+keeping in order the numerous hordes of pirates which infested those
+seas, and considerably impeded her commerce, plundering her merchantmen,
+and cutting the throats of the crews whenever opportunity offered.
+
+The frigate and brig had been at Singapore but a few days when an open
+boat under sail was seen entering the harbour.  She stood for the
+_Blenny_, which was the outer vessel.  Jack Rogers, who was doing duty
+as officer of the watch, hailed her to know what she wanted.  A glance
+at the condition of her crew told him more than any words could have
+done.  Their faces were wan and bloodless, their dresses torn, and
+several had their heads and limbs bound up.  One man sat at the helm,
+and another forward to manage the sail; the rest lay along the thwarts
+or at the bottom of the boat, apparently more dead than alive.  The boat
+came alongside, but no one in her had strength left to climb on board.
+Even the man at the helm sank back exhausted as she was made fast.  Jack
+ordered some slings to be got ready to hoist them up, and then, taking
+some brandy and water in a bottle, he leaped down into the boat to
+administer it to the poor people.  His restorative was only just in
+time, for many of them were already almost dead.  The surgeon and most
+of the officers of the brig were on shore.  Jack, therefore, signalled
+to the frigate to send a doctor forthwith.  Doctor McCan, who had been
+appointed to the frigate, accompanied by Murray, soon came on board, and
+every possible assistance was given to the famished strangers.  After
+some time the man who had steered the boat recovered.  He said that he
+was mate of a ship bound from China to the Australian colonies, and that
+when she was about three hundred miles distant from Singapore, she had
+been attacked by a fleet of piratical Illanoon prahus, and her captain
+and crew had resisted to the utmost, but she was reduced almost to a
+wreck, and at night by some accident caught fire.  The first mate was
+the only surviving officer; the captain and the rest, with many of the
+crew, had been killed by the pirates.  During the darkness the survivors
+made their escape unpursued, though they could see the prahus
+approaching the burning wreck soon after they had left her.
+
+As soon as this information was conveyed on shore, the frigate and brig
+were ordered to proceed to sea in search of the pirate fleet.  No one
+was sorry to have work to do, though small amount of glory was to be
+obtained in pirate hunting.
+
+"It's our duty, at all events, and that is one comfort," observed Jack
+to Adair, who had been lent to the brig in consequence of the illness of
+her second lieutenant.  Thus two of the old schoolfellows were together.
+
+The squadron, sailing to the northward, cruised in every direction where
+they were likely to fall in with the piratical fleets; but though many
+traces of them were discovered in ruined villages and stranded vessels,
+the crews of which had been murdered or carried off into slavery, the
+pirates themselves were nowhere to be seen.  At last it occurred to
+Captain Grant that in all probability the pirates were receiving
+constant information of their movements, and had thus managed to elude
+them.  He therefore determined to fit out three boats, which would, by
+being able to steal along shore, and pull head to wind, be more likely
+to come on the pirates unawares.
+
+No sooner was the thought conceived than it was put into execution.
+Each boat was fitted with a long gun on the bows, besides swivels at the
+sides for closer quarters, and manned with twelve hands armed to the
+teeth, besides officers; and in the larger boats two or three extra men.
+Rogers and Adair got charge of two of the boats.  Murray would gladly
+have gone in the third with Mr Cherry, the second lieutenant of the
+frigate, who had command of the expedition, but two midshipmen had
+already been directed to get ready to go in her, and he did not like to
+deprive either of them of the pleasure they anticipated.  The boats did
+not leave the ships till some two or three hours after dark, that none
+of the friends of the pirates might discover what had occurred.
+
+No one expected anything but amusement from the expedition.  Nat Cherry,
+their leader, was one of the most good-natured, jolly fellows in the
+navy, and seldom failed to make everybody under him happy.  They could
+not bring themselves to believe that a whole fleet of pirate prahus
+would ever wait their attack for a moment, they felt almost sure that
+directly they appeared the enemy would attempt to escape.  Just as Jack
+was shoving off from the brig, Queerface, who had been watching his
+opportunity, made a spring into the boat, and there was instantly a loud
+cry from all on board her, that he might be allowed to remain.
+
+"Oh, he's such a divertin' rogue, he'll keep every mother's son of us as
+merry as crickets," sang out an Irish topman, whose own humour generally
+proved a source of amusement to all with him.
+
+The request was granted, and Queerface seemed to enjoy the prospect of
+the trip as much as his companions.  Away pulled the squadron of boats.
+When daylight dawned they were coasting along the shore of an island
+fringed with cocoa-nut trees, and hills rising in the centre.  There
+were numerous deep indentations, bays, and gulfs, with bluff cliffs here
+here there, and high rocks scattered about, capital spots in which whole
+fleets of prahus might lie hid without much chance of being discovered.
+The weather was very hot, as it is apt to be within a few miles of the
+equator; and when there was no wind, and the sea shone like a burnished
+mirror, the sun came down with very considerable force on the top of the
+heads of the party in the boats.  Still their spirits did not flag.
+Jack and Adair, indeed, had been pretty well seasoned to the heat of the
+coast of Africa, where, if not greater, it was often far less
+supportable.
+
+Mr Cherry led: Jack and Terence followed side by side.  A constant fire
+of jokes was kept up between the two boats.  Queerface evidently thought
+that there was something in the wind, and kept jumping about with
+unusual activity, keeping apparently as bright a lookout as anybody on
+board.  Not an inlet was passed unexplored, still not a sign of the
+pirates could they discover.  On going up one small but deepish river,
+they came, close to the banks, on a native village.  The inhabitants
+must have taken to flight on their approach, for not a human being was
+to be seen.
+
+"That looks suspicious," exclaimed Adair.  "We ought to burn this
+village to teach them better manners."
+
+Mr Cherry fortunately had no such intention.  He had an idea that
+burning people's houses was not the best way of making friends of them.
+
+"Indeed, it would be a pity to have to destroy so picturesque a place,"
+observed Jack Rogers.
+
+The houses were mostly separate, built on piles four or five feet above
+the ground.  They were of one storey, with a deep verandah or gallery
+running round them, a ladder leading up to it.  The roofs, which were
+high and pointed with deep eaves, were covered with a thick coating of
+palm-leaves, and so were the walls, while the floors were made of bamboo
+cut in strips and placed nearly an inch apart, being covered with a
+thick, beautifully woven mat.  They appeared strong, but very springy,
+so much so, that when Adair began to dance a polka on one of them, he
+very nearly bounded up to the roof.  The village was surrounded and
+interspersed with cocoa-nut and other palm-trees, and with bananas,
+whose dark-green foliage gave effect to lighter tints of the forest.
+The thick jungle pressed hard on every side, leaving space only here and
+there for some small fields and gardens.  Mr Cherry would not allow the
+slightest injury to be done to the houses; for though it was suspected
+that they belonged to the pirates, no traces of booty were to be
+discovered.
+
+After spending some time in examining the locality, they were about to
+embark, when a dark visage was seen peering out at them from among the
+trees.  Instead of making chase to catch him, Mr Cherry stood still and
+beckoned to him.  This gave the native courage, who, seeing also that no
+injury had been done to the village, after a little hesitation advanced.
+One of Jack's crew was a Malay, who could speak not only his own
+language, but that of many of the surrounding tribes.  He had no
+difficulty in entering into conversation with the native, who asserted
+that his people had taken the British for pirates, and had run away in
+consequence.  To prove his sincerity, he offered to pilot the boats to
+the chief haunts of the pirates.  As there was no reason to doubt him,
+his offer was accepted.  He merely requested time to equip himself for
+the expedition.  He entered one of the houses, and soon returned with a
+couple of creeses stuck in his sash, and a sword by his side, and the
+whole party, embarking once more, proceeded on their voyage.  Their
+volunteer pilot was a merry, talkative fellow.  What his real name was
+it was difficult to make out exactly, so Jack gave him that of
+Hoddidoddi, which it sounded very like, and he at once readily answered
+to it.
+
+All that day they sailed on without seeing anything of the pirates.
+They began to last to fancy that Hoddidoddi was deceiving them; but he
+entreated them not to despair, and promised, by noon the next day at
+farthest, to bring them in sight of the marauders.  They brought up at
+night in a sheltered bay, where the water was as smooth as a mill-pond.
+Jack and Adair grew very sentimental as they leaned back in the
+stern-sheets of Mr Cherry's boat, where all the officers had collected
+to smoke their cigars, and looked up into the dark sky, sprinkled with
+stars innumerable.  What they said need not be repeated.
+
+"Come, lads, dismount from your Pegasus, and turn in and get a little
+sleep," cried their commanding officer; "we've a hard day's work before
+us to-morrow, I suspect."
+
+This warning brought their thoughts back to the business in which they
+were engaged, and, returning to their respective boats, those not on
+watch were very quickly wrapped in what, as Paddy said, "might have been
+`soft repose,' if it wasn't that the planks were so mighty hard."  They
+were awoke before dawn by a summons from Hoddidoddi, who declared that
+there was sufficient light for him to pilot them, if they wished to
+proceed.  The anchors were at once got up, and they pulled away along
+shore.
+
+By daylight they came to a broad channel some miles wide.  Their pilot
+averred that they should find the pirate fleet across it.  Away they
+dashed.  A thin silvery mist hung over the ocean; sufficient, however,
+to conceal them from any one on the lookout on the opposite shore.  Only
+here and there, as they approached, a few palm-trees, rearing their
+heads above the mist, showed where the shore itself was.
+
+"If the pirates only happen to be there, we shall catch them to a
+certainty," shouted Paddy to Jack, as they pulled rapidly on.
+
+Soon all were ordered to keep silence, and Hoddidoddi was seen to be
+indulging in a variety of curious and somewhat violent gesticulations.
+Just then appeared the masts and yards of a whole fleet of Illanoon
+prahus.  There could be no doubt that they were the pirates.  Mr Cherry
+had no necessity to order his followers to give way.  The seamen laid
+their backs to the oars, and made the boats fly hissing through the
+water.  They thought that they should take the enemy by surprise; but
+the sound of tom-toms beating, pistols being fired, and loud shouts
+showed them that the pirates were not asleep, and that they themselves
+had been heard, if not seen.  Just then a puff of wind blew aside the
+mist, and exhibited some twenty prahus or more drawn up in order of
+battle, and ready to receive them.  A larger body than they were might
+have hesitated about attacking; still it did not enter the head of their
+gallant leader that it would be possible to retreat.  He ordered Jack to
+attack on one wing and Adair on the other, while he pulled for the
+centre of the fleet, firing his long gun as he did so.  The pirates were
+evidently astonished at this bold proceeding, and at the way the shots
+pitched into them.  Probably they thought that the boats they saw were
+only the advanced guard, and that a much stronger force was following.
+First one and then another cut their cables, and, getting out their long
+sweeps, pulled away on either hand.  Some four or five stood to the
+southward, and Jack in hot haste followed them.  Adair pursued nearly
+the same number round the north end of the island, while the main body,
+with whom Mr Cherry was engaged, showed a disposition to run up a
+narrow inlet or channel, which appeared astern of them.  Jack cheered on
+his men, and they, nothing loth, gave way with a will.  Still the
+pirates showed that they possessed very fast heels, besides which they
+could kick, as the British found to their cost, and several shots from
+their stern guns struck the boat as she got nearer to them.  A groan
+burst from the lips of one of the seamen.  He pulled on; but Jack saw
+his hands suddenly let go his oar, and down he sank.  Directly
+afterwards another poor fellow was hit.  This loss considerably lessened
+the speed of the boat; some little time also was occupied in placing the
+wounded men in the stern-sheets, and in looking to their wounds.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+HOT FIGHTING.
+
+With Jack Rogers had come little Harry Bevan; Jack, not believing that
+there would be any fighting, had got leave to bring his young charge
+with him.  As the shot were flying thickly about, how gladly would he
+have shielded the young lad with his own body.  He wished that he could
+have ventured to stow him down at the bottom of the boat, out of harm's
+way; but he knew well enough that Harry would not have remained there a
+minute had he done so.  Not a thought that he himself might be hit
+crossed Jack's mind.  His whole anxiety was for the young boy.  Harry,
+however, seemed unconscious of danger.  He was leaning over one of the
+wounded men, assisting to bind up his arm, when Jack saw his hand drop
+powerless by his side, while he fell forward.  Jack caught him in time.
+"What is the matter, Harry?" he exclaimed.  "Are you hurt, lad?"
+
+"A strange pain about my shoulder and arm and neck," he answered
+faintly.  "Oh, I am very sick, Rogers, very sick."  Jack saw that the
+boy's jacket was torn.  He cut away the cloth with his knife; the blood
+how gushed out freely; there was a desperate wound on the shoulder.  No
+woman could have dressed it with more care and gentleness than did Jack.
+He poured some brandy and water down the lad's throat, which much
+revived him, though his suppressed groans showed that he was still in
+great pain.
+
+Many people would have given up the chase under these circumstances, but
+Jack Rogers was not a fellow to do that.  He found, however, that he
+could do the enemy more damage by keeping out of the range of their
+guns, and yet keep them within range of his.  Miles were thus passed
+over.  As the sun rose the heat increased.  There was a breeze, and the
+prahus profited by it by spreading all their sails, but it did not serve
+to cool the air.  At length Jack found that he had got round the island,
+and greatly to his delight he saw the other portion of the pirate
+squadron followed closely by Adair.  The two boats were soon alongside
+each other.  A council of war was held.  It was a question whether they
+should wait for their commander or pursue the enemy.  It was quickly
+decided that they should continue the chase.  There were groups of
+islands ahead, and the chances were that if they did not follow the
+enemy they would escape among them.  So on they pulled.  The pirates
+fired as before, though without doing any further damage.  The only
+person who seemed to wish to be elsewhere was Queerface.  He jumped
+about and chattered incessantly.  Then he would try and hide himself;
+but could not remain quiet, but every time he heard a shot he popped up
+his head to see where it was going.  Suddenly it grew perfectly calm
+again.  A lurid look came over the sky.  Evidently there was going to be
+a change in the weather.  The pirates seemed to know what was about to
+occur.  There was an inlet in an island close at hand: towards it they
+rapidly pulled.  Jack and Adair were about to follow, when down upon
+them came a terrific squall, which very nearly blew both their boats
+right over.  They happily got them before it, and away they flew towards
+the island they had left.  To weather it was impossible.  The best
+chance of saving the boats was to beach them.  They prayed that there
+might be no rocks in the way, but the fierce breath of the tornado was
+sweeping up such vast masses of foam into the air, that they could see
+but a few fathoms before them.  Side by side the two boats sprang on.
+Jack stood up.  As his boat rose on the top of a sea, he saw the land:
+close under her bows it appeared.
+
+"Be ready, lads, to spring out, and to carry our wounded shipmates up
+the beach," he exclaimed.  The next instant the boat struck with a force
+which shattered her almost to pieces.  The seething, foaming waters
+rushed round her, and would have swept her off again, had not her crew,
+leaping out, seized her gunwale and dragged her up the beach, while the
+wounded men were carried to a spot where they were safe.
+
+Jack having placed little Harry, whom he carried in his arms, in a place
+of safety, looked anxiously round for Terence.  The boat of the latter
+had received even greater damage, but his people had escaped with their
+lives.  Some of the provisions had, however, been washed out of her.
+
+"I fear we are on a very _dissolute_ island," exclaimed Adair as he came
+up to Jack.  It was certainly a most unpromising spot.  There were a few
+palm-trees to be seen here and there at a distance, but of a stunted
+growth, as if there was but little soil to nourish their roots, while
+all around was sand and rock.  On hauling up the boats they were both
+discovered to be unseaworthy; their stock of provisions was much
+reduced; and what was worst, most of their powder was spoilt, and the
+boats' guns rendered useless, a very important loss in the neighbourhood
+of so numerous and vindictive an enemy.  The men had their muskets and
+cutlasses, however, and there was no doubt but that should the pirates
+attack them, they would fight to the last.  The great hope was that the
+tornado which had driven them on shore, might have treated their enemies
+in the same way.
+
+"We ought not to wish our enemies ill," observed Terence; "but I suppose
+that it would not be wrong to wish that they may be no better off than
+we are."
+
+Jack had nothing to say against this principle.  Another source of
+anxiety was for Mr Cherry.  They had left him attacking a very superior
+force; and even had he come off the victor, how would his boat have
+withstood the tornado?
+
+Still no one despaired or even lost their spirits, neither were they for
+a moment idle.  The men joked and laughed as much as ever, especially at
+Queerface, who, delighted to get on shore, leaped and frolicked about in
+the highest glee.  Jack and Terence, after a short consultation, agreed
+that as they could not get away, it would be safer to fortify
+themselves, in case the pirates should discover and attack them.
+
+They were not long in selecting a spot among some rocks, where, by
+throwing up banks of sand and digging holes in which to shelter
+themselves, they hoped that they might bid defiance to ten times their
+own number of enemies.  The tornado kept blowing very fiercely for most
+of the time; at length, when their work was far advanced, it subsided
+considerably.  Their labours were, however, not ended till nearly dark,
+by which time it was again calm.  They made an awning with the boats'
+sails, and were all glad to lie down and get some rest after the
+fatigues of the day, the necessary guards having been placed to give
+notice of the approach of an enemy.  They prudently would not light a
+fire lest the light should be seen by the pirates, who might be on the
+lookout for them.
+
+Jack's chief concern was for Harry Bevan.  The men bore their sufferings
+well, though they groaned in their sleep as wounded men generally do,
+even when not in much pain; but their pulses kept up, and their minds
+were collected.  Jack and Adair had gone to the highest point of rock in
+the neighbourhood, to ascertain, if they could, if any enemy was near;
+but far as their gaze could extend across the starlit ocean, no vessel
+of any sort floated on its surface.  Hoping that they might be left in
+peace till daylight, and thus give longer time for Mr Cherry to rejoin
+them, they returned to their encampment.  They found poor little Harry
+talking away vehemently about people and circumstances of which they
+knew nothing, relating undoubtedly to his far-distant home.  His mind
+was wandering.  He thought Jack was his mother, and blessed him for all
+the care and kindness he was showing him.  He fancied, however, that
+Adair was Queerface; and told him that he would rope's-end him if he
+came near him, a compliment Paddy did not altogether approve of.  The
+worst part of the business was, that they could do nothing for the poor
+boy.  They had no medicine, and had no notion of what to administer if
+they had had any.  Jack was afraid of giving more brandy, so he let him
+have as much water as he wanted to drink; and by soothing words tried to
+calm his mind, and lull him to sleep.  At length Dick Needham, who
+belonged to Jack's boat, woke up and entreated to be allowed to sit by
+the side of the poor little fellow.  Who could wish for a more tender,
+gentle nurse than a true-hearted British sailor can make when he is
+aware that grog, however good in its way, is not, under all
+circumstances, the very best of medicines that can be administered?
+Leaving Harry therefore to Needham's care, Jack and Terence sat up
+talking for some time longer, making arrangements, like wise commanders,
+what, under the various circumstances which might occur, they would do.
+At length they threw themselves on the ground, and endeavoured to obtain
+a little rest in preparation for the work before them.
+
+Jack thought that he had been only a few minutes asleep, when he started
+to his feet on hearing Needham's voice.  "What is it?" he exclaimed,
+looking around.  It was daylight, but a thick white mist hung over the
+sea.
+
+"The enemy are not far off, I suspect, sir," answered Needham, who at
+that instant was entering the encampment.  "My mind misgave me somehow,
+and I went to the top of the rock."  Before he could finish the sentence
+Jack sprang on towards the place mentioned, followed by Terence, who
+roused up the moment he heard Jack's voice.  On reaching the top of the
+rock, they cast their eyes eagerly seaward.  At first nothing but a mass
+of white mist could be seen.  Jack thought that Needham had been
+mistaken.  While, however, they were still in doubt, a current of air it
+seemed blew off the top of the mist just as froth is blown from a mug of
+ale, and the upper sails of a fleet of prahus appeared not a quarter of
+a mile from the shore.
+
+"The pirates must be looking for us," exclaimed Terence; "it will be
+fortunate if the mist continues, and they slip by without pitching on
+us."
+
+"Pitching into us, you mean," said Jack, with a laugh.  "Well, if they
+find us out, we must drive them off, and hold our own till the frigate
+sends to look for us.  Still as they are ugly customers, we'll do our
+best to keep out of their sight."  In this strain the two midshipmen
+talked on for some time, watching the movements of the prahus.  Now the
+fog closed round them--now it lifted and exposed their sails to view.
+They seemed to be gliding by the island.  Yet they were unpleasantly
+near.
+
+"If the fog lifts, they can scarcely fail to see us," remarked Terence.
+
+"Then, Paddy, we must fight it out to the last, and I am sure that you
+are of my opinion too," said Jack.
+
+"That I am, Jack," cried Adair, wringing his hand.  "But I say, what is
+that?  I heard the splash of oars."  They listened.  There could be no
+doubt of it, and their practised ears told them that it was not the
+stroke of British seamen.  The pirates, it was too probable, had sent on
+shore, and would land close to the very spot where the wreck of the
+boats lay.  They would in all probability betray them.  It could not be
+helped, so they hurried back to the camp to prepare for whatever might
+happen.  As they passed along the beach, they could still hear the sound
+of oars, which was borne for a considerable distance over the calm
+water.  The men stood with their muskets in their hands ready for the
+attack.  Even the wounded men begged to be propped up against the bank
+that they might get a shot at the enemy.
+
+Poor little Harry had dropped off into a deep slumber, and knew nothing
+of the preparations taking place.  Needham volunteered to go down and
+watch behind a rock close down to the water, so as to give the earliest
+notice of the approach of the pirate-boats, should they come on shore at
+that point.
+
+They had not long to wait.  Louder and more distinct grew the splash of
+the oars.
+
+Presently Needham came running up to the fort.  "There are pretty nearly
+a dozen boats in," he exclaimed; "you'll see them in a moment coming out
+of the fog.  They can't very well miss finding us."
+
+"Very well," said Jack, coolly.  "They'll be sorry that they did find
+us, that's all."
+
+As Needham had said, in another minute the long black hulls of the
+pirate's boats appeared through the fog, and being run up on the beach,
+the crew leaped out of them.  The swarthy savages, with sharp creeses by
+their sides and long jingalls in their hands, looked about on every
+side, and seemed surprised at not finding an enemy.  They examined the
+boats, and then looked about again.  So well was the fort constructed
+among the rocks, that in the fog they did not discover it.  They began
+to scatter about; they were evidently persuaded that the English had
+made their escape across the island.  At length three or four Malays
+wandered close up to the fort.  They stood for a moment as if
+transfixed, and then, as it beamed on their comprehension what it really
+was, they beat a retreat, shouting to their companions.
+
+The seamen were for firing at the intruders, but Jack ordered them not
+to throw a shot away, or to fire till they were attacked.  They had not
+long to wait.  The whole band of Malays quickly collected, and, with
+glittering creeses in their hands, rushed on to the attack.
+
+"Now, boys, give it them," cried Jack, and Terence repeated the order
+almost in the same breath, for he knew that it was coming.  Half the
+seamen only fired, and then began again to load.  The other half waited
+till the first were ready, and the Malays had got close up to the bank.
+The latter, fancying probably that only a few had firearms, came on
+courageously.
+
+"Fire, boys," cried Jack, quietly.  The seamen jumped up, and the
+pirates, not expecting so warm a reception, wavered and fell back,
+leaving several dead and wounded close to the fort.
+
+Jack and Terence began to hope that they would retreat altogether, but,
+encouraged by their chiefs, once more they were seen to come on.  At the
+same time several more boats reached the shore.  Jack and Terence could
+not conceal from themselves that they were in a dangerous position.
+
+With loud, horrible shrieks, the Malays rushed up to the fort.  The
+noise of the firing woke up little Harry, and, just as the pirates had a
+second time reached the embankment, Jack found him standing close to
+him, his clothes bespattered with blood, and his face looking pale as a
+sheet of paper.  For a moment Jack thought it was the ghost of his young
+charge; but he had no time to think about it, for the next instant the
+enemy were close to them.  Again and again the English sailors fired and
+kept the enemy back, but the pirates so far outnumbered them that there
+seemed but little hope of their ultimate success.  Again, by their
+unflinching bravery, they drove the enemy back.  The Malays, however,
+kept up a hot fire at them when they got to a distance, and several of
+the English were hit and unable longer to fight.  Two poor fellows were
+killed outright.  The fog now cleared, and Jack saw that the prahus
+themselves were drawing in with the land.  With their own scanty numbers
+diminishing, and those of the enemy increasing, Jack and Terence could
+not help acknowledging that their case was desperate.  Still, when the
+enemy once more came on, they received them with as firm hearts and as
+hearty a cheer as before.  For a short time there was a cessation of
+firing.  Queerface, who had wisely got into a hole, looked out to see
+what had happened.  At that moment a bird was seen flying towards the
+fort.  To the surprise of all, it pitched close to Queerface, who seemed
+delighted to see it.  Adair turned round.  "Why," he exclaimed, "there
+is Polly.  Where can she have come from?"  It was a question no one
+could answer.  The boats had gone off to the prahus, and now returned
+with more men.  With terrific shrieks and cries of vengeance, the Malays
+rushed towards the gallant little band of Englishmen, resolved to
+destroy them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+IN DESPERATE CONDITION.
+
+The Malay pirates surrounded the fort, uttering the loudest shrieks and
+cries, in the hope of terrifying the defenders, but they did not know
+what British seamen were made of; and in spite of the fierce and
+terrific looks of the enemy, Jack and his little band stood fast,
+prepared to receive the onslaught.  Poor Harry Bevan had sunk to the
+ground, not through fear, but weakness; and Jack had placed himself over
+his body, determined to defend him as long as he himself had life or
+strength.  He felt and looked not a little like a lion prepared to do
+battle for her young.  Jack had now grown into a very strong fine young
+man.  He was not very tall, but he had broad shoulders and an expansive
+chest; and now, as he stood cutlass in hand, with a profusion of light
+hair streaming back from his honest sunburnt countenance, he was the
+picture of a true British sailor, and might well have been likened to
+the noblest type of the king of beasts.  Adair was not a whit behind him
+in courage, though his physical powers were not so great.  What hope was
+there though for them and their gallant men?  At that moment there
+appeared but very little.  Both of them knew that braver savages than
+the Malays were not to be found.  Jack, as he stood there, with his
+muscular arm bared and his sharp weapon in his hand, did not put his
+trust in either.  He knew and felt that the arm of One alone who is
+mighty to save could preserve him and his companions; and with deep
+earnestness and perfect faith he lifted up his heart to heaven, and
+prayed that assistance might be sent them.  The British seamen returned
+the shrieks of the Malays with shouts of defiance, and kept up a rapid
+fire as they came on.  Now their weapons cross.  There is the loud
+sounding clash of steel, the sharp crack of muskets and pistols, the
+shouts and shrieks of the combatants.  There is the thick smoke from the
+firearms mixed with the mist, rapid flashes of flame, and all the other
+sounds and appearances of a desperate struggle.  Still, though the
+pirates hemmed them closely round, the seamen stood as before, boldly at
+bay, and no impression was made on their front.
+
+"Jack," cried Adair, in the middle of the fight, "I don't think Polly
+came here for nothing.  Hold on for a short time, and we shall be
+relieved, depend on it.  She and the monkey have been talking away
+together, and Master Queerface looks as if he knew all was right."
+
+I rather suspect that Adair was allowing his imagination to run away
+with him, or that he spoke thus to keep up the spirits of his men.
+Still the appearance of Polly was very extraordinary, and could only be
+accounted for by supposing that the frigate was not far off; or that she
+had accompanied Mr Cherry, and that his boat was in the neighbourhood.
+The idea might have encouraged the seamen to still further resistance,
+but the Malays pressed them hard; and, overwhelmed with numbers, it
+appeared as if their fate was sealed.  Even Jack began to fear that this
+was the case.  He saw that the fire of his men began to slacken, and the
+dreadful report ran round among them that their ammunition was almost
+expended.
+
+"What is to be done, Rogers?" said Adair in Jack's ear.
+
+"Trust to Heaven, Terence," answered Jack, warding off a blow which a
+Malay who had leaped forward made at his head.  The next moment the
+savage rolled over, a lifeless corpse, down the embankment.  For another
+minute the desperate struggle continued with unabated fury.  Then a
+sound was heard which made the hearts of the British seamen leap within
+their bosoms--it was the loud report of a heavy gun which echoed among
+the rocks.  The seamen answered it with a hearty cheer, for no guns but
+those of their own ship could give forth that sound.  Another and
+another followed.  At the same time the breeze which the frigate had
+brought up blew away the mist; and just above the rocks her topsails
+could be seen as she stood after the Malay prahus.  The pirates saw her
+too.  If they would save their vessels and their lives, they knew that
+there was not a moment to be lost.  At a sign from their chiefs, as if a
+blast of wind had suddenly struck them, before the English knew what
+they were about, they rushed away like a heap of chaff before the gale.
+Jack and Terence, knowing their cunning nature, and fancying that they
+might rally again, hesitated to follow, and kept back their men.
+
+"They are off," at length cried Terence.  "Hurrah, my lads.  Let's after
+them!"
+
+Jack did not spring forward at once.  He had not forgotten for a moment
+his young charge.  He knew that, driven to desperation, the Malays were
+very likely to run amuck, and, if they found him, to kill him.  He felt
+sure that he would only be safe if he had him with him.  Stooping down,
+therefore, he seized the little fellow in his arms, and, holding him as
+much as possible behind his back, he sprang on, and overtaking his
+companions, made chase after the retreating Malays.  The other wounded
+men, in the excitement of the fight, had forgotten their hurts, and were
+pursuing with the rest.  Queerface and Polly had, therefore, no fancy to
+be left behind, so off they set also, though they took care to keep in
+the rear of their friends.
+
+The Malays had reached the beach, and some were swimming and others
+wading off to their boats, when the two midshipmen and their followers
+got up with them.  All were too eager to escape to attempt to offer any
+resistance.  Jack had to recollect that they really were most atrocious
+robbers, or he could scarcely have brought himself to allow his men to
+fire on them.  Not many shots, however, were fired, for the last
+cartridge in their pouches was expended.  Happily, the Malays were in
+too great a hurry to be off, to turn and let fly at them.  The frigate,
+under all sail, was coming round the point on the left hand, while the
+prahus were endeavouring to get away out of the range of her shot to the
+right or south side of the island.  They were catching it, however,
+pretty severely, and more than one appeared to be in a sinking
+condition.  The midshipmen were now eager to try and get their own boats
+afloat, but they were in an utterly unfit state for launching, so all
+they could do was to make signals to the frigate that she might return
+and take them off, after she had destroyed the pirates.  This there was
+very little doubt she would do.  In the eagerness of the chase, however,
+Jack bethought him that those on board would very likely not observe
+their signals.
+
+"Never mind," cried Adair, as a bright thought struck him; "we'll send
+Polly off; she'll carry our message."  A note was accordingly written on
+the leaf of a pocket-book, and being secured under Polly's wing, Adair
+lifted her up, and showing her the frigate, gave her a shove off towards
+it.  She seemed to know exactly what was expected of her, for, giving
+one glance only round at her friends, away she darted towards the ship.
+They watched her anxiously till she was lost to sight.  Still, they had
+little doubt about her reaching her destination, and in the course of a
+very few minutes their anxiety was relieved by their seeing a flag run
+up to the mast-head of the frigate, while a gun was fired to leeward.
+She, however, passed before them, and soon disappeared again on the
+other side of the island.  A rapid and continuous fire told them what
+she was about.  Jack and Adair would gladly have gone round to see what
+was occurring, but the distance was considerable, over hot burning sand
+and rocks, and they would not leave their wounded and tired men to
+gratify their curiosity.  They very soon remembered, after the
+excitement of the work in which they had been engaged was over, that
+they had not breakfasted; so all hands who could move about set to work
+to collect sticks to light a fire.  It soon blazed up, and speedily
+coffee and cocoa were boiling, and bits of meat were roasting away at
+the ends of ramrods and sticks.  The poor wounded men, when the
+excitement was over, began to feel not hunger, but the pain of their
+hurts, and several sank to the ground unable to move.  Their shipmates
+did their best for them, and rigged an awning with the boats' sails,
+under which they were placed.  Some of the men wandered away, and
+brought back a supply of cocoa-nuts, the milk of which afforded a
+deliciously cooling beverage to the poor fellows.  Jack, meantime, was
+tending his young charge with as much care and tenderness as a mother
+would a child.  At length he was rewarded by seeing Harry come to
+himself.  The boy looked up in his face, and the first words he uttered
+were--
+
+"We've beat them, Rogers, have we?  Hurrah! hurrah!"
+
+"Yes, Harry," answered Jack, "it is all right.  The enemy have taken to
+flight, and we shall soon, I hope, be on board the frigate.  But here,
+you will be the better for some cocoa.  Take this."
+
+Jack sat down under the shade of the sail, and Needham having brought
+him a mug of cocoa, he broke some biscuit into it, and stirring it up
+while the boy's head rested on his knee, he fed him as he would have
+done a baby.  Harry, who had soon again relapsed into apparent
+unconsciousness, opened his lips and ate a little with a dreamy
+expression of countenance, as if he himself fancied that he was still a
+baby being fed by his nurse.  The food, however, Jack saw was doing him
+good, for the colour slowly returned to his cheeks, and his pulse began
+to beat more regularly.
+
+"He will be all right soon," exclaimed Jack to Adair.  "It is wonderful
+what Nature will do if we don't play tricks, and take liberties with
+her."
+
+Harry Bevan, though delicately nurtured, was of a sound constitution,
+which he had not injured by either drinking or smoking, or by any other
+means, as many poor silly lads do, thinking they are behaving in a manly
+way by so doing.  Had he been inclined to do so, Jack Rogers would have
+taken very good care to prevent him.  Thus it was, however, that he did
+not succumb to the fearful injury he had received.  Still Jack was very
+anxious to get him safe on board, and under the doctor's care.  Time
+went on, and still the frigate did not appear.  Adair proposed starting
+off to the other side of the island to ascertain what had become of her,
+when a boat was seen rounding the point.  "She is Mr Cherry's boat,"
+was the cry.  "Hurrah! hurrah!"  With hearty cheers, Mr Cherry was
+welcomed on shore.  He had had a severe struggle, and had lost two of
+his men killed, and three wounded, but had succeeded in putting the
+pirates to flight.  His boat was not large enough to carry all the
+party, but he had one of the carpenter's crew with him, and some tools;
+and, after a little examination, Tom Gimlett declared that he could
+patch up one of the boats so as to make her in a fit condition to
+launch.  All hands helping, and with the aid of some planks from the
+other boat, this was done, and at length the two boats were on the
+water, on their way to look for the frigate.  When Mr Cherry heard how
+long it was since she had passed the island, he began to be somewhat
+anxious about her.  The boats, however, were so heavily laden, that they
+could not make much speed to satisfy themselves as to what had happened.
+The men did their best, and it was wonderful how they kept up their
+spirits under the hot broiling sun, which, as Paddy observed, "was
+roaring away like a furnace, right over their heads."  No sooner had
+they rounded the island than the sound of a gun, booming over the smooth
+waters, reached their ears.  At slow intervals another and another
+followed.  "The ship is in distress," observed Adair to Jack.  "What can
+have happened?"
+
+"Give way, lads," cried Jack, seizing the stroke oar, and bending his
+back to it with a will.  It was the only answer he made to Adair's
+remark.  Little Harry looked up at him with admiration and affection,
+and the men exerted themselves more than ever.  On they pulled, hour
+after hour.  No one proposed resting, even to take any refreshment,
+except a piece of biscuit, which the men chewed during the intervals
+that they were relieved at the oars.
+
+"There she is at last," cried Jack, standing up on the stern-sheets.  He
+took a steady look at her through his glass.  So did Mr Cherry through
+his.  Her sails were set, but with heavy hearts, they both agreed that,
+from her appearance, she must be hard and fast on shore, and if on a
+coral reef there was too great a probability that she might not be got
+off again.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+ANOTHER FIERCE CONFLICT.
+
+A ship on shore is, at all times, a melancholy spectacle; but very sad
+it makes the hearts of those feel who see their own vessel lying among
+rocks in strange seas, far away from any friendly ports, and surrounded
+by enemies.  Mr Cherry and his companions pulled away with all their
+might to ascertain the worst.  The frigate, during this time,
+occasionally fired one of her bow guns.  As they drew nearer, they
+perceived that she was doing so at a fleet of war-junks clustering in
+the distance, but who prudently were keeping out of range of her shot.
+Still, from their remaining where they were, it was evident that they
+were meditating an attack on her should another gale spring up, or any
+other occurrence give them a chance of success.  The boats could not be
+of any great assistance, but still they would be of some use in the
+exertions to be made in getting her off.  The brig would be of far more
+service; but where she was, it was difficult to say.  When last seen,
+she was in a chase of another fleet of pirates to the northward.  When
+they got alongside, every man of the frigate's crew was busily engaged
+in efforts to get the ship off.  Mr Cherry and his party were warmly
+welcomed, however, and in spite of the fatigue they had gone through,
+they all at once lent a hand to effect the desired object.  Anchors were
+got out astern, the anchors and some of the heavy guns were lowered into
+the boats, and the capstan was manned.  Round went the men with the
+capstan bars, but the cables were soon stretched to their utmost, and
+there they stood pressing with might and main, but not an inch did the
+frigate move.
+
+"We shall have to start the water and heave some of the stores and guns
+overboard, I fear," observed the first lieutenant to the captain.
+
+"We will do anything rather than lose our guns," said Captain Grant.  "I
+have no fancy to have our teeth drawn.  The crew may rest for a spell.
+See, there is a breeze coming ahead," observed the captain, after some
+time.  "Man the capstan again.  Set the mainsail, mizen-topsail, and
+topgallant-sail.  Let the people run from side to side as the capstan
+goes round."
+
+The orders were put into execution.  The men strained every nerve as
+before.  Suddenly the capstan went round an inch; then another and
+another.  Was it the anchors coming home?  No: the ship herself was
+moving.  Everybody on board felt her move.  "Hurrah! hurrah!"  There was
+a general shout.  Again the men sprang round with the capstan bars; the
+frigate was afloat.  She was soon hauled off into deep water.  The well
+was sounded, but she did not appear to have received any damage.  Night
+was now coming on, and the master was unwilling to take the ship through
+the intricate channels, among which she was entangled, without daylight
+to guide him.  She was therefore brought up with a spring on her cables,
+ready to make sail, should any emergency arise to make this necessary.
+
+The three old messmates were now together again, for the first time
+since they left England.  Jack and Adair had all their adventures to
+tell to Murray, who was keeping the first watch, and so, though tired as
+they were, they preferred walking the deck with him to turning in and
+going to sleep.  The night was very dark, but the wind fell, and it
+became almost calm, so that the only sound was the splash of the water
+as the swell broke over the reef ahead.  All on board had reason to be
+thankful that they were not on it.  The young men had a good deal to
+talk about; but it did not prevent them keeping their eyes about them,
+or their ears open.  Jack, also, did not forget his young charge, little
+Harry Bevan.
+
+"It is high time we should be thinking of turning in," he observed.
+"But I must see first how Harry gets on."
+
+He went below to the berth where the young midshipman had been placed,
+and found one of the assistant-surgeons with him.  The poor boy was very
+feverish, and was continually crying out for lemonade, and other cooling
+beverages.  Jack sat with him for some time till he became calmer and
+better, and then went on deck to have another look out before he turned
+in for the night, as, not belonging to the ship, he had no watch to
+keep.  He found the officer of the watch, Murray, and others peering
+through the darkness, over the frigate's quarter.
+
+"Some suspicious sounds were heard coming from that direction," remarked
+Murray.  "There were voices, and creaking of blocks, and the splash of
+oars.  It is just to windward, and sounds travel a long distance in a
+dark night.  Our friends, the pirates, are about some mischief.  Perhaps
+they expect to find us napping, and purpose paying a visit."
+
+Everybody on deck was on the alert, and there was not much chance of the
+crew of the frigate being taken by surprise at all events.  Captain
+Grant was told of what had occurred; they waited and waited, but still
+nothing more was seen, or rather heard, of the pirate junks.  Yet Murray
+and Mr Cherry, and all the officers who had been on deck, were so
+certain that they had not been deceived, that it was concluded that the
+pirates had been really close to them, but finding the frigate afloat,
+had thought better of the matter and hauled off.
+
+Jack and Adair at last went below.  Jack did not turn in, but lay down
+on one of the lockers in the midshipmen's berth, with a writing-desk for
+a pillow, and a boat-cloak for a mattress.  The instant he put his head
+on the desk he was fast asleep.  It appeared to him but a moment
+afterwards that he heard the cry, "All hands on deck."  Immediately
+afterwards several shots were fired from the frigate.  He was up in a
+moment.  On looking out he saw the dark shadowy forms of numerous large
+war-junks gliding round the ship, and the next instant a shower of
+jingall balls and round shot came rattling on deck.  The salute was
+returned by a broadside from the frigate, which, if it did not send
+several of the pirate's junks to the bottom, must have severely crippled
+a number of them.  They must have thought that the frigate was still
+ashore, or that she had hove her guns overboard to get off, or they
+would not have ventured so near.
+
+Still the unseen enemy showed more courage than might have been
+expected, and from every direction, on each beam and ahead, and astern,
+a shower of missiles came crashing in which could not fail to do a
+considerable amount of damage.  The cries of several poor fellows showed
+that they were badly wounded, while one seaman, standing close to Jack
+Rogers, fell heavily to the deck.  Jack stooped to raise him, but the
+man did not speak, and from the inert weight of the body, he feared too
+truly that he was killed.  The worst part of the business was that, from
+the excessive darkness of the night and the thick mist which hung over
+the water, it was only from the flashes of the enemy's guns that the
+frigate's crew were able to see how to point theirs.  By the cries and
+shrieks which arose every now and then in the distance they had reason
+to believe that their shot had told with dire effect.  Still the
+pirate's shot was doing them a great deal of mischief, and,
+notwithstanding all their courage and power, all they could do in return
+was blindly to blaze away.  Still there could be no doubt that the
+pirates would ultimately get the worst of it, and haul off long before
+morning.  Of course, in daylight they would not venture to remain near
+her.  After the frigate had fired several broadsides, it was discovered
+that the enemy on each side did not reply, but that all the shot came
+from ahead or astern.  Again, the guns being loaded, Captain Grant
+hauled in on the spring so as to bring the broadsides in the direction
+the head and stern had before been.  The word "fire!" was given.
+Instantly the terrific shrieks which rent the air showed that the enemy
+had there most thickly assembled.  Some random shots were fire in
+return, and then all was silent.
+
+"Really it is difficult to believe that so short a time ago the ship was
+surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies," observed Murray to Jack, as they
+stood together looking out into the darkness.  "Besides the poor fellows
+who have been hit, I dare say that our running rigging and sails will
+show that we have been engaged; yet now how calm and quiet everything
+is."
+
+"I, for one, would not trust them, though," said Jack; "if they can play
+us a trick they will."
+
+The night, however, wore on.  The pirates had evidently a sufficient
+taste of the frigate's quality, and had no wish to try it further.
+
+Once more Jack was going below to finish his nap on the locker, when he
+heard Adair sing out, "There are two big junks close aboard us."
+
+Captain Grant was on deck in an instant, and ordered the capstan to be
+manned to work the ship round as might be required.
+
+"They are desperate fellows on board those crafts, or they would not
+attempt to get so near us," observed Adair.
+
+"They are indeed," said Jack.  "See, there's another of them.  I don't
+like their looks.  I wonder the captain has not ordered us to fire at
+them."
+
+Just then Captain Grant's voice was heard ordering the boats to be
+lowered.  Scarcely were the words out of his mouth than a bright light
+burst out of one of the junks, and instantly she was in flames, casting
+forth rockets and missiles of every description.
+
+"They are fire-ships," cried numerous voices--a very evident fact.
+Without a moment's delay, Jack and Murray and Adair, with two of the
+lieutenants of the frigate, and the men nearest at hand, jumped into the
+boats, and, being lowered, pulled off to tow the fire-ships away from
+her; as, in consequence of the darkness, they had been brought thus
+close up before they were discovered, there was little time to spare.
+One in another minute would be alongside.  Jack boldly sprang up her
+high bow, and making fast a tow-rope, ordered the men to give way.  The
+spring on the frigate's cable was manned, and her broadside was turned
+away from the approaching fire-ships.  Scarcely had Jack got hold of his
+prize than the flames burst forth from her, and he and the crew were
+covered with sparks and burning fragments of wood, which several times
+nearly set their clothes on fire and singed them not a little.
+Fortunately the rockets and other fireworks on board took an upward
+flight, but they soon found themselves pulling under a complete cascade
+of fire.  Jack cheered them on: "Never mind, my lads," he shouted; "it's
+better than having the old frigate burnt, at all events."
+
+He could scarcely bear the heat of the fire; still he persevered.  At
+last he got his unpleasant captive just clear astern of the frigate, and
+a little way to leeward.  Still a shift of wind might send her back, so
+he was towing her a little farther, when, with a loud roar, some
+magazine, which had been hitherto preserved at the bottom of the ship,
+exploded, sending every particle of her which remained high into the
+air, and as the wreck came down, the fragments very nearly swamped the
+boat and killed all in her.  No one was hurt, however, and he and his
+brave crew instantly pulled back to grapple with another foe.  All the
+other fire-ships had been seized hold of and were very nearly towed
+clear of the frigate.
+
+Jack heard Murray's voice calling to him.  Alick was fast to one which
+seemed heavier than the rest, and he had great difficulty, apparently,
+in moving her.  Had not Jack gone to his assistance, in a few seconds
+she would have been alongside the frigate.  When just under her stern,
+she broke out into the fiercest flames, and Jack, whose clothes were by
+this time very nearly done brown, was glad enough to cast loose from
+her.  In another moment she blew up with a violent explosion, and as
+before, fragments of the burning wreck came flaming down into and around
+the boats, while the other fire-ships were still burning away brightly
+to leeward.  Once more the boats were hoisted up, and the frigate was
+made ready to get under weigh the instant daylight would allow her to be
+carried free of the reefs.  Just as one of the quarter boats was being
+secured, a splash was heard, and instantly the cry was raised of "A man
+overboard!"
+
+Jack Rogers, who was on the quarter-deck, without stopping to ask who it
+was, kicked off his shoes, and threw off his jacket, and gliding down a
+rope, struck out astern.  There was a strong current running, he had
+before discovered, and he knew that the man who had fallen overboard
+would be carried rapidly away from the ship.
+
+"Who are you?" he sang out in a loud voice.  "Tell me, that I may know
+where to swim to you."
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"It was Mr Murray, sir," cried some one from the ship.  "We are afraid
+that he must have hurt himself as he fell."
+
+This was sad news to Jack.  Still he determined to persevere.  The only
+light he had to guide him was from the burning fire-ships now drifting
+away.  Should Murray come to the surface, he hoped he might see him and
+be near enough to support him, till a boat could arrive and pick them
+up.  He heard the sounds of a boat being lowered from the frigate.  He
+raised himself out of the water for an instant to look around, and he
+felt sure that he perceived a person's head not far off.  He made
+strenuous efforts to reach it.  Just then also he saw, the glare of the
+burning vessel being cast on it, what he would rather not have seen--a
+large Chinese boat.  He was certain that the head was Murray's.  His old
+friend was drifting rapidly down towards the pirates.  He had every
+reason to fear that they would strike at Alick the moment he got near.
+He knew also that they would equally strike at him, but this did not
+make him hesitate a moment.  He clove the water with all his might,
+dashing on till he was close up to the drowning man.  He hoped that the
+pirates might not have seen him.
+
+"A few more strokes, and I shall have him," he exclaimed to himself.
+Just then he saw some of the savage-looking pirates standing up in the
+boat peering towards him.  A gleam of light fell on the head of the
+person in the water.  It was Murray.  He seized his friend by the collar
+and turned him on his back, then struck out once more towards the
+frigate.  Of course he had but one hand at liberty, and in spite of all
+his efforts he could not stem the current, but found himself and Murray
+still drifting down towards their relentless foes.  Some accident had,
+apparently, happened to the boat, and he could not tell whether or not
+she was even yet in the water.  He could do nothing but keep himself and
+his companion afloat.  He dared not shout, as his so doing would draw
+the attention of the pirates towards them, and he felt sure that, at all
+events, a boat would be sent to look for him.  Jack and Alick had now
+another danger to encounter.  They were drifting down on one of the
+fire-ships, and ran a great chance of being burnt.  To avoid the
+fire-ship, Jack was obliged to approach nearer the pirate-boat, which
+had been keeping so as to leave the burning vessel between her and the
+frigate.  The miscreants now saw him, and dashing their paddles in the
+water, were rapidly up to him.  He fully expected that the next moment
+would be his last; but he still held fast the senseless form of his
+friend.  He looked up for an instant, and saw the hideous countenances
+of the Chinamen glaring down on him over the side of their boat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+CHASING THE PIRATE FLEET.
+
+Adair had just come on deck when Jack jumped overboard to save Murray,
+and he was on the point of jumping in after him, when his arm was
+seized, and he found himself held back by Captain Grant.
+
+"You would uselessly risk your life, Adair!" exclaimed the captain.
+"Lower that gig; be sharp about it: you may go in her."
+
+Several men with Adair had instantly flown to the boat nearest them,
+and, under the direction of the captain, were lowering her, when the
+after-fall gave way, and up she hung by the bows, most of her gear
+falling into the water, as did one of the two men in her.  He was a good
+swimmer, and struck out boldly to keep up alongside the ship, but the
+current was too strong for him, and before a rope could be heaved to
+him, he gradually dropped astern.  The fall had been injured by one of
+the enemy's shot.  Another boat was now lowered, but in consequence of
+the darkness, and the disarrangement incidental to the work in which the
+men had been engaged, more delay than usual occurred.  At last the boat
+was lowered and manned, and Adair and Mr Cherry jumping into her, away
+they pulled to pick up, in the first place, the poor fellow who had just
+fallen into the water.  They shouted out his name: a faint cry reached
+their ears.  He had already got a long way from the ship; it took some
+time before they could find him.  He must have sunk once, and they
+caught him just as he came up again; he was insensible when they hauled
+him into the boat.  Adair wanted to go on, but Mr Cherry said that he
+feared the man would die if they did, and that it was his duty to carry
+him on board.
+
+"I fear, too, that there is but little chance of our picking up the
+other two poor fellows," he observed.  "They must have drifted a long
+way by this time, and can scarcely have kept afloat."
+
+"You don't know, sir, what a superb swimmer Jack Rogers is," exclaimed
+Adair: "he will keep up for an hour or more; I have no fear on that
+score.  Let us get this man on board, and we will soon find him."
+
+Terence had never in his life felt so deeply anxious as he now did.  The
+boat rapidly returned to the ship, the nearly drowned man was hoisted on
+deck, and then once more they shoved off, and fast as the men could bend
+to their oars, they pulled in the direction it was supposed Murray and
+Jack must have drifted.
+
+The fire-ships were still blazing away as the boat approached them.  "I
+think that they cannot be far from here," said Mr Cherry.  "Steady now,
+lads; paddle gently; keep a look out on either side, all of you."
+
+Terence however thought that they might have drifted farther on.
+
+"Rogers, ahoy!" he stood up and shouted; "Jack Rogers, where are you?"
+
+Just then, one of the fire-ships which had been burning most furiously,
+and concealed everything on the other side of her, blew up with a loud
+explosion, scattering her burning fragments far and wide around her.
+Several pieces of blazing timber fell into the boat among the men.  One
+or two were much hurt, and they had enough to do to heave the bits
+overboard to prevent the boat herself catching fire.
+
+Terence was in an agony of fear for the sake of his friends.  A single
+fragment of the burning ship falling on them would have sent them to the
+bottom.  Still he would not give up all hope, but continued searching.
+Mr Cherry now agreed that, if they still were on the surface, they must
+have drifted farther on; so on they pulled slowly, looking out as
+before.  They had gone a little way, when the man in the bows said he
+saw a boat in the distance.
+
+Mr Cherry made her out also: "Perhaps they may have reached her," he
+observed.  This was very little consolation to Terence, because he did
+not think it probable, if, as there was little doubt, she was a pirate's
+boat, her crew would let them live.  Still he was eager to go in chase.
+
+Mr Cherry, who was more calm, thought that it would be wiser to look
+about on every side, to ascertain if Jack was still floating near.
+Again and again they called to him, but there was no answer.
+
+"Either they have been picked up or are drowned," said the lieutenant.
+
+Terence's heart sank within him.  Mr Cherry now agreed to go in chase
+of the Chinamen's boat.  Away they dashed; their shouts of course had
+given notice of their approach, and the boat was evidently pulling on
+rapidly before them.  Bright sparkles of light fell from the blades of
+their oars, and in their wake appeared a long fiery line, as the boat
+glided over the dark smooth water.
+
+Two of the fire-ships were still burning, and their position, with the
+distant signal-lights of the frigate, enabled them to keep in the
+direction they believed the two midshipmen had drifted.  The Chinamen's
+boat pulled fast, and they appeared to be very slightly gaining on her.
+Adair believed that the only chance of saving his old companions' lives
+was to overtake her.  Mr Cherry already gave them up as lost, still he
+was determined, if possible, to overhaul the boat.  The crew bent
+manfully to their oars.
+
+It did not occur to any one for some time that they had left the ship
+unarmed; except that two of the men had pistols in their belts, and one
+had still his cutlass, while Mr Cherry had jumped into the boat without
+unbuckling his sword.
+
+"Never mind; the boat's stretchers must serve those who haven't better
+weapons.  Very likely the Chinamen in the boats are no better off,"
+exclaimed Terence, in his eagerness.  The lieutenant agreeing with him,
+on they went.
+
+"We shall have her at last," cried Adair; "we are gaining on her, I am
+certain of it.  But hillo! what are those lights there, ahead of us?" he
+added after some time.  The question was soon answered, for looming
+through the darkness appeared a long line of large war-junks, behind
+which the boat of which they were in pursuit rapidly glided.  They must
+have been seen from the junks, for directly afterwards they were saluted
+by a thick shower of jingall bullets, while several round shot came
+whizzing past them.  Terence, in the impulse of the moment, was for
+dashing on and attacking the nearest junks, but, as Mr Cherry had
+discretion as well as valour, he ordered the men to pull round their
+starboard oars, and to get out of the range of the shot as fast as they
+could.  It was rather too much for even six British seamen and two
+officers to do, to attack a whole fleet of war-junks.  Terence was of
+the same opinion.  With heavy hearts they pulled back against the
+current to the frigate, fully believing that Rogers and Murray were lost
+to them for ever.  As soon as they made their report, Captain Grant
+expressed his wish to make an attempt, at all events, to ascertain the
+fate of the two midshipmen.  If the frigate was got under weigh with the
+strong current which was then making, she would most certainly be
+drifted on to the reefs.  A boat expedition was the only means left for
+doing anything.  Immediately all the boats of the ship were manned, with
+guns in their bows, and this time the crews went well-armed.  Away they
+pulled, resolving, if they did not find the two young officers, to make
+the pirates pay dearly for their loss.  The rest of the fire-ships had
+burnt out, so it was now quite dark.  The men were in their usual
+spirits when fighting was to be done, and were highly pleased at the
+thoughts of getting alongside the villains with whom they had hitherto
+been playing at long bowls--a game to which Jack had a great dislike.
+Terence had Needham in his boat.  They had pulled for a considerable
+distance, and Adair thought that they ought to be up with the enemy.
+
+"Can you manage to make out the junks, Dick?" he sang out.
+
+"No, sir, I can see nothing ahead whatever," was the unsatisfactory
+answer.
+
+So they pulled on yet farther.  Still no junks were to be seen.  On
+proceeded the flotilla, till they had considerably passed the spot where
+Mr Cherry and Adair had fallen in with the enemy.  Mr Cherry
+considered that it was not prudent to separate, so kept the boats
+together.  After again pulling some way to the east, they first took a
+northerly course, and then swept round again towards the south, but not
+a trace of a boat or vessel of any sort could they discover.  Just
+before dawn, very considerably disappointed, the expedition returned to
+the frigate.  As the sun rose, a breeze sprang up, and once more the
+anchor was weighed, the sails were let fall, and the frigate stood out
+of her perilous position.  A steady hand in each of the main chains kept
+the lead going, while the master, with anxious countenance, stood on the
+bowsprit issuing his orders as to how the ship was to be steered.
+
+"Starboard!" he cried.
+
+"Starboard!" was the answer, with a long cadence.
+
+"Port!"
+
+"Port it is!" sounded from aft.
+
+"Steady!"
+
+"Steady!" the seeming echo answered.
+
+Now the ship was tacked; now she cut into the wind's eye; now she was
+kept away; now coral rocks rose up close to her; now the channel was so
+narrow that it seemed as if there was not room for her to pass through
+it.  Everybody breathed more freely when she was at last in clear water
+again.  What had become of the junks it was impossible to say.  Not a
+sail was to be seen from the mast-head.  Altogether the affair in which
+they had been engaged had been disastrous, and an unusual gloom was cast
+over the ship's company.  The frigate stood round the group of islands;
+a complete archipelago, with numerous intricate passages between them.
+Sometimes she brought up, and the boats were sent away, and strict
+search was made for the piratical fleet; indeed no trouble or exertion
+was spared, but all was without result.  No tidings could be gained
+either of the brig or the fleet of piratical junks.  At length the
+frigate entered the Chinese waters, and anchored off Canton.
+
+One Chinese city is very much like another.  They are surrounded by
+castellated walls, some thirty feet in height, and coated with blue
+brick, which gives them a very toyshop appearance.  The wall is about
+twenty feet at the base, diminishing by the inclination of the inner
+surface to about twelve feet.  The thin parapet is deeply embattled with
+intermediate loopholes, but there are no regular embrasures for
+artillery.  The Chinese till lately have seldom used cannon, but have
+usually stuck to the bow and arrow.  At each gate there is a
+semicircular enclosure, forming a double wall.  Over the two gateways
+are towers of several stories, in which the soldiers who guard them are
+lodged.  Also, at about sixty yards apart along the whole length of the
+wall, are flanking towers projecting about thirty feet from the curtain.
+Some of the cities have ditches before the walls.  The interiors of
+most Chinese cities are also very similar.  The houses are very low, and
+the streets, which are narrow, are paved with flag-stones, suited
+however only for the passage of people on foot, or for sedan-chairs.
+The road is often crossed by ornamental gateways, with square openings
+in the centre, one on each side, not an arch.  These have been erected
+to the memory of distinguished individuals.  Another feature in the
+streets are the slabs of stone covered with inscriptions, about eight
+feet high, and placed on the back of a tortoise carved out of the same
+slab.  The plan of the houses is very similar in all respects to that of
+those discovered in Pompeii, with open courts and rooms opening out of
+them.  They have more lattice-work and paint, and the ornaments and
+designs are of course very different.  The shops are generally open to
+the street, those of one description being placed together, as is very
+much the custom in Russia, Portugal, and other European countries.
+Suspended high above, like a banner over each shop, is a huge varnished
+and gilded signboard, with a description of the style of merchandise to
+be sold within.  As these boards hang at right angles from the walls,
+they contribute much to the gay appearance of the street.
+
+The Chinese delight in placing quaint inscriptions over their shops.
+Many of the streets are dirty in the extreme, while the shops are dark
+and dismal, and the shopkeepers far from urbane and accommodating:
+people these narrow streets, with their signboards and gateways, with an
+ever-moving crowd of yellow-faced, turn-up nosed, pig-eyed beings in
+blue and brown and yellow cotton dresses, wide trousers, loose jackets,
+and thatch-shaped hats, carrying long bamboos with boxes or baskets
+hanging at each end, or hung over with paper lanterns or birdcages, and
+all sorts of other articles, and here and there a sedan-chair with some
+mandarin or lady of rank inside, borne by two stout porters; and we have
+a fair idea of a Chinese city.  Then, of course, there are public
+buildings of larger dimensions, and temples and towers of porcelain,
+pictures of which everybody has seen; and then outside the walls are
+canals and lakes, and curious high-arched bridges, and summer-houses and
+pagodas.
+
+In the suburbs of Canton, where the foreign factories are situated, the
+shops are open, and the streets are not so much ornamented as in the
+city itself, but the plan of the houses and the general arrangements are
+similar.
+
+No other ship of war was at Canton when the _Dugong_ arrived.  Captain
+Grant had fully expected to find the _Blenny_ there, and was much
+disappointed at her non-appearance.  He waited anxiously for several
+days, but she did not appear.  At length he determined to sail in search
+of her.
+
+"To lose our consort, and those two fine young fellows, Rogers and
+Murray, is very trying," he observed to Lieutenant Cherry, as they
+walked the deck together, while the ship was standing away from Canton.
+
+"As to the _Blenny_, sir, she'll turn up before long, depend upon it,
+unless she is hard and fast somewhere on a rock," answered the
+lieutenant.  "Hemming has been routing out some of those piratical
+scoundrels, and they probably have given him a longer chase than he
+expected."
+
+Still Captain Grant was not satisfied.  As the frigate cruised along she
+brought to all the vessels of every sort she fell in with, and made
+inquiries at every island and place where anything like a truthful
+answer could possibly be procured.  They had an interpreter, a Chinese,
+who spoke English, though rather of a funny sort, and as it required a
+good deal of cleverness to comprehend it, it may be supposed what he
+professed to wish to communicate was not always very clear.  The man who
+might most have assisted them, Hoddidoddi, had been missing ever since
+Rogers' and Adair's battle on the island, and it was supposed that he
+must have concealed himself for the purpose of returning home.  The
+_Dugong_ had been three days at sea, when a clipper schooner, with dark
+hull, square yards, and a most rakish look, hove in sight early in the
+morning, and approached the frigate.
+
+"On the coast of Africa, I should say that the fellow was not honest,"
+observed Mr Cherry, who had the morning watch, to Adair; "I wonder what
+he wants."
+
+"A very pirate or slaver," replied Adair, "but she is only, I suspect,
+an honest opium-smuggler."
+
+"Honest, do you call her?" exclaimed the lieutenant.  "If because a vile
+system is carried on openly it is to be considered honest, then slaving
+is honest, and piracy, and highway robbery, for that matter.  See,
+however, her gallant skipper is not afraid of us.  Look, with what a
+self-satisfied air he walks the deck with his gold-lace cap, and glass
+under his arm.  They are preparing to lower a boat, and he'll come to
+pay his respects as one captain does to another."
+
+In a short time the master of the schooner made his appearance on the
+deck of the frigate.  Captain Grant got up to receive him.  He was an
+intelligent, dashing-looking young man.
+
+"I am glad that I have fallen in with you, sir," he began.  "Last night,
+just before sunset, I heard some firing, and standing in the direction
+from which the sound came, I observed a brig-of-war apparently almost
+surrounded by junks not far from the land, to the southward of this--out
+there.  I made sail, hoping to render her assistance; but so large a
+force of sailing and row junks sallied out from behind a point of land
+and made towards me, that, as I have lost half my crew with sickness and
+a former battle with a squadron of the villains, I was compelled to up
+stick and run for it.  I shall be glad, however, to return with you, and
+assist in piloting you to the spot."
+
+"Thank you, captain--thank you," answered Captain Grant, extending his
+hand.  He wisely never denied nominal rank to masters of vessels,
+however employed.  "I most gladly accept your offer."
+
+"Hudson is my name--my craft is the _Flying Fish_; and when you see her
+in a good breeze, you'll acknowledge that she does fly along," answered
+the master, looking with pride at his trim and beautiful craft.
+
+She and the frigate instantly made sail to the southward.  In a few
+hours the sound of an occasional shot saluted their ears and gave them
+hopes that the _Blenny_ was still afloat and able to defend herself.  As
+they got nearer, they could make her out from the mast-head, amid a wide
+circle of junks which were keeping up a distant fire at her.  It at this
+critical juncture fell perfectly calm.  Captain Hudson, who had come on
+board the frigate and gone aloft, now returned on deck.
+
+"I know the trick of those fellows, sir.  They hope to make her exhaust
+her ammunition and then to board her.  They seem pretty well to have
+done that already.  You must go to her relief in the boats, or the
+villains may have cut the throats of all on board before you can get up
+to them."
+
+This seemed too probable.  All the frigate's boats were now lowered,
+armed with guns in the bows, manned, and sent away under the command of
+Mr Cherry, without a moment's delay.
+
+"Poor Jack!" exclaimed Adair to young Harry Bevan.  "It was only the
+other day that he and I were pulling along just as we are now doing.
+And now--who can say where he is?  Still, do you know, Harry, I have an
+idea that he'll turn up somehow or other.  He always has done so, and I
+can't help hoping that he and Murray may yet be found."
+
+"I hope and pray so, I'm sure I do," said Harry, almost crying, "but I'm
+afraid there's very little chance of it.  Even if the Chinese picked
+them up, they would be sure to murder them."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+THE MIDSHIPMEN IN PRISON.
+
+Who would have ventured to believe that the fate of the brave,
+true-hearted Jack Rogers, and the gallant, high-minded Alick Murray, was
+to be cruelly murdered by a set of ill-conditioned, barbarous Chinese
+pirates?  Yet such has been unhappily the lot of many of the finest
+fellows in the British navy and army.  When Jack, supporting Murray with
+one arm, looked up and saw half a dozen hideous Chinese faces, with flat
+noses, grinning mouths, and queer twisted eyes lighted up by the flames
+of the burning fire-ships, gazing maliciously down on him, he gave up
+all for lost.  Had Murray not been still insensible, he would have swum
+away, defying the sharks till he could have got hold of something to
+support him, or he would have attempted to climb into the boat and had a
+desperate battle for his life.  As it was, without sacrificing Murray,
+he could do neither.  A savage was standing up, lifting a large
+battle-axe, the bright steel of which glittered in the glare of the
+burning ships, and was on the point of letting it fall with a crushing
+blow on his head, and already Jack felt the horrible sensation of having
+his skull crushed in and cleft asunder, when another man sprang forward
+and seized the wretch's uplifted arm.  He could only turn the blow
+aside, for the axe came down, and the blade dug deeply into the side of
+the boat.  Jack seized it, for it formed a convenient handle on which to
+rest, and afforded him a support he much required.  He fully expected to
+have another hack made at him, and was considering how best he might
+avoid it, when the pirates seized him and Murray, and dragged them into
+the boat.  Still he did not feel much more secure than he had been in
+the water, as he expected that, as they might treat a useless fish, they
+would throw him overboard again when they had glutted their revenge by
+knocking the life out of him.
+
+"If poor Murray does not revive, he will be spared much of the
+unpleasantness," he thought to himself.  It is extraordinary how coolly
+he took matters.  He was rather surprised himself at his own
+indifference to his approaching fate.  The Chinese were all chattering
+and vociferating together over him and Murray, as their bodies lay along
+the thwarts, for he was so exhausted that he could scarcely move, when
+he heard a voice say, "Don't fear, English officer.  I take care you no
+hurt."
+
+"Very much obliged to you, whoever you are," answered Jack.  "But I say,
+friend, I wish that you could get me put into a more comfortable
+position, and lend a helping hand to my poor companion here, who will be
+suffocated, I fear, if something is not done to him."
+
+"All right, by and by," answered the voice.  "Let dese men hab dere
+palaver out; dey no talk of kill 'ou now."
+
+"That information is satisfactory, at all events," thought Jack.  "Well,
+I must have patience; that never hurt any one, and has saved many a
+life.  Only I do wish these fellows would bring their palaver to an end,
+and let me find out who my friend is."
+
+The pirates at last brought their conference to an end.  They probably
+came to the conclusion that, as a live donkey is of more value than a
+dead one, and as profit more than revenge was their object, it would
+probably better answer their purpose to keep the young officer? alive,
+and endeavour to obtain a ransom for them, than to kill them, and in
+consequence be hunted down with even more pertinacity than before.  As
+to being influenced by any feelings of humanity, such an idea never for
+a moment crossed their brains.
+
+Jack and Murray were now carried to a platform in the afterpart of the
+boat, when the former was allowed to sit up with his friend's head in
+his lap, and to apply such means of restoring him to animation as he
+could devise.  He turned him round on one side, so that the water might
+run out of his mouth, and was rubbing away as briskly as he could, when
+he heard the same person who had before addressed him say, "All right, I
+told you; I come and help you now."  On looking up, who should he see,
+but one of the crew of the frigate, the Malay who spoke English, who
+went by the name of Jos Grummet, and his friend Hoddidoddi, who, it now
+appeared, had deserted with him on the island.  It was Jos who had saved
+his life from the man with the battle-axe, and Hoddidoddi who had
+advised the pirates not to kill them at all, but to keep them for the
+more satisfactory object of obtaining a ransom.
+
+After a little time, by their united exertions, Murray recovered, and
+was able to sit up and understand what had occurred.  Jack was now much
+happier as to the future.  "Well, thank you heartily, Jos, for what you
+have done for us," said he.  "And I can assure you, that if you go back
+to the frigate, you will not be flogged, or even have your grog
+stopped."
+
+"Tankee, sare," answered Jos.  "But spose me no go back, no hab fear of
+floggie at all."
+
+"Please yourself," said Jack.  "Remain a wandering Malay, or become a
+civilised British seaman, with Greenwich in prospect.  However, you have
+done me a great service, and I wish to recompense you to the best of my
+power."
+
+"Really, Alick, I think that there ought to be a fund for pensioning
+those who assist in preserving midshipmen's lives; we do run so many
+risks of losing them," he observed to Murray, who fully agreed with him.
+
+"I say, Jos," he exclaimed, after a little silence, "do just hint to
+these polite gentlemen, that we shall make the amount of our ransom
+depend on the condition in which we are returned to our friends, and
+that if we are starved, they will not give much for us.  I am getting
+very peckish; are you, Alick?  I thought it was just as well to make
+those remarks in time; besides, it is always wise for people in our
+circumstances to put a good face on matters; it shows the villains that
+we are not cast down or afraid of them."
+
+Jos told Hoddidoddi, who interpreted their request in his own fashion,
+and the reply was, that they should have some food when they got on
+board the junk.  At that moment the sound of oars was heard, and an
+English boat hove in sight.  Some of the pirates were for fighting, but
+Jos represented that the British sailors were such desperate fellows,
+that they would not hesitate to attack a big junk, and would take her
+and make mincemeat of every one on board; and that such a boat as theirs
+would be treated with still more scant ceremony.  So, much to the
+midshipmen's disappointment, they wisely pulled away as hard as they
+could go, till they go under shelter of the fleet of junks.
+
+The boat belonged, it appeared, to one of the smaller junks, on board
+which Jack and Alick were at once carried.
+
+The piratical squadron now instantly made sail, and a favourable breeze
+having sprung up, they steered for the northward.  Their notable scheme
+for destroying the English frigate having failed, the fleet separated,
+some taking shelter among the neighbouring islands, others standing out
+to sea in quest of prey; but the greater number returning to their
+accustomed haunts in the neighbourhood of Canton, localities most
+frequented by traders in the China seas.
+
+The vessel on board which Jack and Alick found themselves formed one of
+the latter fleet.  Their captors were, Jos explained to them, great
+diplomatists.  They argued that if they gave them up at once, a small
+sum only would be offered for them; but if they kept them for some time,
+and made their friends suppose they were lost, they would be ready to
+pay any amount demanded for their ransom.  They were not treated with
+much ceremony or civility, but Jack's hint about their condition when
+reckoning for ransom had one good effect; and somewhat for a similar
+reason that an ogre or a slave-dealer would sufficiently feed his
+captives, they were amply supplied with rice and other provisions.
+Sometimes the dishes had a very suspicious look.
+
+"They don't eat babies, do they?" said Jack, dipping his chop-stick into
+the tureen placed before them, and producing a limb of some creature
+which certainly had a very odd appearance.
+
+"No, I fancy not," answered Murray, "but we had better not ask
+questions."
+
+They agreed that it was in all probability only a monkey which had been
+seen on board, but was no longer visible; and as the captain and his
+officers partook of the same dish, they had no cause to complain.  They
+soon learned to relish lizards and snakes well stewed with curry powder
+and rice; and they came to the conclusion that a dish of snails was not
+in any way to be despised.  As they could take no exercise except a walk
+up and down the curious little narrow cabin in which they were confined,
+they both declared they were growing so fat that perhaps the pirates
+would, after all, demand a higher ransom than Captain Grant would be
+able or willing to pay.
+
+"I am really afraid that we are caught in our own trap," said Jack.  "I
+thought that pig-tailed, pig-eyed skipper of ours, when he looked in on
+us just now, smiled very complacently at our sleek skins.  We must get
+Jos to tell him that if we grow too fat we shall be worth very little.
+There is nothing like moderation in all things."
+
+"There is nothing like honesty and telling the truth," said Murray.
+
+"We should have starved if we had strictly stuck to it in this case,"
+answered Jack.
+
+"No matter, we should probably have been much sooner liberated,"
+answered Alick.  "Depend on it, whenever a person tells an untruth he
+sets a trap to catch his own feet."
+
+"You are always right, Alick," said Jack, with honest warmth.  "And
+suppose all this time they have been giving us stewed babies and young
+alligators to eat, how doubly punished we should be."
+
+The junk on board which the midshipmen were prisoners was a curious
+piece of marine architecture.  She was flat-bottomed, flat-sided,
+flat-bowed, and flat-sterned.  She was of course narrower at the bow
+than at the stern, where indeed she was very broad.  The rudder was wide
+and fixed in a hollow in the stern, to which it was hung by ropes or
+hawsers, so that it could with perfect ease be lifted out of its place
+and slung alongside.  There was no stem, but a huge green griffin or
+dragon, or monster of some sort, projected over the bows, on each side
+of which were two large eyes--Chinaman's eyes in shape: and as Jos
+remarked about them, "Ship no eyes, how see way?"
+
+The sides, though flat, extended gradually outward as they rose, so that
+on deck there was considerable beam.  The deck was composed of loose
+planks easily removed.  At the poop and forecastle were a succession of
+little sloping decks, gradually narrowing as they rose in height, and
+enclosed to form cabins.  The bulwarks were high and surrounded with
+large round shields of wood, and leather, and brass knobs, and curious
+devices painted on them.  The anchors were curious contrivances, made of
+some hard wood, very large and cumbrous, the flukes only being tipped
+with iron.  Outside at the bows was a wonderfully awkward-looking winch
+for getting up the anchor; and as Jack observed, when he came to be made
+Lord High Admiral of the Chinese fleet, there were a good many things he
+saw that he should have to alter.  The sails were made of matting, with
+laths placed across them.  When it was necessary to reef or lower the
+sails the seamen climbed up these laths, and standing on the upper yards
+pressed them down, no down hauls being necessary.  Bowlines, however,
+were used to stretch them out.  Had Jack and Murray not been prisoners,
+with the possibility of the pirates changing their minds and cutting
+their throats, they would have been excessively amused at watching the
+proceedings of the crew, and rather enjoyed their cruise on board the
+pirate.  On deck there was an erection like a diminutive caboose, but
+which was a temple or joss-house.  The sailors were constantly making
+offerings before it, apparently as the caprice seized them, by burning
+gilt paper, or thin sticks, or incense.
+
+One day the junk was caught in a calm, and as a sail appeared in sight
+in the distance which the Chinamen thought might be an enemy, they were
+very anxious for a breeze to make their escape.  The midshipmen saw that
+they were very busy about something, and soon every man appeared with a
+model junk, which he had constructed of gilt paper.  A boat was lowered
+and these frail barques were carefully placed on the surface of the
+deep, the men endeavouring to blow them away, so that they might be
+clear of the ship.
+
+Jack was much amused, and asked Jos the meaning of the ceremony.  Jos
+answered--
+
+"For why you don't know?  Dere is one great lady, queen, they call her,
+lives up in de sky, and she like to see dese paper junks; and so when
+she see dem, den she send breeze to blow junk along."
+
+Jack was highly amused at this account.
+
+"Well, I never thought much of a Chinaman's wit," he observed; "but I
+did not think he was such a goose as to fancy that a breeze would be
+sent merely because he put some twisted-up bits of paper on the water."
+
+Jos, who understood some of these remarks, looked at him, and remarked--
+
+"When I 'board English ship I hear sailors whistle, whistle, whistle
+when dere is calm.  I ask why dey do dat?  Dey say, `Whistle for a
+wind.'  Now, I tink Chinaman just as wise as English sailor.  Anybody
+whistle, cost nothing.  Chinaman spend money, buy gold paper, make junk,
+much trouble.  Dat please Chinaman's lady-god more dan empty whistle can
+Englishman's fetish, or whatever he whistle to."
+
+"Excellent," exclaimed Murray.  "The Malay has hit us very hard.  That
+whistling for a breeze is, in most cases, merely a foolish trick, but it
+is too indicative of unsound principles to be witnessed without pain.
+If we really considered the matter rightly, we should feel that every
+time we whistle for a breeze, we are offering a senseless insult to the
+Great Ruler of the universe.  It is a remnant, I suppose, of some
+superstition of our Scandinavian ancestors, who thought by whistling
+they were addressing some demon or spirit of the elements."
+
+"That is taking the matter seriously, Alick; but I suppose you are
+right," said Jack.
+
+"Nothing that leads to error, or that encourages superstition, or that
+leads a person to rely on any other power or influence than that of
+God's merciful providence, can be treated too seriously, my dear Jack,"
+answered Murray.  "Here have we, worthless fellows, had our lives
+providentially preserved; and we ought to do our utmost in every way to
+employ them in His service, and to do His will and to make known His
+truth.  Depend on it that it is a very useless sort of religion, or
+seriousness, which a man adopts only when he is on the point of death or
+feels himself too ill to enjoy life."
+
+"Well, well, Alick, I will do my best to log that down in my memory and
+stick to it," answered Jack, who always felt the force of Murray's
+remarks, which had already had a very considerable influence on him for
+good; more, probably, than Murray himself was aware of.  However, he
+went on in faith, speaking faithfully to his friend, assured that he was
+doing his duty.
+
+Jack and Murray did their best to make out in what direction they were
+going, and from the very rough calculation they were able to form, they
+conjectured that they had arrived at a group of islands within some
+hundred and fifty miles of the latitude of Canton.  They were not
+allowed to go on shore, but were permitted occasionally to quit their
+little cabin in the stern and to walk about the deck; but the crew had
+communication with the land and brought off all sorts of provisions, by
+which they benefited.
+
+Once more the fleet, consisting of about a dozen junks, put to sea.  The
+next morning it was almost a calm; and as daylight came on a brig was
+seen, apparently a merchantman, with her foremast gone and otherwise
+much disabled.  There could be little doubt that she had got into her
+present condition from having encountered one of those partial squalls
+which occasionally occur in those seas.  A long consultation was held
+among the captains of the pirate fleet, in which the crews as well as
+the officers took considerable part.  There was an immense amount of
+talking and gesticulation, and flourishing of creeses, and daggers, and
+swords, and various other weapons; and at last the sweeps were got out,
+and the junks began to move in a body towards the devoted brig.  Jack
+asked Jos, the Malay, what the Chinamen were about to do.
+
+"Cut de troat of ebery moder's son of dem, take de cargo, and burn de
+brig, den no one get away to tell news," was the answer.
+
+"Kind and pleasant intentions, but what do they think we shall do?"
+observed Jack.  "I don't like the look of affairs.  They will be for
+cutting our throats, to prevent our giving an account of their doings."
+
+"Perhaps the Malay is mistaken," answered Murray.  "They may not intend
+to murder the people; or if they do, they will keep us shut up in the
+cabin while the operation is going forward, or they will make us swear
+before they set us at liberty not to give information.  I have no fears
+about our safety."
+
+"Nor have I in reality," said Jack; "but I wish that we could render
+some assistance to the poor people on board the brig.  We might warn
+them of the fate intended for them; but even if we got Jos and
+Hoddidoddi to stand by us, I am afraid we could not do much in the way
+of fighting."
+
+"I am afraid not, indeed," said Murray; "we must be prepared for any
+emergency.  It is impossible to say what will occur."
+
+"I like the feeling," said Jack.  "I wish that we were on board the brig
+though, we would have a fight for it.  But we are drawing near.  Had the
+pirates intended much mischief they would have sent us into our cabin, I
+suspect."
+
+The pirate junks had now completely hemmed in the helpless brig.  She
+was American, for just then the stars and stripes of the United States
+flew out from her peak.  Two men, apparently the captain and his mate,
+were seen to come on deck with revolvers in their hands.  They turned
+round, and shouted in English and Spanish, and Malay down the hatchway,
+to the crew to come up on deck, and defend themselves and the ship and
+passengers like men.  No one appeared.
+
+"Cowards, wretches, brutes, will you have your throats cut like sheep
+without an attempt to defend yourselves?  Take that, then!" cried the
+captain, and in his rage he hove his pistol at their heads and stood
+prepared for his fate.  The mate threw his overboard, which was a wiser
+proceeding, and then, folding his arms, stood ready to bear whatever
+might occur.
+
+"Those are brave fellows," cried Jack; "we must try and save their lives
+at all events."
+
+The pirate crews now burst forth into the most terrific and unearthly
+shouts, and, urging on their junks, dashed up to the brig, and
+simultaneously threw their grappling irons on board her.  At the same
+time those nearest to her hove fire-balls, and stink-pots, and stones,
+and bits of iron, and missiles of all sorts on board, and then
+reiterating their shrieks, sprang on to her deck.  The captain and his
+mate, who had hitherto undauntedly stood at their post, were borne down;
+and the pirates, throwing themselves on them, seized their arms and
+bound them to the mainmast.  There seemed to be a hundred or more
+pirates from the different junks: their persons garnished with pistols
+and daggers of all sorts stuck in leathern belts, and their heads
+surmounted with red turbans, which increased the natural hideousness of
+their countenances.  Some of the savage crew joined hands and leaped and
+danced round and round the deck, with the most violent contortions of
+the body, shrieking all the time at the top of their voices, while
+others, flourishing their daggers and shrieking louder than ever, rushed
+below.  At that instant a cry very different from that of the pirates
+ascended from the cabin.  Jack and Alick heard it.
+
+"It is the voice of a lady, or a female at all events," cried Jack.
+"Alick, we must go and assist her.  Jos, my boy, come along.  Tell
+Hoddidoddi he is wanted.  The Chinamen won't stop us, they are all too
+busy."
+
+"I am with you," answered Murray, as they picked up two Chinese swords,
+several of which lay about, and, followed by the Malay, leaped unopposed
+on the deck of the brig.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+THE NIGHT BATTLE.
+
+The Chinese pirates were so busily employed in the agreeable occupation
+of plundering the American brig, that they did not observe the two
+midshipmen leaping in among them.  Jack and Alick had on, it must be
+remembered, turbans and Chinese jackets and trousers like the rest, so
+in the confusion they easily passed unnoticed.
+
+"I really think that we might drive the scoundrels out of the brig and
+retake her," observed Jack as he sprang on.
+
+"No, no, sare, one ting at a time, if oo please," answered Jos the
+Malay, who heard his remark.
+
+Jos was right, as Jack afterwards confessed, for though they might have
+swept off the heads of a good many pirates engaged in collecting booty,
+the rest would soon have come to their senses and cut off theirs.
+
+Again the female cry was heard.  Jack and Murray sprang into the main
+cabin.  It was full of Chinese rifling the lockers and searching in
+bed-places or wherever anything could be stowed away.  No females were
+there, but there was a hatchway and a ladder leading to the deck below.
+The cries proceeded from thence, so they jumped down, leaving Jos and
+Hoddidoddi, who had joined them, to guard the entrance.  There, in dim
+uncertain light, they distinguished two ladies, apparently one old and
+stout, the other young, struggling in the hands of half a dozen or more
+pirates, who were endeavouring to draw the rings from their fingers, and
+their earrings from their ears.  One lady was somewhat stout and oldish,
+the other was young and slight, and Jack thought very pretty.  Whether
+ugly or pretty would not have mattered just then.  She and the old lady
+were in distress, and that was enough to make the midshipmen eager to
+fight for them, whoever they were.  They were very much terrified, but
+not so much so as to prevent them from endeavouring to repel the
+indignities offered them.
+
+Not a moment was to be lost.  There was no room to use their swords
+without running a great risk of wounding the ladies, so Jack knocked one
+fellow down with his fist, and another with the butt end of his pistol.
+Murray did the same.  They then both planted such thorough honest
+English blows under the ribs of the other two miscreants, that they sent
+them reeling backwards among the casks and packages which filled the
+after-hold, and there they lay sprawling, unable to get up again.
+
+"It won't do to stop here, Alick," cried Jack.  "Haul along the old
+lady, I'll carry the young one; and we'll stow them away in our berth
+till we see what's best to be done.  Come along, miss.  Beg pardon--
+hadn't time to ask your leave; it's all right, though."  Jack said this
+after he had lifted the young lady in his arms, and was carrying her up
+the ladder.  As he remarked, there was no time for ceremony.  Everything
+depended on the rapidity with which they could accomplish their
+enterprise.
+
+"Thank you, thank you, sir; I trust you," said the young lady in a
+foreign accent.
+
+Murray, who always admired Jack's plans when anything dashing was to be
+done, followed as fast as he could, helping the old lady along.  He
+would have had great difficulty in making progress, had not Jos the
+Malay comprehended what was required.  So he seized her under one arm,
+while Alick lifted her under the other, and thus, without molestation,
+they followed Jack on board the junk.
+
+Jack rushed into their cabin, and placed his fair burden on a chair,
+when Alick and Jos bundled the old lady in after her, with a very scant
+ceremony; indeed there was no time for any; and then they closed the
+door and walked a little way off, and tried to look as unconcerned as if
+they had done nothing to merit the anger of the pirates.
+
+"I begged the young lady not to be alarmed, and entreated her to try and
+keep the old one quiet, promising to defend them with our lives,"
+observed Jack.
+
+"Of course we will do so, and Jos will stick by us, won't you, Jos?"
+said Murray.
+
+"Yes, sare," answered the Malay; "but if Chinese come aboard, dey cut
+all our throats.  Stay do--Jos know what he do."
+
+There was a peculiar, fierce, vindictive look on the countenance of the
+Malay as he spoke, which boded mischief.  Without uttering another word
+he sprang on board the brig, and disappeared among the crowd who were
+hurrying to and fro below, removing the cargo.
+
+Just then Murray pointed out to Jack the brave captain and mate of the
+brig sitting on deck, lashed with their hands behind them to the
+mainmast.
+
+"When those wretches have glutted themselves with booty, they will
+indulge their evil tempers by tormenting those poor fellows.  Could we
+not manage to release them while no one is watching us, and let them
+hide themselves on board their junk?  We may, perhaps, by and by be able
+to form some plan to escape together."
+
+"With all my heart," answered Jack.  "No time like the present.  Here
+goes."
+
+Saying this, he and Murray seized their swords, which they had stuck
+into the bulwarks, and a few springs brought them up to where the
+captain and mate were sitting.  In an instant the knives were at work,
+and the ropes were cut.
+
+"Leap on board the junk, my men, we'll cover your retreat."
+
+The captain and mate did as they were directed, and had just reached the
+junk when several of the pirates saw what had happened and sprang after
+them.
+
+Had not the midshipmen undertaken to defend them, their heads would have
+been off that moment.  Jack and Alick had fortunately gained the side of
+the vessel, and there stood at bay.  They had cut down three of their
+assailants, but others were coming on, when the Malay rushed past them,
+crying out, "Leap, leap on board; cast off, or we shall all blow up."  A
+back-handed blow which he gave with his short sword cut down the nearest
+of their assailants, and enabled them to accomplish his advice.  He and
+they, without questions asked, instantly cast off the grapnels, and
+shoved the junk away from the brig before the Chinese saw what they were
+about.
+
+Scarcely were they free, when a rush of flame burst out of the hold of
+the merchantman, and up went her decks with a terrific explosion,
+carrying masts, and spars, and sails, and cargo, and the many hundred
+human beings, who, like ants in a granary, were swarming in every
+direction, rifling her of the treasures she contained.  The numerous
+junks surrounding her did not escape; some were blown up, others had
+their sides blown in, and several caught fire or were more or less
+injured.  For a moment there was perfect silence; every one stood
+aghast, and then down came clattering on their heads, limbs, and trunks,
+and heads of human beings, and fragments of spars, and burning bales,
+and canvas, and packages burst open like shells, scattering their
+contents on every side.  Next arose shrieks, and groans, and shouts, a
+hubbub most terrific, the cries of the wounded, and the imprecations of
+those who had escaped and been baulked of their prey.
+
+"Dat is just what I tort it would be," said Jos, quite coolly, watching
+the effects of the catastrophe, as he assisted to shove the junk out
+from among the crowd of burning vessels.  The pirate captain and crew,
+most of whom had got on board, thought that they were very much indebted
+to him and the white men for having been the means of saving their
+vessel.  As they also had been the most busily at work, and had
+collected a good deal of booty, they did not at all take to heart the
+accident which had happened to their pirate companions.  They shrugged
+their shoulders, and blinked their little pig-eyes, and seemed to think
+that it was just as well as it was, seeing that they themselves had come
+off better than anybody else.  A few more junks having blown up, and
+others burnt to the water's edge or sunk, those that had escaped sent
+their boats, not so much for the chance of saving any fellow-creatures
+who might be struggling for existence, as to pick up any articles of
+value which might be still floating.  The fleet then made sail away from
+the spot, lest the explosion might be the means of bringing down an
+enemy upon them to interfere with their proceedings.
+
+The midshipmen were now placed in a somewhat difficult position with
+regard to the ladies in their cabin.  How to account for their being
+there was one puzzle, and how to save them from annoyance or insult was
+another.  The pirates seemed inclined to treat the American captain and
+mate as well as they had done the midshipmen.  They had seen them very
+active in saving the junk, but it was probably not gratitude so much as
+the hope of obtaining a ransom which made them civil.  Jos having
+intimated that they were hungry, in a short time a mess of food was
+brought for the whole party to the upper raised deck in the afterpart of
+the vessel.  While discussing this meal, they also discussed the means
+likely to be most serviceable to the ladies.  The American captain told
+them that his brig was the _Wide Awake_, that his name was William
+Willock, that of his mate, Joe Hudson; that they were bound to Sydney in
+Australia, where the two ladies, who were French, and mother and
+daughter, were proceeding.
+
+"I know what!" cried Jack, as if a bright thought had struck him.  "The
+pirates seem to treat men civilly enough; could we not manage to rig up
+the ladies in men's clothes?  There is a chest of Chinamen's coats and
+trousers in our cabin, and the old lady would make a very tolerable
+mandarin."
+
+"I should think it would very speedily be discovered what they are,"
+answered Murray.  "It will be better if we get Jos to talk over the old
+pirate skipper, and having excited his cupidity in suggesting a good
+ransom, produce our captives, and charge him to treat them well.  What
+do you say.  Captain Willock?"
+
+"A very good plan, I guess," was the answer; "there is nothing like
+making it the interest of a man to do what you want him.  Just let the
+ladies show themselves.  I suppose Chinamen have hearts like other
+people, and will have some compassion on them, when they see their
+distress."
+
+"But how are we to account for their being on board, and in our cabin?"
+asked Jack.
+
+"Let your Malay friend, then, settle that; he'll know what will be most
+likely to go down with the Chinamen," answered Captain Willock.
+
+"I think, rather, that we should boldly say that we brought them, and
+claim them as our share of the loot as the Indians call it--the booty,"
+said Murray.  "Now all the miserable wretches from whom we rescued them
+have, in all probability, been destroyed, there will be no one, unless
+any of our own crew saw our proceedings, to witness against us.  When
+the pirates find that they are to get a ransom for the ladies, they will
+be very much obliged to us for having saved them, and, depend on it,
+will treat them properly."
+
+Murray's plan, which was certainly the wisest, as it was the most
+straightforward, was agreed to.  They, however, said nothing till late
+in the evening, when the fleet of junks dropped their ponderous wooden
+anchors close to the shore in a beautiful little bay, surrounded by
+green hills covered to the water's edge with trees.
+
+"The pirates are fellows of some taste to choose this beautiful spot for
+their harbour," observed Jack, looking round.
+
+"Not they," answered Captain Willock with a laugh.  "I guess now they
+choose it because it hides them pretty securely, and they can sweep out
+and pounce down on any unfortunate craft which they may catch unprepared
+for them in the neighbourhood.  But here's our skipper; Fi Tan you call
+him, don't you?  Well, he's a mild, decent, quiet old gentleman; don't
+look as if his trade was cutting throats.  You'd better tell him about
+the ladies, or he will be finding it out himself."
+
+Jack and Alick agreed to this, and calling Jos, begged him to open the
+subject to the pirate captain, which he did with no little
+circumlocution; and very considerable departure from the real facts of
+the case, notwithstanding Jack's charge to him to adhere to them.  The
+Malay had two reasons for this.  In the first place, he had got so
+completely into the way of telling falsehoods, that he could scarcely
+speak the truth had he tried; and in the second place, he knew that,
+speak the truth or not, he should not be believed.  Old Fi Tan having
+heard Jos to an end, and watched the dumb-show of the midshipmen and
+Americans, desired to have the cabin-door opened.  The old lady, who had
+thrown herself into a bed, started up, and was going to shriek out, when
+Captain Willock's voice reassured her.  Her daughter, who had been
+watching while she slept, stood trembling by her side, but tried to look
+as composed as she could.  Captain Willock and the midshipmen soon made
+them understand what had occurred, and begging them to be no longer
+alarmed, promised that they would do their best, either to effect their
+escape, or to obtain their ransom.
+
+"Oh! but our friends are all in Australia; we have no one at Canton to
+care for us," cried the young lady, wringing her hands.
+
+"Never fear, miss," said Jack.  "I beg your pardon, but I don't know
+your name; but I don't doubt the merchants there will come down with all
+that is required; and if not, the midshipmen on the station would be
+delighted to pay your ransom, and take it out of the pirates afterwards,
+when we catch them."
+
+The young lady, who did not exactly understand who midshipmen were, or
+what taking it out of the pirates meant, nevertheless thought Jack a
+very polite young gentleman, and thanking him warmly, told him that her
+name was Cecile Dubois, and that her mother was Madame Dubois, but that
+she only spoke French, and as she was now too old to learn English, she
+hoped he would learn French to talk to her.  Jack, with a flourish of
+his turban, which head-covering he and Murray wore instead of their
+caps, which they had lost, assured her that he should have unbounded
+pleasure in so doing, if she would undertake to teach him.  "But, Miss
+Cecile," added Jack, "now I know your name, it is pleasant to call you
+by it; before we begin, wouldn't you like a little food?  You and your
+mamma must be peckish, I suspect, and she doesn't look as if she was
+accustomed to starve."  This want being made known to Jos, he in a short
+time procured an inexplicable sort of mess not altogether unattractive,
+to which, at all events, the old lady seemed perfectly ready to do
+justice, though the younger one, with a taste which Jack admired, only
+ate some of the rice, and the less oleaginous morsels.
+
+Altogether the midshipmen were pretty well satisfied with the turn
+affairs had taken; but poor Captain Willock had to mourn over the loss
+of his ship and cargo, as also, probably, most of his crew.  Some he had
+seen taken prisoners, and dragged off on board the junks.  Whether their
+throats had been cut, or whether they were to be found among the pirate
+fleet, he could not tell; others he had too great reason to fear had
+been blown up.  "They were cowards some of them to be sure, or they
+would have stuck by us, and we should have beaten off the pirates; but
+still I cannot bear to think of them all being cruelly murdered,"
+observed the captain to his mate.
+
+"I guess you're not far wrong, captain," answered Joe Hudson.  "If it
+hadn't been for these British officers, we should have been where they
+are, pleasant or unpleasant."
+
+"We only did for you what I am sure you would have done for us,"
+answered Murray.  "We liked to see the brave way you met the pirates,
+and we are very glad to have assisted any Americans, whom we look upon
+as cousins, the next thing to our own countrymen."
+
+"Thank you, sir, thank you," said Captain Willock warmly, taking Alick's
+hand.  "If the Britishers and Yankees were always together, we might
+flog all the world, I guess, who might try to oppose us."  Thus harmony
+prevailed among the captives.
+
+For the next two days the fleet lay at anchor, those junks which had
+suffered by the explosion of the brig being engaged in repairing
+damages.
+
+Jack got on very rapidly with his French, for, having nothing else to
+do, he studied very hard, and Mademoiselle Cecile happened to have a
+copy of _Paul and Virginia_ in her pocket when the vessel was attacked.
+It served as a capital lesson-book.
+
+As Murray already knew French, he did not require Miss Cecile's lessons,
+and so he was able to look philosophically on, and, like a wise monitor,
+he told Jack to take care what he was about, neither to take possession
+of the young lady's heart nor to lose his own.  Whether he would have
+taken this advice, which was sage and sound, it is impossible to say;
+but other stirring events happened which put a stop to the French
+lessons.
+
+One evening the midshipmen observed the pirates in a great state of
+commotion.  Those who were on shore came off and armed themselves after
+their fashion, by sticking pistols and daggers in their belts, and
+hanging swords over their necks, and then all hands set busily to work
+to get their ships into fighting order.  Jos, who had been on shore,
+came off among the others, and informed them that another pirate fleet
+had hove in sight, and that it was expected that it would come into the
+bay to attack them for the sake of making them disgorge the booty they
+had collected.
+
+"Pretty scoundrels," said Jack; "there is not even honour among these
+thieves themselves."
+
+"No, sare," answered Jos quietly.  "Big man in dis country always cut
+little man's throat, if little man got any ting worth having."
+
+"Pleasant," remarked Jack; "I would rather be an English ploughman than
+a Chinese mandarin."
+
+While the midshipmen were talking to Jos, Captain Fi Tan came up, and
+intimated to the latter that he should expect his prisoners to take an
+active part in the battle, and to assist in defending the junk.
+
+"A cool request," remarked Jack; "however, as fight we must probably to
+defend our own lives and those of the two ladies, we may as well make a
+virtue of necessity.  You agree with me, Murray, and so do you.  Captain
+and Mr Hudson?  Well, then, Jos, tell Captain Fi Tan that we will fight
+for him, but that he must give us any recompense we may demand."
+
+Jos spoke to the pirate captain, and immediately said that he would
+agree to their terms.
+
+"That's to say, he'll take the fighting out of us first, and then, if he
+finds it convenient, change his mind," remarked Captain Willock.  "I
+know the way of the Chinese.  You cannot trust them."
+
+"Perhaps when we have taught them to trust us they may learn to be
+trustworthy themselves," observed Murray; "besides, these fellows are
+professed pirates.  What can you expect of them?"
+
+"They are all alike, all alike; all rogues and vagabonds together,"
+answered the skipper.
+
+After this somewhat sweeping condemnation of a whole people, their
+conversation was interrupted by the pirates bringing them a heap of
+pistols, daggers, knives, and swords, with which to cover their persons
+in Chinese fashion to be ready for battle.  Darkness now came on, and in
+a short time lights were seen in a pretty dense line, reaching across
+the entrance of the harbour.  The dark outlines of a fleet of junks soon
+after this appeared through the gloom, and forthwith gongs and cymbals
+began to clash, and shrieks and shouts ascended, and guns, and jingalls,
+and pistols went off, while fire-balls, and rockets, and stink-pots, and
+other Chinese devices for warfare, filled the air, and truly made "night
+hideous."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+AN ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE.
+
+Rogers and Murray, and their companions, watched with considerable
+anxiety the approach of the fresh horde of pirates.  From the number of
+lights they showed, and the noise they made, it was very evident that
+their fleet was much more powerful than the one which had captured the
+brig.
+
+"If we were on shore now, I should little care if the result of the
+fight was like that of the two Kilkenny cats Adair tells a story about,
+who fought so desperately that at the end of the battle only their tails
+were to be found," said Jack; "they having, in a way none but Irish cats
+could have succeeded in doing, eaten each other up.  Paddy sticks to his
+story, and declares it is a truth, but does not exactly explain how it
+happened."
+
+Rogers' remarks were cut short by one or two shots striking their junk,
+on which the crew set up the most terrific shouting, and began blazing
+away from all their guns, jingalls, and other firearms.  Jack and Alick,
+and Captain Willock and his mate, loaded their muskets and began to fire
+away, and to make as much noise as the Chinese, but they none of them at
+first took much pains to aim at the other pirates, their object being to
+make their companions suppose that they were fighting desperately.
+However, before long a jingall ball grazed Jack's shoulder, and that put
+up his blood.
+
+"I say, it won't do, we must drive these villains off," he exclaimed;
+"if we don't, we shall be getting the ladies' throats cut, and our own
+too."
+
+"I am afraid so," answered Alick; "it isn't pleasant fighting either
+way."  So they now loaded faster than ever, and took the best aim they
+could.  All the firing and shouting did not stop the advance of the
+enemy, and jingall balls and other missiles came flying thicker and
+thicker round their heads.
+
+"Those poor ladies!  What will become of them?  They must be very much
+frightened," cried Jack.  A considerable number of the crew were by this
+time hit; many were killed outright, and as far as the midshipmen could
+judge, their side was getting the worst of it.  Still the shrieks and
+cries in no way diminished, but rather grew louder and more unearthly.
+One large junk appeared to have singled them out, and was steadily
+approaching to board.  Their crew evidently did not like this state of
+things.  The old captain had just come up to them, with Jos the Malay as
+interpreter, to make some proposal or other to them, when, as the words
+were coming out of his mouth, a round shot took his head off, and his
+body was sent flying half across the deck.  What he was saying Jos could
+not tell, and gravely remarked that no one was now likely to discover.
+The crew, on discovering that their chief was killed, and that they had
+lost so many of their companions, showed signs of unwillingness to
+fight.  At last one ran to the side, and overboard he jumped, and began
+to swim towards the shore.  One after the other followed like a flock of
+sheep, all taking the water exactly in the same way, till not a pirate
+remained on board.  The midshipmen entreated Jos to remain, and
+Hoddidoddi engaged to stick by them.
+
+"The ladies, probably, can't swim," observed Jack; "but if we could
+manage to launch a boat, we might get away before the big junk can scull
+alongside."  There was a boat, but on examining her, they found that she
+had several holes in her side, which was the reason the pirates had not
+taken her.
+
+"That's pleasant," cried Jack.  "Now if those fellows board us in a
+hurry, before Jos has time to explain who we are, we shall get knocked
+on the head to a certainty."
+
+"We must stow ourselves away, I fear, till the first rush is over," said
+Alick.  "We must keep outside the ladies' cabin, so as to protect them."
+
+"I am afraid so," said Jack, and he ran and told Madame Dubois and her
+daughter what had occurred, and entreated them not to be alarmed--advice
+which was more easily given than taken.  Jack then ran back to Murray,
+who was trying to induce Jos and Hoddidoddi to remain with them, they
+very naturally wishing to swim on shore, under the belief that they
+should be knocked on the head if they remained.  On came the huge junk,
+and in another instant would have been alongside, when, as the
+midshipmen began to feel that too probably their last moments had
+arrived, a loud roar was heard, up went her decks and masts and sails,
+and fierce flames burst out from every part of her--the same event which
+had happened to the brig had occurred to her; she had blown up.  The
+bodies of the poor wretches belonging to her, and the burning fragments
+of the vessel, fell close alongside them, and nearly set their junk on
+fire.  Had they possessed a boat, they would have done their best to
+render assistance to the drowning wretches; as it was, they ran to the
+side of the vessel, and got such ropes as they could lay hands on to
+heave-to the people who were swimming about.  The pirates, however,
+believing that if they came near the vessel they were about to attack
+they would simply be thrust back again into the water, or be knocked on
+the head, or have their throats cut, or be disposed of in some similarly
+unpleasant way, kept at a distance, and the midshipmen saw them one by
+one disappear beneath the surface.  All this time the battle was raging
+on every side round them, and the attacking fleet drew closer and closer
+to the junks at anchor, and appeared to be gaining the victory.  As soon
+as they could, the midshipmen ran to the ladies' cabin to tell them what
+had occurred, and to give them such consolation as they had to offer.
+
+"But could not we manage to make the vessel sail and run away?"
+exclaimed Cecile, with considerable animation, as if a bright thought
+had struck her.
+
+"I wish we could, Miss Dubois," said Jack; "but there is no wind, and we
+have not strength to hoist these heavy mat sails of the junk."
+
+"Ah! but I will help you, and so will mamma, I am sure," answered the
+young lady.
+
+"Mamma would be of great assistance in hoisting, I doubt not," said
+Jack, looking with an expression of humour, which he could not repress,
+towards the weighty dame.  "We'll try what can be done."  They could not
+venture to remain long in the cabin, so they hurried back on deck.  They
+were as much puzzled as ever to know what next to do.  Their great fear
+was that the pirates would return from the shore and prevent any attempt
+they might make to escape.  When they told the American captain what
+Miss Cecile had proposed, he said that she was a brave young lady for
+thinking of such a thing; that perhaps a breeze might come off the land,
+and that if it did, they would try and sway up the foresail.  Scarcely
+had they come to this resolution, when, by the flashes of the guns, they
+saw a boat pulling a short distance ahead of them.  The American captain
+hailed.  A voice answered immediately in English.  "Why, that's one of
+my men, as I'm a freeborn American!" exclaimed the captain.  "Come here;
+be smart now."  In less than a minute one of the boats of the brig came
+alongside with three seamen in her.  They had been captured by a junk,
+and, finding the boat floating astern, they had taken the opportunity,
+during the confusion of the battle, of jumping into her and pulling off.
+The boat was too large for the three men to manage, and they would
+probably have been lost had they got outside.  Not a moment was wasted
+in bringing the two ladies from the cabin, and in lowering them into
+her.  Captain Willock and his mate, and Jos and Hoddidoddi followed, and
+they were hurriedly shoving off, eager to get away from the junk, when
+Murray asked the rest if they were going to live on air, and reminded
+them that they would all be starved if they had not a supply of
+provisions.
+
+"Very right, sare," observed Jos; "me go find food."
+
+Accordingly he and the two midshipmen and Mr Hudson jumped on board
+again and hunted about for food.  It was rather difficult to find in the
+dark, but they got some jars of water, and a bag of rice, and a
+collection of nameless things which they supposed were to be eaten.
+They got also a small stove, with fuel, and a saucepan.  Altogether,
+considering that they seized whatever they could lay hands on, they had
+reason to be satisfied with the result of their search.  Fortunately,
+just that particular spot was in comparative darkness, though on either
+side the pirates were firing away at each other as furiously as ever.
+
+Captain Willock took the helm, and the two midshipmen, with Joe Hudson
+and the Malay, each seizing an oar, away they pulled at a pretty good
+speed from the scene of action.  The shot, however, every now and then
+came whizzing over them, and made Madame Dubois shriek out rather too
+lustily.  Her daughter, on the contrary, kept perfectly silent, or if
+she spoke, it was to entreat the old lady not to be alarmed.
+
+"But, _ma chere fille_, if those horrid balls should hit us, how
+dreadful!" was the answer.
+
+"Yes, _ma mere_, but crying out will not stop them," remarked Miss
+Cecile; an observation which Jack highly admired.
+
+He and Alick and the rest pulled with all their might, as they had good
+reason for doing, with the prospect of liberty before them, and
+imprisonment or death if they were recaptured.  As they drew out from
+the light thrown on them by the flashes of the guns, and away from the
+shot, they all breathed more freely, and Madame Dubois began to leave
+off screaming, giving way only at intervals to a short hysterical cry as
+the sound of a more than usual crashing broadside reached her ears.  At
+last they were completely shrouded by the gloom of night, and they could
+only now and then hear a faint rattle in the distance.
+
+Captain Willock steered north-west, the direction in which he supposed
+Canton to lie.  On they pulled for several hours, till at last they grew
+very tired and hungry, so they stopped rowing and cried out for food.
+Joe Hudson had charge of the provisions.  From the first bag he opened
+he produced some tough, dry lumps, on the nature of which no one could
+pronounce till they had reached the Malay.  He bit away at one, and then
+remarked--
+
+"Want boiling; crawl, crawl; berry good do."
+
+"Slugs," cried Jack.  "Hand something else out."
+
+The next bag was full of some long, dried things, which might have been
+eels, but were very probably snakes.  Frogs and snails in a dried or
+pickled state were not more tempting; but at last they came on a basket
+of shell-fish, which, with some unboiled rice, stopped the gnawings of
+hunger, but did not make a very satisfying meal.  They were afraid then
+of lighting a fire, but they agreed that they would do so in the
+morning.
+
+Once more they took to their oars.  They now, however, could not make
+much progress, nor could they have done so had a breeze sprung up, as
+they possessed no sails.  They hoped, therefore, that it would continue
+calm.  In this, however, they were destined to be disappointed.  Not
+long past midnight a gentle zephyr began to play over the surface of the
+water, and soon it turned into a light breeze, and that increased into a
+stiff one, and by degrees it grew stronger and stronger, and the sea got
+up and tossed the boat about, and that made Madame Dubois scream as loud
+as before, and now and then the spray washed over them, and then she
+screamed louder still; and next it was discovered that the boat leaked,
+and it was necessary to employ two men constantly in baling to keep her
+afloat.  The more she tumbled about the more she leaked, and the louder
+poor Madame Dubois screamed.  Her daughter proved herself a regular
+heroine, and made no noise, and only grasped the side of the boat
+tighter as it rose and fell on the seas.  The morning approached, but
+matters did not improve; the wind blew stronger; the waves grew higher
+and seriously threatened to swamp the boat.
+
+"I say, Alick, this is no fun," observed Jack.  "What's to be done?"
+
+"We must get under the lee of the land till the gale moderates,"
+answered Murray.
+
+The wind, it must be observed, was favourable; but the sea had now got
+up so much, that it was dangerous to run before it.  Captain Willock
+agreed to Murray's proposal, and, watching their opportunity, they got
+the boat round head to the seas, and pulled in for the shore.  This was
+very trying after all their labours; but they were not the only people
+in the world who have to toil in vain, or have to undo all the work they
+have done and begin again.  They now shipped less water, but they made
+very little way in consequence of the heavy sea.  Daylight at last came,
+but did not exhibit a pleasant prospect.  The green seas tumbled and
+foamed about them; the dark clouds hurried along overhead, while about
+three miles off appeared the land with the harbour they had left a few
+miles along the shore on the port bow.  The idea that they might get
+into some bay or inlet, and remain, there till the weather moderated,
+was a considerable consolation.  Still, pull as hard as they could, they
+could not make their heavy boat go ahead, but rather found themselves
+drifting farther off the shore.  The great thing, however, was to keep
+the boat afloat.  Hour after hour thus passed away, till at last the
+wind began to fall and the sea quickly went down; and, instead of making
+for the shore, it was proposed putting the boat about and continuing
+their course.  The captain was looking out for a lull to do this, when
+an exclamation from his lips made everybody turn their eyes in the
+direction towards which he pointed, the port they had left, where
+several large junks were seen rounding the headland which formed its
+side on the west.  They all anxiously watched the junks; they were
+steering to the north-west.
+
+"They are in pursuit of us," observed Jack.
+
+"Little doubt about it, I guess," said Captain Willock.
+
+"Can we not escape them?" said Murray.
+
+"By lying quietly down at the bottom of the boat we might," said the
+captain.  "We'll wait, though, till they come near."
+
+The junks advanced, and from their appearance it seemed too probable
+that they were the very fleet of pirates which had entered the harbour
+the previous evening, and that, having been victorious, they were again
+sailing in search of fresh plunder.
+
+"We had a narrow escape, then," observed Jack.  "If we had remained, we
+should, long before this, have been food for the sharks in the bay."
+
+"I guess that we shall be lucky if we are not down the throats of some
+of them before night," pleasantly observed Captain Willock.
+
+Madame Dubois did not understand him, or it would have set her off
+screaming again.  She willingly enough lay down in the bottom of the
+boat, and Jack in his choicest French begged she would keep quiet; her
+daughter followed her example; and as the sea had gone down, the oars
+were laid in, and the rest of the party placed themselves under the
+thwarts out of sight.  As, however, the junks were steering almost
+directly for them, they had little expectation of escaping notice.  Jack
+had great difficulty, he confessed, in refraining from jumping up every
+instant to watch the progress of the junks.
+
+"What do you say, Alick?" he exclaimed, suddenly.  "Suppose we arm
+ourselves with the boat's stretchers, and the moment a junk runs up to
+us jump on board and capture her?  It's the best thing I can think of to
+do."
+
+"We should probably be knocked on the head, and be sent overboard
+again," answered Alick.  "We must stay quiet, and wait the course of
+events."
+
+"I suppose it is the wisest thing, but I should like to have a fight for
+life," said Jack, with a sigh.
+
+The boat kept slowly turning round and round, and just then, by lifting
+his head up a little, he saw the mast-heads and sails of two junks,
+which were bearing close down upon them.  There seemed now an
+impossibility of their escaping detection.
+
+"We are in for it," whispered Jack.  "Let's have a fight."
+
+"I guess it would be a short one," answered Captain Willock; "stay
+quiet, Mr Rogers, if you don't want all our throats cut."
+
+Two minutes more elapsed, and the high sides of two large junks, crowned
+by big round shields and numberless hideous grinning faces looking down
+on them, appeared, one on either hand.  A couple of grapnels were hove
+into the boat, which was nearly crushed between the two vessels, and a
+dozen or more pirates, armed to the teeth, looking more like demons than
+men, sprang into her.  Before Jack, or Murray, or Captain Willock, or
+indeed any of the party, could offer any resistance, they had passed
+running nooses over their shoulders, by which those on deck hauled them
+up without power of resistance.  Jack, Alick, the American skipper, and
+Jos were fished up on board one junk, and they saw, to their great
+regret, the Frenchwoman and her daughter hoisted up on the other, poor
+madame half dead with terror, shrieking out vain petitions to be set on
+her feet.
+
+"Jos, Jos," cried Jack, when he saw this, "tell the pirates they must
+let the poor ladies remain with us.  They will frighten them to death."
+
+Jos shook his head.  "No good, now," he answered, mournfully; "dey cut
+all our troats."
+
+Just then, the junk which had caught the midshipmen separated from the
+boat, and they, with the captain and Jos, being dragged by the pirates
+into a cabin, were unable to discover what became of the rest of the
+party.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+ON BOARD THE JUNK.
+
+While the French lady and her daughter, with Mr Hudson, the American
+mate, one seaman, and Hoddidoddi were carried off by one junk, the two
+midshipmen, Captain Willock, and Jos, with the remaining seamen, found
+themselves stowed away on board another.
+
+"I say, Alick, we must try and help those poor ladies somehow or other,"
+observed Jack; "I hope the pirates will not hurt them."
+
+"I hope not, though I am afraid they will frighten the poor mamma out of
+her wits," said Murray.  "But without being selfish, we must first
+consider how we are to get free ourselves."
+
+"Something may turn up in the wheel of Fortune," returned Jack.  "We
+very nearly effected our escape; perhaps the next time we shall be more
+fortunate; at present I cannot say that I see any opening by which we
+may bring about that desirable event."
+
+As he spoke he looked round the little cabin in which they were shut up
+with a disconsolate yet half-ludicrous air.  The prisoners were sitting
+with their backs to the bulkheads, and their feet towards the centre of
+the chamber.  The door was locked, and there was no lookout except
+through the chinks between the bamboos which formed the sides.  They
+discovered by the motion of the vessel, that there was a stiff breeze,
+and that they were sailing along very rapidly.  In vain they tried to
+ascertain in what direction they were sailing.  They looked through the
+chinks, but all they could see were the figures of the crew as they
+moved about the deck, and the inner part of the bulwarks and the back of
+the shields which hung up above them.  Hunger is a strong motive to
+exertion.  It had the effect, when after a time the party began to feel
+its pangs, of making them somewhat less quiet than at first.  Some of
+the men were for trying to break out of their prison, but Captain
+Willock assured them that the attempt would be useless, and suggested
+that Jos should try the power of his eloquence in softening the hearts
+of their captors.  Jos expressed his approval of the proposed plan, and
+forthwith began a loud chaunt, which he informed his fellow-prisoners
+was descriptive of their present forlorn and famished condition, of the
+prowess of the warriors of Queen Victoria, and of the certainty that
+they would revenge any injury inflicted on any of their fellow-subjects,
+as also of their custom of rewarding those who treated them well.
+
+"I say," observed Jos, "Queen Victoria knock on de head any one hurt
+us--give plenty money any one give us plenty food--make us fat."
+
+"That's it," cried Jack, "sing away in that strain; they understand that
+sort of reasoning better than any other argument."
+
+On went Jos again with his chaunt, the commencement of which sounded
+very like--
+
+  Hi fum diddle eye, ho fol lol,
+  Tittle-bats cats-call, tol de rol lol.
+
+It is not necessary to give the whole of the song.  Jos assured his
+companions that it was very pathetic, and that if it did not move the
+hearts of the pirates he would not believe that they had any hearts at
+all.  Whether the pathos, or the threats of vengeance, or the hopes of
+reward held out had most effect is uncertain, but in a short time the
+door of the cabin was opened, and a Chinamen appeared with a big copper
+bowl or pot in his hands, full of a hot savoury mess.  He looked at Jos
+and nodded, as much as to say, "We heard you," and then placed the bowl
+in the middle of the cabin.  There were some chop-sticks in the bowl,
+but no spoons, or knives, or forks.  Captain Willock looked at them with
+a puzzled air.
+
+"If those are toothpicks they are whoppers, and I must say I would
+rather they were not there," he observed, as he tucked back the cuff of
+his coat.  "However, I suppose we mustn't be particular, and as I guess
+we're all equal just now, here goes."
+
+Saying this he plunged his fingers into the bowl, and drew forth a
+suspicious-looking mass.  He gazed at it for a time, then shut his eyes,
+and plunged it into his mouth.
+
+"A wise proceeding," observed Jack, as he and Alick, following his
+example, did the same.
+
+The rest of the party were not so particular, and only opened their eyes
+rather wider than usual as odd-looking particles of food were fished out
+of the bowl.  It was very soon emptied, for as everybody was hungry,
+they were all eager to get their due portions.  Most of them at first
+fancied that they could have eaten twice as much; however, when Jack and
+Alick leaned back again against the bulkheads, they were soon convinced
+that they had had enough.  In a little time, the door again opened, and
+another man, who looked from his richer clothes and manner like an
+officer, popped in his head and beckoned to Captain Willock and the two
+midshipmen to come out of the cabin.  They, happy to have the
+opportunity of stretching their legs, jumped up with alacrity, and
+followed him on deck.
+
+Jack's first impulse was to look out for the junk which had Miss Cecile
+and her mother on board, but she was nowhere to be seen.  Their junk
+was, however, standing down towards a fleet of considerable size.  As
+there was a stiffish breeze, they were soon among them, and from the
+hailing, and talking, and chattering, and the way in which they
+themselves were pointed at, the junks had pretty evidently not met for
+some time.  Jos, who was shortly after this allowed to come out of the
+cabin, told them that they were right in their conclusions.  The whole
+fleet now made sail together, and stood to the eastward.  The night,
+when they were all shut up again in the same cabin, was not over
+pleasant.  When daylight broke, the door was opened, and they were
+allowed to go out.  It was a perfect calm, and the pirates were
+propelling their huge junks, so unwieldy in appearance, with long oars,
+or rather sculls, through the water at no inconsiderable rate.  There
+was evidently an object in this speed, for the Chinamen are not given to
+exert themselves without a cause.
+
+"Perhaps they are pursued by an enemy, and if so, we have a a chance of
+being rescued," observed Jack, as he first went on deck.
+
+"No, I think not.  See, the whole fleet are steering for the same
+point," answered Murray.  "Ah! look ahead; what do you see there?"
+
+"A brig, and I do believe a brig-of-war," exclaimed Rogers.  "I
+shouldn't be surprised if she proves to be the _Blenny_.  If she is, the
+pirates will find that they have caught a Tartar."
+
+"She is not unlike your little brig, certainly, but at this distance it
+is impossible to say," remarked Murray.  "But even a brig-of-war in a
+calm, surrounded by this host of junks, will have great odds against
+her; still, our fellows will do their best--of that I am very certain."
+
+"That they will, there's no doubt about it," observed Captain Willock.
+"You Britishers fight well, I guess, and no wonder, when you've had us
+to practise with."
+
+"I wonder, captain, that you do not declare that the Yankees taught us
+to fight," said Jack, laughing.
+
+"And so we did, I guess," quickly answered the skipper.  "We taught you
+a trick or two, at all events."
+
+"What was that?" asked Jack.
+
+"To keep awake," answered Captain Willock.  "It is the first thing for a
+soldier or a sailor to do, you'll allow, and before that time you were
+apt to go to sleep now and then I calculate."
+
+"Perhaps you are right, captain," said Murray; "but what was the other
+trick you taught us?"
+
+"Not to despise your enemies, I guess," answered the skipper.  "You
+despised us, and we beat you; you did not despise the French, who were
+ten times better soldiers than the Americans were, and had fifty times
+better generals than we had, and you beat them.  There was the
+difference.  Never think meanly of the people with whom you are
+fighting.  Believe that you will drub them in the end--that's all right;
+but only fancy you can do so with a great deal of trouble and hard
+fighting, and always believe that they are about to play you some trick
+or other.  That's my philosophy about fighting.  I'd advise you to take
+up the same and stick to it.  And this brings me to that brig of yours
+out there.  You make sure that she'll drub the junks.  Just take care
+that the junks don't drub her; not but that I know what your people are
+made of, and next to our people there ain't any people who fight better
+in the world when they're put to it, that I'll allow, but--"
+
+"All right," exclaimed Jack, who did not wish to discuss the subject.
+"But see what these cunning rogues are about."
+
+While the above discussion was going on, the fleet of junks had
+separated into four divisions.  One led, keeping away so as to give a
+respectful berth to the brig, two others branched off on either side,
+and one, which was the junk which bore the midshipmen and their
+fortunes, gave up sculling and remained stationary.  It was very evident
+that the intention of the pirates was completely to surround the brig.
+After a time, the last-named division began once more to creep slowly
+on, and, the circle being formed, the whole advanced, decreasing it by
+degrees, till they got within range of the brig's guns.  So eager were
+the pirates that they paid little attention to their prisoners, who all,
+therefore, assembled on the deck to watch proceedings.
+
+"She is the _Blenny_, there is no doubt about it," cried Jack.  "Our
+fellows will not knock under as long as a man remains alive on the deck
+to fight her guns."
+
+The Chinese knew that their shot would not fly across the brig so as to
+hit their friends on the other side of her, so as they closed in their
+circle became complete, with short distances only between each junk.
+The prisoners also watched proceedings with such intense interest, that
+they totally forgot the danger to which they themselves were exposed.
+
+"I wish that the brig would open her fire, and give it these scoundrels
+well," cried Jack; "I wonder that they don't begin."  He had scarcely
+spoken when there was a flash and a report from one of the brig's guns,
+and a shot struck the junk just astern of them.  Several of the Chinese
+fired in return, but their shot scarcely reached the brig.  The pirate
+admiral or commodore, on seeing this, threw out signals to close in
+still more, and as the junks began to move the _Blenny_ let fly both her
+broadsides at the same moment, several of the shot striking the junks,
+and ripping open their sides.
+
+This in no way daunted them.  They seemed resolved on the destruction of
+the brig.  The sculls were still more vigorously plied, and they
+advanced rapidly, till they had got her well within range of their guns.
+And now from every side they opened on her, while, she replied in the
+most spirited way, firing her guns as rapidly as they could be hauled
+in, loaded, and run out again.  The shot from the pirate's junks told,
+however, with very considerable effect on her, and the midshipmen had
+too much reason to fear that many of their friends must have lost the
+number of their mess.  The pirates all seemed to aim at the hull of the
+brig.  They expected, apparently, that the calm would continue, and all
+they wanted was to kill as many of the Englishmen as they could before
+they attempted to board her.
+
+"I say, I guess your friends aboard there will be getting the worst of
+it if this sort of fun lasts much longer," observed the Yankee captain
+to Murray.
+
+"I am afraid so, indeed," answered Alick, with a deep sigh and a sinking
+of the heart; "I wish we were aboard to help them."
+
+"I guess, now, we should have a better chance of helping them by being
+aboard here," answered the captain.  Alick thought so likewise.  He and
+Jack were glad that they were not compelled to fight against their
+countrymen.
+
+The larger number of the junks had placed themselves ahead and astern of
+the brig, and kept pouring in a raking fire on her.  To avoid this as
+much as she could, she got out her sweeps; but they continued to change
+their positions as often as she got her head round, so that the English
+had not a moment's respite.  The pirates shouted with delight as they
+saw the success of their plan.  They, of course, thought it would be a
+great thing to cut off an outer Barbarian man-of-war, and anticipated no
+small amount of valuable plunder as their reward.  They, however, were
+all this time not escaping scot-free, for the brig's shot went through
+and through the hulls of their junks, and several of them were reduced
+to a sinking condition; while the musketry of the marines told with no
+little effect on their decks.  Still they had the advantage of an
+immense superiority in numbers, and although they might lose twice as
+many men as the crew of the brig numbered, they might still come off
+victorious.  Nearer and nearer crept the junks.  For some time no people
+were killed on board the one which had captured the midshipmen.  This
+made her captain and crew grow bold, and approach still nearer to the
+_Blenny_.
+
+"They would be wiser if they kept at a distance," observed Rogers;
+"they'll catch it to a certainty."
+
+"Perhaps they hope to bring the combat to a conclusion," remarked
+Murray.
+
+"They'll not do that, let me tell them, in a hurry," exclaimed Jack;
+"they little think what sort of a fellow they have to deal with in
+Hemming.  He'll give them more than they expect."
+
+While Jack was speaking, several shots came crashing on board the junk,
+killing five men, wounding others, and knocking away part of the
+bulwarks.  The wounded men set up the most terrific cries, and their
+shipmates, anxious to avoid a second edition of the same dose, put
+about, and sculled off to a more respectful distance.  Another junk, the
+next in the line, was not so fortunate.  The greater part of a broadside
+struck her.  The midshipmen saw her reel with the shock, and immediately
+she began to sink lower and lower, till down she went, and the water
+washed over the spot where she had just before floated.  Numbers of her
+crew went down with her or followed her to the bottom.  Very few of the
+neighbouring junks took the trouble of lowering their boats to pick up
+the remainder, and numbers were drowned in sight of their countrymen, by
+whom, with a little exertion, they might have been saved.
+
+The engagement had now lasted several hours, and neither side had gained
+any material advantage.  Some junks had been sunk, and a good many
+Chinamen killed; but as a set-off against this, there could be no doubt
+that the brig had lost several men.  Jack, too, observed that she now
+only fired when the junks pressed very close round her, and he could not
+but suspect that she was running short of ammunition.  The evening was
+drawing on.  It was a question whether darkness would favour the crew of
+the brig, or make her enemies bolder.  She at length ceased firing, and
+manning all her sweeps, she began to move forward, very clearly with the
+intention of fighting her way out from among the pirates.
+
+"She is coming towards us.  Hurrah!" cried Jack.  "Now if we could but
+knock the fellows aboard here on the head, we might render her some
+help."
+
+"Don't be trying that on," said Captain Willock.  "We shall only lose
+our lives if we make the attempt."
+
+"But I must get on board her somehow or other," answered Jack, as he
+spoke, kicking off his shoes and throwing off his jacket.  It had now
+grown very dark, though the constant flashes of the guns kept the scene
+well lighted up.  The _Blenny_ could be seen, though she had ceased
+firing, gliding on towards them.  The pirates had been taking no notice
+of their prisoners for some time.  The brig had got within a cable's
+length of them.
+
+"Now or never," cried Jack.  "Alick, in case I am drowned, you'll do all
+I have asked you."  And without waiting for a reply, he sprang over the
+side of the junk, and catching hold of a rope, let himself down into the
+water without a splash, and struck off towards the brig.  The pirates
+did not understand what he was doing till he had reached the water; at
+first they thought he was in despair going to drown himself, but when
+they saw him swimming away they began to fire at him with the jingalls.
+Favoured by the darkness, he was soon out of their sight.  To avoid the
+sweeps, he had to make a wide circuit, and he was pretty well tired when
+he got under the stern of the brig.
+
+"Brig ahoy.  Heave a rope here, and help me aboard," he sang out.
+
+"A man overboard!" exclaimed some one from the afterpart of the deck.
+
+"Pass a rope here; be smart now.  Heave!"
+
+"Who is it? who is it?" cried several voices.
+
+"It's I, Jack Rogers.  Be quick, now, for I've had a long swim," cried
+Jack.  He soon got hold of the rope which was heaved to him, and was
+hauled on board over the stern.
+
+"What!  Rogers, my dear fellow, is it you?" exclaimed Captain Hemming,
+as he grasped his hand.  "Where have you come from?"
+
+Jack told him, and urged that they should immediately board the junk he
+had left, and rescue the rest of the prisoners.
+
+"My only doubt is, whether we can get alongside her," answered Captain
+Hemming.  "However, we will try.  I am glad to engage in any work with
+cold steel; but, Rogers, I am sorry to say that our ammunition is almost
+expended, and though we will not yield as long as a man remains alive to
+fight, I look with apprehension to what may occur."  The brig was now
+approaching the junk, which fired away furiously at her, but this did
+not stop her progress, and before the pirates knew what was going to
+happen, she dashed alongside.
+
+"Lash her to the junk.  Boarders, follow me."  Jack had seized a
+cutlass, and, dripping with wet, he sprang on board by the side of his
+commander.  "Alick, Captain Willock, friends, all get on board the brig
+as fast as you can," he sang out.
+
+Murray and the rest of the prisoners were ready enough to follow his
+advice.  Seizing what weapons they could lay hands on, they cut down or
+knocked over all the pirates who opposed them, and soon gained the deck
+of the brig.  The boarders in the meantime cleared the junk, the greater
+number of her crew who escaped their cutlasses jumping overboard and
+perishing in the sea.  The seamen then hove overboard all the guns of
+the junk, and returned to the brig.  They would have set her on fire,
+but had they done so, they would very likely have got burnt themselves.
+
+"That's one enemy less, my lads," cried Captain Hemming in a cheerful
+tone, though he felt anything but cheerful.  "We must treat the rest in
+the same way."
+
+The pirates on board the other junks, discovering what had occurred,
+took very good care to keep out of the way of the brig.
+
+Captain Hemming, therefore, spent the whole night in trying in vain to
+get alongside some more junks, and when morning dawned they appeared
+formed in a close circle round her as on the previous day.  Those on
+board the _Blenny_ had passed an anxious and harassing night; the
+prospect for the following day was gloomy indeed.  The second
+lieutenant, a midshipman, and eight men had been killed, and twenty were
+wounded, many of them put out of fighting trim.  Jack and his companions
+afforded, therefore, a very welcome addition to their strength.  With
+daylight the pirates began to fire away as on the previous day.
+
+Rogers and Murray, however, now felt very differently to what they had
+done on the previous day.  Then all the shots they saw fired were
+against their friends; now the few Captain Hemming ventured to let fly
+were against their enemies.  At length only three rounds remained on
+board.  The brig ceased firing.  The pirates thought that the time for
+boarding her simultaneously had arrived, and gliding up closed their
+circle round her.
+
+In vain all on board looked out for the sign of a breeze.  Not a cloud
+was in the sky--the sea was like glass.  The sweeps were therefore again
+manned, and she advanced as fast as they could urge her towards the
+approaching line.  The pirates came on, thinking that she would fall an
+easy prey into their hands.
+
+"Reserve your fire, my lads, till we are close to them," cried the
+captain.  "Now give it them."  The broadsides of the brig were poured
+into the junks, which had ranged up on either beam, with terrible
+effect.  One junk went down, and another was left without a scull to
+impel her, and with a third of her crew killed or wounded.
+
+Still the pirates were undaunted.  On they came, again to receive
+another broadside.  But one now remained.  The junks moved away to a
+short distance, to hold a consultation, it seemed.  The result was to
+renew the attack on the brig.
+
+"We'll give our last dose, lads, to that big fellow, who is, I suppose,
+their admiral," cried Jack, who had taken command of the guns on one
+side, in place of the lieutenant who was lolled.
+
+With a cheer, the men obeyed, and the big junk reeled from the effect of
+their fire.  The opposite broadside was discharged at the same time.
+And now the brig was unarmed; but she had still stout hearts and sharp
+cutlasses on board, and, grasping the latter, the crew prepared to
+defend her to the last.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+FIGHT TO THE LAST!
+
+The Chinese pirates now made sure that the brig was their own, though so
+severe was the lesson she had given them that they showed a considerable
+disposition to approach her with caution.  Still, as they drew closer
+and closer round her, and she no longer continued to fire, they grew
+bolder in their proceedings.  Hitherto the crew of the _Blenny_ were not
+aware that their powder was exhausted.  Captain Hemming thought it
+better to tell them.  "My lads," he exclaimed, in as cheerful a tone as
+he could assume, "we have run short of powder, but as I take it, no one
+would dream of striking to these cut-throats; we'll show them that
+British seamen know how to use their cutlasses."  The men gave a hearty
+cheer, to show that they responded to their commander's appeal.  Still
+there were fearful odds against them.  The pirate junks pressed on, and
+though the gallant tars would have despised the crews who manned them,
+still, from their very numbers, they might prove overwhelming.
+
+"My dear Jack," said Alick, in a low voice, "I never thought it would
+come to this; but it seems that the enemy will get the better of us,
+after all.  We'll render a good account of them, however, before that."
+
+"We will," said Jack, drawing in his sword-belt a hole tighter, and
+clutching his cutlass with a firmer grasp.  "That big fellow will be
+alongside us in half a minute.  But, I say, what are those?"  He
+pointed, as he spoke, through an opening between two of the junks.  All
+eyes were turned in the same direction.  Several dark objects were seen
+on the water.  They were boats.  The foam thrown up by their bows
+glittered brightly as the rays of the sun fell on it, showing the rate
+at which they were coming on.  The British crew gave an involuntary
+cheer as they caught sight of them.  They had no doubt they were
+friends.  So intent had been the pirates on capturing their prey that
+they had not yet discovered the approach of the boats.  The sight gave
+fresh energy to the British seamen.  The big junk at length got
+alongside the brig, and from her lofty bulwarks down poured the pirates
+on the deck of the latter; but though they got there, they had reason to
+wish themselves back again, for the British cutlasses made very speedy
+work of them, and not one in ten escaped with their lives.  Still, even
+the bravest of the English tars wished that the boats would arrive, for
+two more huge junks ranged up, one on the _Blenny_ quarter and another
+on her bows, and they had to divide to repel the pirates who swarmed on
+their sides.  Another and another junk came up, and soon joined outside
+of the others, so that the pirates had the power of throwing a continual
+stream of boarders on to the deck of the brig.  Had they not known of
+the approaching boats, hope would certainly have forsaken the crew of
+the _Blenny_.  A few musket cartridges remained, with which the marines
+kept up a fire on the denser masses of pirates.  The smoke they
+produced, added to that of the guns from the pirates, threw so thick a
+veil over the scene that the expected boats were no longer visible.
+More than once Captain Hemming pulled out his watch to ascertain how
+time sped, and then again had to lead on his men to repel a fresh
+attack.  Several times the British were almost overpowered, and the most
+resolute bravery alone could have saved them.  Suddenly some sharp
+reports were heard close to them.  The masts of several of the junks
+were observed to be receding, and then arose above the din of battle
+three hearty British cheers.  The hard-pressed crew of the _Blenny_
+responded to it, but they had to exert every nerve and muscle to keep
+the enemy at bay.  There were more shouts and shots, and then came
+shrieks and cries and the clashing of steel, and Terence Adair, with
+little Harry Bevan, was seen, followed by a party of seamen, cutting
+their way along the deck of the nearest junk, driving numbers of pirates
+before them, till they reached the point in contact with the brig, when,
+with a cry of joy, Terence and Harry leaped down on her deck.  The
+meeting of the friends was brief indeed, but cordial, and then once more
+they separated, each with their followers, to attack in return the junks
+which pressed round them.  At this juncture the brig's royals were seen
+to bulge out for an instant; there was an evident movement among the
+junks; the shouts and hurrahs of the British seamen were redoubled; the
+shrieks and cries of the Chinese increased.  The mass of junks
+surrounding the brig began to break away.  Those inside now seemed to be
+in the greatest hurry to escape.  Mr Cherry's countenance, even in the
+heat of battle, looking jovial and rosy, was now seen, as he fought his
+way with his boat's crew from deck to deck of the junks, driving their
+crews into the sea.  No quarter was asked by the desperadoes, and the
+British seamen were not much inclined to give any.
+
+The roar of guns was heard.  It was the frigate which was now coming up
+with a rattling breeze, firing at the flying junks.  The pirates made
+the most desperate efforts to escape.  They cut and slashed away with
+their axes in the most frantic manner at the grapnels which they
+themselves had thrown on board the brig, and at the ropes which secured
+them to each other, and, at length, those who could not free their junks
+began cutting their throats, blowing out their brains, jumping
+overboard, or disembowelling themselves, while others, in the madness of
+their desperation, fired into their magazines, or threw torches into the
+holds of their vessels, in the hopes of burning their foes with
+themselves.  In this last amiable intention they did not succeed as well
+as they expected, for as the junks were by this time pretty well
+separated, though some blew up and some burned, a great number were
+captured by the boats.  The frigate now got up to the scene of action,
+and her shot as she passed them sank several more of the junks which
+might have escaped, and crippled others, which the boats succeeded in
+capturing.
+
+Jack and Alick had, meantime, with half a dozen followers, boarded a big
+junk, the crew of which made a most desperate resistance.  While engaged
+in driving the enemy overboard, or otherwise disposing of them, the
+midshipmen perceived that the junk, which had all her sails set, had got
+free from the brig, and was driving rapidly away from her.  They had
+very severe work, for when the pirates saw themselves free from the brig
+they made a stand, which nothing but the most determined courage could
+have overcome.  Again and again the midshipmen and their followers
+charged them.  At last the chief, with most of his officers, was killed,
+and the rest began to give way.  The remainder finding this, and knowing
+that there was no chance of escape, began getting rid of their lives in
+the way which has been already described, the process being considerably
+aided by their conquerors, till the last gang of them, with terrific
+shrieks, went overboard together.  As to the English seamen attempting
+to save the lives of any of them, that was impossible, for they
+themselves even would not allow it.
+
+"Hillo!" cried Jack, as the last party of them disappeared, and left the
+deck clear of all but the dead or dying, "where are we?"  Well might he
+ask the question, for the junk had been driving away before the wind,
+and had by this time got nearly a couple of miles away from the brig.
+"At all events, we have got an independent command," he continued, when
+he had ascertained the state of affairs; "and, Alick, I vote we take a
+cruise by ourselves, and capture some more of the enemy.  You and I look
+like Chinamen already, and we can easily rig out our men in some of the
+clothes of these fellows, and so I have no doubt we shall be able to get
+alongside without their suspecting us."
+
+Murray thought the notion not a bad one, and the men were delighted with
+it, very soon transforming themselves into fierce-looking pirates,
+pigtails and all, for they very rapidly cut off the latter appendages
+from their conquered foes.
+
+Their next business was to throw the dead men overboard, and to bind up
+the wounds of those who still lived; but those who had strength tore off
+the bandages as fast as they were put on, and were evidently intent on
+quitting the world.  The midshipmen did all they could to prevent them
+by keeping all weapons out of their reach; but one fellow got hold of a
+knife and stabbed himself to the heart, another blew out his brains with
+the pistol which he drew out of his comrade's pocket, and a third, after
+his wounds had been bound up, and he had a little recovered his
+strength, took the opportunity of scrambling overboard.  If Jack and
+Alick would have allowed it, the seamen, on observing this, would have
+thrown the rest of the prisoners after them.
+
+"What's the use of coopering up these chaps, if that's the way they goes
+for to behave to themselves?" exclaimed Dick Snatchblock, the
+boatswain's mate, as he caught another fellow by the leg who was
+attempting to do the same.  "Keep quiet you, I say," and he dealt him a
+box on the ears which knocked him flat on the deck.  They now made sail
+after three junks nearest to them.  The whole fleet were scattered far
+and wide to every part of the compass.
+
+"I wish that Hemming and the other fellows on board the brig knew where
+we were," observed Jack; "we shall be reported dead or missing."
+
+"They will value us so much the more when we make our appearance,"
+answered Murray.  "But, Jack, look at that junk!  Her crew seem to have
+more spirit than the rest of the scoundrels.  They do not seem to be in
+such a hurry to run away."
+
+"They take us for friends," observed Jack.  "Perhaps we have got hold of
+the admiral's ship, and they probably are bound to wait for him.  We
+shall undeceive them, I guess, pretty soon.  See all the guns ready
+therefore and aft.  We'll astonish them when they get near us."
+
+The two junks drew closer and closer.  They were well within range of
+each other's guns.  Jack was on the point of giving the order to fire,
+when who should jump up on the bulwarks of the stranger but Paddy Adair.
+Jack jumped up also and waved his hat.  He forgot that he looked like a
+Chinaman, and that all his crew were similarly disguised.  A broadside
+from Paddy's junk, and a rattling fire of musketry reminded him of the
+fact.  Happily the shot flew high, but he got the upper tip of his ear
+taken off.  He jumped down again on the deck.  "What shall we do?  We've
+no ensign with us.  How shall we let Paddy know who we are?" he
+exclaimed.  "If he were an enemy, I shouldn't care, but to be shot by
+one's friends is too bad."
+
+"Perhaps we may find a tablecloth, or some sheets, or something of that
+sort," suggested Murray.
+
+Nothing of the sort was to be found; and they were expecting every
+moment that Adair would send another broadside into them, when Jack
+bethought him that perhaps a pair of white trousers would answer the
+purpose of a flag of truce.  A pair which had been exchanged for a
+Chinaman's nether garments was run up at the peak, and every other flag
+was hauled down.  This had the desired effect, for Adair did not again
+fire.  As soon as the two junks got within hail, Jack shouted out,
+"Paddy, ahoy!  Paddy, my boy! don't be after blowing up your friends, if
+you love them."
+
+Terence jumped up again on the bulwarks, and peered eagerly at the big
+junk.
+
+Jack and Alick then showed themselves, and the two vessels were soon
+alongside of each other.  Very little time was lost in greetings, and it
+was quickly arranged that they would again start off to secure two or
+three more junks before they returned.  As, however, during the time
+they had been approaching each other the enemy had got considerably in
+advance, and as the frigate at the same moment began to fire guns to
+recall her boats, they agreed that they ought to return.  Another reason
+which had still more weight with them was, that they had several of
+their men wounded, for whom they wished to get assistance.
+
+They at once, therefore, hauled their wind, but they had considerable
+difficulty in beating up toward the frigate, till they bethought them of
+lowering the junks' leeboard, when they found them sail wonderfully well
+to windward.  Before dark the captured junks were assembled under the
+guns of the frigate and brig.  The reception the midshipmen met with on
+board the frigate was cordial in the extreme.  All rejoiced, fore and
+aft, that Rogers and Murray had once more turned up.
+
+"Well, it's a mighty satisfaction to be lost, for the sake of the
+pleasure it affords one's friends to see one back again," observed
+Terence; "and, old fellows, I knew you would come back, somehow or
+other; I always said so; astride of a dolphin if in no other way, though
+Harry here and some of our friends would not believe me."
+
+"I am very glad you were right, Paddy," said Jack.  "But we haven't done
+with the pirate yet.  The villains have carried off two ladies, and some
+seamen, and we must be after them."
+
+"We shouldn't lose time either," observed Murray.  "We should tell the
+captain, and get him to send off an expedition at once to search for
+them."
+
+All agreed to this; so Jack and Alick instantly went to the captain's
+cabin and made their report.  On hearing it, Captain Grant, without loss
+of time, organised an expedition, which was placed, as had been the
+former one, under the command of the indefatigable Lieutenant Cherry.
+Captain Willock volunteered his services, as did his men, and Terence
+got leave to accompany it with Jack and Alick.
+
+The wounded men were in the meantime removed from the brig; she was
+furnished with a supply of powder, and fresh hands were sent to her from
+the frigate.  Captain Hemming was then ordered to cruise in whatever
+direction the boats might go, to render assistance if necessary.  He and
+his officers were glad of the opportunity, that they might inflict a
+further punishment on the pirates, should they fall in with them.  The
+question now arose as to the direction in which they should proceed.
+Captain Willock suggested that they were not likely to be very far off,
+and, as he knew the haunts of the pirates, he undertook to act as pilot.
+
+In spite of the attempts of the pirates to destroy themselves, several
+had been secured alive and unwounded.  Two of the most intelligent, and
+who seemed most willing to be communicative, were selected to accompany
+the expedition, and they were made to understand by signs that if they
+assisted in discovering the prisoners, they should be handsomely
+rewarded.  Their little pig-eyes glittered when they saw the gold held
+out to them, and there appeared to be little doubt that they would try
+to earn it.  One fellow, however, made a clutch at it at once, and
+intimated that he should like to receive the reward first and do the
+work afterwards.
+
+"Catch a weasel asleep, old fellow," said Paddy, who stood by, making a
+significant gesture, which the Chinaman seemed to understand fully, for
+his eyes twinkled more than ever, and he laughed heartily, as if he
+thought his proposal a very good joke.
+
+Jack and Alick, having washed off the stains of gunpowder and blood with
+which they were pretty well covered, and reassumed their proper
+uniforms, declared themselves ready to proceed.  They laughed at the
+notion of wanting rest.
+
+"Let us get back the old lady, and the young lady, and the other
+prisoners, and then we will turn in and take a spell of twenty-four
+hours at least," exclaimed Jack as he jumped into his boat.
+
+The American master went with Mr Cherry, as did also the interpreter
+belonging to the frigate, as without him they could not hope to do much.
+The three midshipmen had each the command of a boat.  They all kept
+close together, steering to the south-east, for which point the wind was
+favourable.  Light hazy blue hillocks, indicating islands, lay away to
+the south-east.  The brig, having caught up the boats, took them in tow
+and stood towards the islands, till she got close enough in to be
+visible from the shore.  She then cast them off, and they stood in
+alone.  It was quite dark before the boats reached the land.  They
+pulled noiselessly along till they reached a sheltered bay, into which
+they ran, and brought up under a high, rocky point, where they might lay
+concealed till the return of daylight should enable them to proceed on
+their expedition.  They had passed several such nights, since they had
+come into the China seas, and many more on the coast of Africa, so that
+there was nothing very particular to interest them.  One officer at a
+time and two men in each boat were directed to keep watch while the rest
+went to sleep.  It was Jack's middle watch.  It is not surprising,
+considering all the fatigues he had gone through, that he should be very
+drowsy.  Still, he did his utmost to keep awake.  He kept pinching
+himself and rubbing his nose, and then he lit a cigar and tried to
+smoke; but, in spite of it, he was conscious that more than once he
+indulged in a loud snore.  His head nodded, too, just like that of a
+person who unfortunately falls asleep in church.  He had kept the
+prisoner who had been committed to his side.  The man appeared to be
+fast asleep.  Jack, in spite of his drowsiness, became conscious that
+something was moving close to them.  There was a splash.  He started up.
+The prisoner was not in his place.  At a little distance off a round
+object popped out of the water.  In an instant Jack, giving a loud
+shout, was overboard and darting away in chase of the man.  The shout he
+gave and the noise of his plunge woke up the people in the other boats,
+only in time, though, to see the other Chinaman swimming away in the
+direction taken by his countryman.  On this all the boats slipped their
+cables and made chase, though there appeared a great probability that in
+the darkness the pirates would effect their escape.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+A swim in the dark through waters where sharks abound, and in chase of
+an enemy who may very likely be armed with a sharp creese, is far from
+an agreeable amusement.
+
+Away swam the pirate, and after him swam Jack.  "If he has a knife, it
+won't be pleasant," he said to himself.  "However, I must be cautious as
+I get up to him.  Ah! there he is.  Now, old fellow, what have you got
+to say for yourself?"
+
+Jack was within about a couple of yards of the Chinese.  The man turned
+his head to look over his shoulder.  Jack darted on.  At that moment
+Jack saw an object in the pirate's hand, gleaming from the bright light
+of a star hitherto obscured.  It was a creese.  The man turned round to
+meet him and plunge it into his body; but at the moment he did so Jack
+dived down, and coming up on the other side of him, caught him by the
+legs with one hand, while with the other he grasped the arm which held
+the weapon.  His great difficulty was to prevent the pirate from
+changing the creese from his right-hand to his left.  While thus
+desperately struggling, Jack observed two dark heads close to him, with
+the most fierce and malignant countenances.  The men were probably armed
+with creeses.  Jack expected every moment to feel the sharp blades
+running into him, when the shouts of his friends alarmed his foes, and
+they darted away in the hopes of securing their own safety.
+
+Terence and Alick, meantime, naturally felt very anxious for Jack's
+safety.  They shouted loudly his name.
+
+"All right," he sang out; "I have got a fellow, but he is as slippery as
+an eel, and very hard to hold.  Lend a hand here, do."
+
+The tone of his voice showed that he was struggling hard with his
+prisoner.  His friends dashed after him with their boats, but his own
+boat, of which Needham was coxswain, had already got up to him, and were
+hauling him and the Chinese on board.
+
+"Look after the other two fellows.  They are away there," he shouted,
+never for a moment losing his presence of mind.
+
+Alick's boat darted after one, Terence's after the other.  It was not
+likely that the men could have got very far; but a black head at
+midnight on the world of waters is not very discernible.  Murray, as his
+boat pulled on, kept his eyes about him on either side.  He caught sight
+of a head.  "There he is," he cried, leaning forward and making a clutch
+at the pirate.  A creese flashed up as he did so, and he got a cut in
+his arm which was intended for a more vital part.  The next instant the
+man had disappeared; but as his object was to escape, and not to get
+drowned, he had to come up again to breathe.  As he did so, he got his
+creese ready to give another plunge with it; but the seamen were not
+quite so green as he supposed, and this time they were ready with the
+boat's stretchers, and, as he lifted up his arm, he got a blow which
+sent his formidable weapon to the bottom, and wellnigh broke his arm.
+This prevented him from diving, and the next instant he was, in spite of
+his struggles, hauled into the boat, and he found himself lashed with
+his hands behind him to the after-thwart.  There was another prisoner to
+be accounted for.  Terence told his crew not to make a noise as they
+went in chase.  The man was the strongest of the three prisoners.  He
+had taken a circuit, hoping thus to escape unobserved to the shore.  It
+occurred to Terence that this was what very likely one of them would do,
+and thus before long he caught sight of the man's head, as he swam
+rapidly through the water.  "The fellow swims beautifully," thought
+Terence, "I'll let him enjoy himself a little longer."  The noise made
+on board the other boats deceived the Chinaman.  He fancied that he was
+not pursued.  "We must catch him now," thought Terence, after an
+interval, and he made a sign to his men to give way, when a loud shriek
+was heard, the pirate's arms were seen to rise up above his head, and
+then down he went, like a shot, beneath the waves.  Terence shuddered.
+"Jack shark has caught him," observed one of the crew, and as they
+pulled over the spot they could see the water still bubbling and
+agitated, as if some violent struggle was going on beneath its surface.
+Then all was quiet.  The monster had dragged off his prey to be devoured
+at his leisure.
+
+"I'm heartily glad it was not Jack Rogers," said Terence, as on pulling
+back he recounted what had occurred.
+
+"Thank you," answered Jack.  "It was certainly a terrific risk I ran;
+but as the fellow had escaped through my negligence, I was determined to
+catch him at all costs."
+
+How the pirates had managed to conceal their creeses was a wonder which
+no one could solve, though the seamen declared that they believed they
+had kept them hid away inside their throats, for they could not have had
+them anywhere else.  After all the noise that had been made there was
+little hope of concealment, so Mr Cherry ordered the squadron of boats
+to pull out of the bay and to proceed farther along the shore to the
+eastward.
+
+Scarcely had they got round the rocky point which had concealed them
+than they saw right before them a dozen or more dark objects, which,
+after watching for some time, they made out to be as many large
+row-boats.  They hoped that they were not perceived; so Mr Cherry
+ordered them to pull back under the shadow of the cliff.  On came the
+boats.  It was pretty certain that they were pirates, and that by some
+means having discovered they were there, their purpose was to surprise
+them.  The guns in the bows of the boats were loaded, as were the
+muskets which each man had by his side, and the oars were kept out, so
+that at a moment's notice they might give way after the enemy.  As Paddy
+remarked, "They looked like four huge centipedes ready to dart out on
+their prey."
+
+The row-boats must have been too far off at the time of the chase of the
+three prisoners to have heard the shouting, so they probably hoped to
+catch the British asleep.  Mr Cherry was in doubt whether he should
+attack them unless they were aggressors.  They might, after all, be only
+harmless traders.  They glided on pretty rapidly.  Soon they had rounded
+the point, and were making for the spot where the boats had been, when
+those on board them discovered the Englishmen.  They stopped, and then
+came dashing on towards the point.
+
+"They are enemies," cried Mr Cherry; "give it to them, my lads."  A
+sharp fire of grape, accompanied by musketry from the four boats, right
+into the bows of the junks, had the effect of arresting their progress.
+They could not tell how many more boats there might be behind those they
+saw.
+
+"Reload your pieces, my lads, as fast as you can--quick!" shouted Mr
+Cherry.  It was done before the pirates had recovered from their
+confusion, and when they once more advanced, a second dose was ready for
+them.  This was given with such good effect that they pulled round to
+escape.  The commanding officer, observing this, ordered his boats to
+advance.  On they dashed, the men loading and firing as they could, till
+they reached the junks.  Then, each boat selecting an antagonist, the
+seamen leaped on board, and with their cutlasses very soon drove the
+crew overboard.  None of the pirates would yield, and not a prisoner was
+taken.  As some time was expended in this engagement, the remainder of
+the junks escaped.  Where they had gone it was difficult to say in the
+darkness; but Jack Rogers told Mr Cherry that he thought he had seen
+them steering for the bay.
+
+Into the bay, therefore, the boats proceeded, and pulled round and round
+it.  In vain they searched, however, and at last Mr Cherry ordered them
+to bring up and wait till daylight.  As soon as it was dawn it was "Up
+anchor and out oars," and away they pulled again.  They had not gone far
+before they discovered the boats run up on the beach deserted by the
+crews.  Paddy Adair and Jack were for dashing in at once; but the more
+prudent lieutenant called them back.  He first ordered that all the guns
+should be loaded and pointed towards some suspicious-looking bushes on a
+height above the beach, and then directed Terence to pull rapidly in
+towards the boats, and to set them on fire.  The other boats advanced
+more slowly, two at a short distance to the right and two to the left of
+him.
+
+Paddy was very much inclined to think all this precaution superfluous.
+"What's the use of it, when we have only a set of ignorant niggers to
+deal with?" he observed to Jack, as he pulled on.  "Give way, lads."  He
+reached the beach--a light was struck.  There was an abundance of dry
+driftwood thrown up by gales on the shore.  Some of it was speedily
+collected, and they had succeeded in setting one boat in a blaze when,
+from the suspicious bushes, there came a rattling shower of bullets, and
+directly afterwards some fifty savages, with creeses in their hands,
+dashed out towards them.
+
+Two of the Englishmen had fallen, and Terence and the rest rushed to
+their arms to defend themselves as best they could, though they could
+not help looking round to see if the other boats were coming to their
+assistance, when from either side so hot a fire was opened, with grape
+and bullets, on the pirates, that before they reached the boats they
+wished to defend, numbers were tumbled over, and the rest turned and
+fled back into the cover.  Before he could allow the boats to advance,
+Mr Cherry had all the firearms again loaded.  Meantime Terence
+continued to set the boats on fire, and performed the work without
+molestation.
+
+The lieutenant then led the flotilla to a spot where there were no trees
+or rocks to shelter an enemy, and leaving three men in each boat, he
+landed with the rest and advanced to the top of a neighbouring hill.
+There were no habitations in sight, and as it was agreed that it would
+be worse than useless to follow the pirates, the party again embarked.
+
+The wounds of the poor fellows who had been hit were bound up, and all
+possible attention was paid to them.  Notwithstanding this, soon after
+the boats again shoved off, one of them died.  It was impossible to keep
+the body on board, and as landing was dangerous, a shot was fastened to
+the feet, and with scant ceremony it was launched into the sea.
+
+"Has Bill gone?" asked the other wounded man, with a faint voice, "I
+wish as how he'd waited a bit before he slipped his cable, so that we
+could have borne each other company; maybe, if I clap on more canvas, I
+shall get up with him.  Howsomdever, I shan't be long after him, and
+that's a comfort."
+
+For several hours the boats proceeded on, looking into every bay and
+creek for signs of inhabitants, from whom they might obtain information.
+At last some huts were seen, and the expedition pulled on for the
+shore.  Mr Cherry and about five-and-twenty men landed, and, the ground
+being open, marched up towards the huts, carrying the two prisoners with
+them.  One of them was then made to understand that he must go and make
+inquiries as to whether they knew what had become of the two ladies and
+the other people the pirates had carried off.  The man nodded his head
+and showed that he fully comprehended what he was to do.  While they
+were speaking, some thirty or forty natives appeared at a short distance
+off.  "Understand," added the interpreter, "you may go as far as that
+tree, so that you may talk to those people, but if you go a foot
+farther, you will be shot.  Remember that we are not joking."  The
+pirate went on, first very slowly, then rather quicker, then faster and
+faster.  The natives shouted, and he cried out something in return.  He
+evidently had friends among them.  He reached the tree, he stopped a
+moment, then he looked back; the marines, looking very grim with their
+muskets presented, stood ready to fire.  He talked on, then he looked
+again; the desire to escape overcame all his fears.  He sprang forward,
+but, as he did so, half a dozen bullets were lodged in his body.  No
+sooner did he fall, than numbers of natives rushed out from all
+directions, and began to fire on the English.  Giving the marines time
+to reload, Mr Cherry called his men to charge, and dashing forward with
+bayonets and cutlasses, they speedily put the enemy to flight.  A
+considerable quantity of European goods of various descriptions was
+found in the houses; as this proved without doubt that the inhabitants
+were either pirates or in league with them, the habitations, and such
+goods as could not be carried off, were committed to the flames.  The
+fields, gardens, and plantations of every description were likewise
+ruthlessly destroyed.
+
+"It is a cruel necessity," observed Mr Cherry to his subordinates, "but
+it must be done.  The only way that I can see of putting a stop to
+piracy is to teach the pirates that their trade will not longer answer."
+Murray was the only one of the party who was not entirely of the
+lieutenant's opinion.  That evening, when they had returned to the
+boats, he addressed Jack Rogers.  "I wonder now, whether it might not
+answer to catch some of these wild fellows, to show them the beauties
+and advantages of Christianity and civilisation, and then send them back
+among their countrymen as a sort of missionaries.  Offer to trade with
+them, and prove to them that honest commerce will be more profitable to
+them than dishonest piracy.  I think this plan would answer our purpose
+better than burning down their houses and cornfields."  Jack was not
+quite certain which plan he thought the best.
+
+"Ours is the shortest and most simple, at all events," he observed.
+
+"I think not, because our present work can never end," answered Alick.
+"As soon as we disappear, piracy will again appear; whereas if we teach
+the people the advantages of commerce, they will not only no longer rob
+themselves, but it will be their interest to aid in putting down piracy
+everywhere else."
+
+"Well, Alick, I do believe you are right, as you always are," said Jack.
+"But, I say, I hope we shall find poor Madame Dubois and Mademoiselle
+Cecile before long.  What a state of fright the poor old lady will be in
+all this time!"  While they were talking, their boats being close
+alongside each other, Terence was attending to the wounded man in his
+boat.  The poor man grew weaker and weaker.
+
+"I shall not see another sunrise," he remarked.  "Bill won't have a
+day's start of me; so, maybe, after all, he and I will steer the same
+course alongside each other."  He continued talking in the same style to
+the last, showing clearly that he had his senses perfectly, but that he
+was painfully ignorant of the truths of religion.  Adair thought that he
+ought to set him right, but did not know how to begin, and, if he had
+begun, he felt that he should not know how to go on.  The seaman's voice
+grew fainter and fainter, the pale light of of dawn began to appear.
+Suddenly he lifted himself up, exclaiming with a strong voice, "Yes,
+Bill, all right; I'm casting off the turns.  Good-bye, shipmates.  I'm
+after you, Bill."  Then he fell back, and was dead.  Scarcely was the
+body cold before it, too, was lowered into the water, and as the sun
+rose Mr Cherry gave the order to weigh and continue the voyage.  A
+pleasant breeze sprang up off the land, which carried them along at a
+good speed.  At noon they turned to dine, still continuing under weigh.
+A lofty headland was before them.  No sooner did they round it, than a
+deep and beautiful bay opened on them, with rocks and high but not
+precipitous banks.  In the very head of it there appeared a large junk
+anchored close in with the shore.
+
+"That's her!" exclaimed Jack, and Alick, and Captain Willock in the same
+voice.  "It's the very junk which carried off the ladies."
+
+"If it's not her, it's as like as one pea is to another," observed the
+American skipper.  She appeared to be full of men, and numbers came
+scrambling up from below.  It was evident that the boats were unexpected
+visitors.  A few shots were fired at the boats.  On this Mr Cherry
+ordered the sails to be lowered, and the oars being got out, away they
+dashed towards the junk, getting ready to fire as they approached.
+Scarcely had one discharge been given, than the pirates were seen to be
+making their escape from the junk.  Some were lowering themselves into
+the boats which hung alongside, and others were leaping into the water
+to swim on shore.  The nearer the British drew, the more violent were
+the attempts the pirates made to escape.  By the time the boats had got
+within fifty yards or so of the junk, the greater number had made their
+escape, and most of them were seen climbing up the hill, or hiding
+themselves among the rocks.  At that moment half a dozen people were
+seen on the deck, and it appeared to Mr Cherry that they were about to
+discharge some of their guns before they made their escape.  He was just
+giving the order to fire, when Jack shouted out, "Stop in, stop!  They
+are not pirates.  They are Madame Dubois and Miss Cecile, though they
+are dressed up like Chinamen; and Hudson and Hoddidoddi, and the rest."
+
+The crews of Adair's and Murray's boats were, however, in so great a
+hurry that they fired before Mr Cherry could countermand his order, and
+then on they dashed.  Jack was dreadfully afraid that the ladies might
+be hurt, and this made him also eager to get alongside to ascertain.
+This anxiety was, however, speedily relieved, by the appearance of Miss
+Cecile on the upper deck of the junk, waving a petticoat, which she had
+made do duty as a flag of truce.  The whole party were soon alongside.
+Jack was the first on deck.  He very nearly burst out laughing when he
+caught sight of poor Madame Dubois rigged out in a Chinaman's costume,
+with her hair twisted into a pigtail, and a little round Chinese hat on
+her head.  Miss Cecile had on the same sort of dress, which Jack did not
+think particularly became her; indeed, she appeared to him to be very
+different to what she had before seemed when she was instructing him in
+French.  All this time the pirates were scrambling away up the rocks as
+fast as they could go.  So great had been the panic that they had not
+even taken their arms with them, so that they could not interfere with
+the proceedings of the conquerors.  Mr Cherry did not think it worth
+while to follow them; indeed, as they appeared to have treated the
+prisoners well he did not think that he should do right to inflict on
+them any further punishment than the loss of their vessel and booty.
+The junk's huge wooden anchor was therefore hove up to her bows, and the
+boats, taking her in tow, carried her off in triumph out of the bay.
+Before leaving, however, Mr Cherry told the interpreter to impress on
+the minds of the two pirate prisoners that, if they returned to their
+old habits, they would be caught, and if caught they would be hung, but
+that if they took to any honest calling they would be protected and
+favoured by the British.
+
+"Go and tell your countrymen this, and don't forget it yourselves,"
+added the interpreter.  The men were then landed, and off they scampered
+to join their friends; but whether or not they benefited by the advice
+given them, it is impossible to say.  Jack, with Mr Cherry and a few of
+the men, went on board the junk, when Jack inquired of Miss Cecile how
+it was she and her mamma had come to assume the attire in which he found
+them clothed.
+
+"Oh, it was all Mr Hudson," answered the young lady.  "He say we must,
+to run away.  But poor mamma, she does look very funny, ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"Your respectable relation has certainly a very curious appearance,"
+answered Jack, not particularly well pleased with Miss Cecile's tone.
+"It strikes me indeed, young lady, that the sooner she changes her
+dress, the less ridiculous she will appear."
+
+Miss Cecile, however, did not seem to care much about this point, and
+continued laughing as heartily as before.  Hudson afterwards explained
+that, having found a chest of Chinese clothes in the cabin in which they
+were shut up, they had dressed themselves in them, in the hopes that
+thus disguised they should be the better able to make their escape.
+
+Before night the _Blenny_ hove in sight, and taking the boats on board
+and the junk in tow, the expedition returned to Hong Kong, where they
+found the frigate at anchor.  Jack and Alick here bade the companions of
+their late adventure good-bye.  Jack was a little sentimental when
+parting with Miss Cecile, but he very speedily recovered his usual state
+of feeling when he heard that she was about to be married to Mr Joe
+Hudson, the mate of the American brig.
+
+While the _Dugong_ and _Blenny_ lay at Hong Kong, Captain Hemming was
+asked to take a poor young gentleman on board, who had suffered from the
+climate, and was very ill.  A trip to sea might give him some chance of
+recovery.  Hemming, in the kindness of his heart, at once consented,
+without asking who he was, and promised him a berth in his cabin.
+Scarcely had the stranger been lifted up on deck, than Jack recognised
+in his features, though pale and sunken, those of his old schoolfellow,
+Bully Pigeon.  He was placed in the shade under an awning on deck.  He
+had not been there long before he sent a boy to call Jack.
+
+"Ah!  Rogers," he said, in a faint voice, "I dare say you scarcely like
+to speak to me; but I am not as bad as I was.  I have been thinking a
+good deal lately, and a friend has talked to me and read to me, and I
+have seen my folly.  I believe in the religion I once laughed at, and I
+see that, had I before believed in it, I should have been a thousandfold
+more happy than I was.  I have thrown life away, for I shall soon die;
+but I am not miserable as I was lately, for I know that I shall be
+forgiven."
+
+The next day the frigate and brig sailed for the north.  They had
+cruised for about a fortnight, when a steamer overtook them, and gave
+them notice that war had broken out once more between England and China,
+and that there would be plenty of work cut out for them before long.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+PROMOTED.
+
+The frigate and the brig which had the honour of conveying the three
+midshipmen between them, with the south-west monsoon blowing gently aft,
+proceeded northward among the numberless islands which stud the China
+seas, looking for the admiral and the rest of the fleet.  They were
+surprised, as they sailed along the mainland, to observe the great
+number of towns and villages on the shores and vast tracts of country
+under cultivation.  Several times they fell in with small squadrons of
+large government war-junks, with heavy guns, gaudy flags, flaunting
+vainly like peacocks' tails, and stout mandarins sitting on their decks.
+Some tried to escape, and succeeded, but others were caught, and the
+stout mandarins either were or pretended to be very much astonished that
+their vessels were lawful prizes to the squadron of Her Britannic
+Majesty.  They received very little commiseration, for it was well-known
+that they were in league with the pirates who infested those seas, and
+that when any grand piratical expedition was about to take place, they
+invariably kept out of the way.  Sometimes they passed among whole
+fleets of tiny fishing-boats, to be counted by thousands, like shoals of
+fishes, themselves engaged in procuring food for the teeming multitudes
+on shore, and giving an idea of the vast numbers of the finny tribes
+which inhabit those seas.  Frequently, too, there glided by one of those
+roguish, rakish, wicked-looking craft--an opium clipper, fleet as the
+sporting dolphin, and armed to the teeth, for she has foes on every
+side; the pirates long to make her their prey, and the mandarin junks
+ought to do so, but dare not.
+
+For several hours the frigate and the brig lay becalmed close together.
+Alick and Terence went to pay Jack a visit.  While they were on board
+the surgeon sent to tell Jack that Pigeon was very much worse, and
+desired to see him.  Jack hurried into the cabin where he lay; when he
+heard that his other two old schoolfellows were on board, he begged to
+see them also.  They saw that the stamp of death was already on his
+countenance.
+
+"I am glad you are come," he said in a very faint voice, trying to lift
+himself up.  "I wish to tell you that I have at last discovered that I
+have lived a life of folly.  I thought myself very clever and very wise,
+but I now know that I was an arrant fool.  I have often said things
+which might have done you a great deal of harm, but my earnest prayer is
+that you did not listen to them.  What I wish you to do is to point to
+me, and to guide all your friends or acquaintances against the horrible
+doctrines which I took up.  They only brought me pain and suffering from
+the first, and wellnigh destroyed my soul at the last; indeed, I feel
+that it is only through God's grace and mercy that I have been
+preserved."
+
+The three friends endeavoured to assure the poor dying man that his
+pernicious doctrines had in no way made any permanent impression on
+them, though Terence owned that he had often thought over what he had
+said, and that it had for some time raised all sorts of painful doubts
+in his mind which he could not get rid of.  Their assurance seemed alone
+to bring him any satisfaction.  The interview was short, for he was very
+weak, and that evening he died.  His schoolfellows felt somewhat graver
+than usual for a short time; but as he had never gained their love they
+could not pretend to regret him.
+
+Shortly after this they fell in with the admiral, and the whole fleet
+sailed to the southward.  Once more they were off Hong Kong.  It was
+ascertained that large numbers of Chinese war-junks were collected,
+keeping out of the way, as they fancied, of the outer barbarians, in the
+various creeks and channels which run into the Canton river.  These
+channels were narrow and shallow in some places, and guarded with forts
+and booms, and natural as well as artificial bars.  Nevertheless the
+admiral determined to proceed up them with such part of his force most
+fitted for the work.
+
+The ships of war had congregated in the Blenheim passage of the Canton
+river.  The steamers, which had gone up to explore, had reported that
+there was a high hill with a strong fort on the top of it on the left of
+the channel, and other forts on the opposite side, and that above these
+forts there were no less than seventy large war-junks.  The Chinese
+evidently believed that their hill fort could not be taken.  Had they
+read the history of the battles of the English, they might have had some
+unpleasant misgivings on the subject.
+
+It was pitch dark as the various boats of the flotilla collected round
+the steamer on board which the admiral had hoisted his flag.  The screw
+steamers towed up the boats.  The three midshipmen managed to keep close
+to each other.  In silence they glided over the smooth water, some small
+lights on buoys showing the passage up.  It was hoped that they might
+surprise the enemy, but first a rocket on one side and then one on the
+other, answered by the fleet behind, showed that they were wide awake.
+
+"The dawn is breaking, we shall soon be in the thick of it," observed
+Jack.  Soon after this, just through the grey twilight, a bright flash
+burst forth high up the hill, followed by a report, and a shot pitched
+into the water right ahead of the steamer, and sent its spray flying
+over her.  With unabated speed on she went, and now flash after flash
+burst forth from the hill, and the shot came hissing and bounding on
+every side round the steamer: still no one was hit.  The steamer was
+making directly for the fort; suddenly she came to a full stop; she had
+run on a bar formed by the Chinese for the defence of the positions.
+The boats ran in one upon another; but the oars were got out, and they
+were soon clear.  The order was then given to land, and storm the fort.
+A steep side of the hill was left unprotected.  The simple Chinese were
+under the impression that no human being could clamber up it.  On went
+the marines and bluejackets in beautiful style, about to show the
+Chinamen a thing or two.  They reached the foot of the hill.  Up they
+climbed, as if it was no impediment whatever; but the Chinamen did their
+best to stop them.  It was no child's work; jingall balls and round shot
+came crashing down on the assailants, and stink-pots and three-pronged
+spears; and heads and arms and legs were shot off, and many a tall
+fellow bit the dust.  Post-captains and commanders and lieutenants went
+ahead of their men, and the midshipmen followed quickly after.
+
+"This puts me in mind of old days on the coast of Syria," observed
+Murray to Rogers as he thought; but getting no answer, he looked round,
+and to his dismay discovered that Jack was not by his side.
+
+"He is hit," thought Alick, and it went to his heart that he could not
+go back to help him; but duty pointed the way to the top of the hill,
+while the glance over his shoulder had shown him his old schoolfellow
+rolling down it.  Terence, who was a little to the right, also saw what
+had occurred.
+
+"Oh, we must go and help him," he cried out; but at that instant up
+jumped Jack again, and began to scramble up the hill with such energy
+that he was very soon abreast of his friends.
+
+"I am all to rights," he shouted out.  "I put my foot on a rolling
+stone, and over I went."
+
+Terrific was the noise, the shouting and shrieking, loud above all which
+arose the British hurrahs, as they clashed up the steep ascent.  The
+Chinese happily could not sufficiently depress their guns, or a shower
+of grape would have made sad havoc in the ranks of the assailants.  Now
+the marines and bluejackets were near the top.  A huge Chinaman stood
+there, pointing his matchlock at Jack.  Murray fired his pistol at him,
+but missed him.  The matchlock hung fire, so he dashed it at Alick's
+head, and then hurled at them a couple of heavy shot.  Terence was
+springing on, when the Chinaman seized a long spear, and was hurling it
+at him with an accuracy which might have been fatal, when Jack leaped to
+his friend's aid, and with his pistol shot their enemy dead.  The rest
+of the defenders of the fort, seeing the death of their brave, grinned
+horribly, and, whisking round their tails, walked leisurely down the
+opposite side of the hill.  More than one volley from the marines was
+required to make them run.  They were braves selected for this post of
+honour and of danger.  Perhaps they had suspicions that their heads
+might be cut off when they got back to their friends.  The English flag
+was hoisted on the fort, and some of the guns turned down on the fleet
+of junks below, with whom not very injurious shots were exchanged.  The
+marines occupied it, while the greater part of the bluejackets descended
+to their boats, the three midshipmen being among the number.
+
+On screwed the steamers, and on dashed the boats.  They were soon up
+with the seventy junks, which began firing away, most furiously, round
+shot and grape and langrage; the latter, scraps of old iron, they were
+fond of using, and terrible are the wounds caused by it.  The steamers
+and the boats returned the compliment.  Faster and more furious grew the
+fire from the twelve guns on board each of those seventy big junks; but
+one, larger than the rest, lay across the channel: the midshipmen dashed
+at her; a terrific fire of grape saluted them, but they were already
+close under the guns when they went off, and the shower of missiles
+passed over their heads.  As the Chinamen were looking out, expecting to
+see their mangled limbs and the fragments of their boats scattered far
+and wide, the jolly tars, unharmed, were climbing up the side of the
+junk, and a few pokes with their cutlasses soon sent every mandarin and
+seaman leaping overboard.  Scarcely had the victors time to look about
+them, than the prize was found to be on fire, fore and aft.  "To the
+boats! to the boats!" was the cry.  The seamen had barely time to obey
+the order and to shove off than up went the junk into the air with a
+loud roar, and very soon afterwards down came her fragments rattling
+around the boats, very nearly swamping them, and wounding several poor
+fellows among their crews.  As the boats emerged from the smoke, the
+rest of the junks were seen in full flight in different directions, but
+a great number were overtaken, and as the British got alongside the
+crews deserted them.  In many of them the flames immediately burst
+forth, and one after the other as they drifted on the shore, they blew
+up.  Some were deserted by their crews before they had time to set them
+on fire.  Several, however, escaped, and vanished up some of the unknown
+creeks to the left.  Meantime, the steamers grounded, and at length the
+boats alone, with the gallant commodore leading, dashed away up the
+river in hot chase of the fugitives.
+
+Numbers of junks were passed, deserted or stranded.  For four miles they
+pulled on till they reached a fort on an island in the middle of the
+stream.  There was a passage on each side, but so narrow that two boats
+could not pass abreast.  Above it appeared a fleet of junks.  Again the
+shot came rattling furiously among them.  Several boats were struck.
+Many fine fellows, officers and men, were killed.  The commodore's boat
+sank under him, and barely had he time with his crew to leap out of her,
+than away she drifted with the body of his coxswain, who had been
+killed, and a favourite dog who would come with him towards the enemy.
+Several times was the passage attempted, till at length the boats
+retreated.  Their gongs began to sound, and trumpets to bray forth notes
+of victory; but the Chinese braves were rather premature in their
+rejoicings.  The boats' crews went to dinner, and while thus pleasantly
+engaged, notice was given that the enemy's junks were getting afloat.
+The crews sprang to their oars.  "On, lads, on!" shouted their gallant
+leader.  Fierce was the fire they had to pass through, more men were
+killed, and another boat sank.  Still enough remained with which to
+follow the enemy.  The narrow passage was passed, and away in hot
+pursuit after the still flying junks, manned by a hundred rowers, they
+go.  The junks move swiftly, but the shot and shell go faster.  One
+after the other the junks were deserted, but five were still seen ahead.
+"We must have them all, lads," shouted the commodore.  On they went.
+Suddenly they found themselves with the junks ahead in the centre of a
+large town with a vast population.  "We must get the junks," again
+shouted the commodore.  The crews cheered in response to his appeal.
+Their shot find out the junks, and they follow.  The wise Chinamen leap
+overboard and swim on to shore.  There were plenty of spectators, many
+thousands looking out of windows, and doors, and balconies, and thinking
+that those outer barbarians had become rather bold and impudent.  But
+there was a general in the city, and for his military credit he turned
+out his army to annihilate the invaders.  Seeing this, the commodore
+landed his marines, whose steady fire on the braves sent them to the
+right about, and made them march back again in double-quick time.  The
+five junks were then taken in tow, and, very much to the enlightenment
+of the minds of the citizens, were carried away in triumph down the
+river.  Altogether, upwards of eighty war-junks were destroyed or
+captured, though for each junk thus disposed of the British lost a man
+killed or wounded.
+
+The three friends met again in the evening.  Greatly to their mutual
+satisfaction none of them had been hit.
+
+"We have had a pretty sharp day's work," exclaimed Jack; "but there's
+one thing I hope we shall get for it--our promotions."
+
+"And good luck to the wish," cried Adair, who had just filled a glass
+with wine.  "It's little else I have got to look to to keep me in food
+and clothing.  The last letter I got from my dear friends at home gave
+me the pleasant information that all the family estates have been
+knocked down, and that it would be rather worse than useless for me to
+draw any bills in future on my agents.  What the knocking down means, I
+don't quite know; but the matter of the not drawing bills sufficiently
+elucidates the subject to my mind."
+
+"Oh, that is a trifle," answered Rogers and Murray in a breath.  "We are
+over well supplied, and so you can't want, you know; and then the
+chances are that, before long, we pick up a good store of prize-money."
+
+"I know, I know, my dear fellows; I never should doubt you," said Adair,
+warmly; "but--Well, I'll come on you when I am hard up.  But perhaps I
+shall be settled for some other way."
+
+"If it is a pleasant and satisfactory way, I hope so," observed Murray,
+pretending not to understand him.
+
+The conversation very soon came to an end by Paddy himself falling
+asleep, an example which the rest of the party, looking out for a soft
+plank, were not slow in following.  After this the three midshipmen and
+their men returned to their ships, which sailed away on a cruise to the
+northward.
+
+The _Dugong_ one day had sent two of her boats, under charge of Murray
+and Adair, up a river to obtain fresh provisions.  Their comprador, or
+Chinese purchaser, who acted also as interpreter, having landed to make
+arrangements, the boats proceeded higher up the river on an exploring
+expedition.  At length they reached a pretty, peaceful-looking village,
+and were induced by its tempting appearance to go on shore.  They
+strolled about for some time, looking into the houses, the natives
+treating them with perfect civility.  At last Murray suggested that it
+was time to return.
+
+"A few minutes more.  See, there is a curious pagoda, let us go and
+visit it."
+
+The pagoda was explored; and the priests of Buddha were seen burning
+paper matches before the altar.
+
+"We have had a pleasant trip.  These Chinamen are really good sort of
+fellows," observed Terence; but scarcely had he spoken, than they
+discovered a strong body of soldiers drawn up between them and their
+boats.  Not a word was said; but as they advanced the troops opened fire
+with their jingalls and darted their pronged spears at them.
+
+"We must cut our way through the villains," cried Murray.  "If we let
+them press on us we are done for."
+
+"I'm with you," exclaimed Adair.  "Charge, lads."
+
+With loud shouts the British seamen dashed on; but the Chinese
+outnumbered them as twenty to one, besides being all armed with
+jingalls, matchlocks, or spears.  Even Murray more than once thought
+that it was all up with them.  He was slightly wounded, a ball had gone
+through both of Adair's legs, and he was bleeding much, while four of
+their men were killed, and two others so desperately hurt that they were
+unable to walk without the aid of their companions.  Every moment they
+were growing weaker and weaker.  Adair, too, was suffering dreadfully
+from his wounds.  "I can stand it no longer," he exclaimed, at last
+sinking on the ground.  "Go on, Alick.  Leave me to my fate.  If you
+attempt to stop you will be cut to pieces.  See, there are more of the
+fellows gathering round us."
+
+"Leave you, Terence?  I hope not," cried Murray.  "Come on, lads; we'll
+soon put the villains to flight."
+
+Lifting up their wounded companions, the seamen made another dash at the
+enemy.  The treatment which the dead bodies of their comrades met with
+showed them that they had death alone to expect, unless they gained the
+victory.  The moment the bodies were left the Chinese rushed forward,
+and cutting off their heads, stuck them on the ends of their spears,
+shouting in triumph.
+
+There is something particularly dreadful in seeing the head of a
+comrade, who but a few short moments before was full of life, thus
+exposed.  Poor Adair looked up.  "Will my head be soon thus placed?" he
+said to himself.  There seemed too much probability of it.  Another man
+was so desperately wounded that he could not walk.  The party, thus
+reduced in strength, could no longer push on towards the boats.  When
+they halted, the Chinamen became more daring.  Back to back they stood,
+forming a hollow square, like brave men, with their wounded comrades in
+the centre, resolved to sell their lives dearly if they could not drive
+back their assailants.  Murray was again wounded.  He felt himself
+fainting through the loss of blood.  Another man sank to the ground, and
+several more were hit.  Still, loading and firing as fast as they could,
+they kept the enemy at bay.  Yet even Murray believed that it was only a
+matter of time, and that every one of them would soon be numbered among
+the dead.  Still, by voice and example, he endeavoured to keep up the
+courage of the men with him.  At last he had to tell one of them to hold
+him up, for he could scarcely see the enemy crowding round them.  It was
+a bad sign, the courage of some of the seamen began to waver, and they
+looked wistfully towards the boats, as if they would make a rush at
+them.  Great was their dismay to see a body of Chinese hurry down to the
+bank and begin to fire at the men in them.  Their only chance of escape
+appeared destroyed.  At that moment a shout was heard, followed by a
+rapid fire of musketry; and then came the sound of a big gun, and the
+peculiar rattle and crash of grape.  The Chinese attacking the boats
+wavered and fled, followed by those between the English and the river;
+and a party of bluejackets and marines, headed by Jack Rogers, was seen
+hurrying up from the water.  There was no time to be lost.  The Chinese
+might recover from their panic; so lifting Adair and Murray on their
+shoulders, with the other wounded people, his men carried them to the
+boats.  The Chinamen looked with astonishment at What had occurred, and
+then, recovering their senses, rushed down again towards the boats; but,
+though they were too late to get back their prey, they got more than
+they expected; for Jack Rogers, ordering the boats once more to pull
+round so as to present their bows to the enemy, a rattling fire of grape
+was thrown among them, which once more very rapidly sent them to the
+rightabout.
+
+Considering the number of wounded, Jack very wisely pulled down the
+river as fast as he could go.  He meantime had the hurts of the wounded
+men bound up.  Murray soon recovered, but Adair continued so weak that
+his friends became very anxious for his safety.  Jack told Murray that
+the _Blenny_ had come in directly after the expedition had started--that
+he had been sent up to obtain provisions at the village where they had
+landed the comprador, and that from that personage he had received so
+alarming an account of the disposition of the natives higher up, that he
+had hurried on in case they might be attacked.  Jack was heartily glad
+when he got his wounded friends on board the frigate.  The doctor looked
+grave when he saw Adair.  Murray, he said, was in no danger.  No one
+could have been better nursed than was poor Terence, and he at length
+gave signs that he was recovering his strength, and the doctor looked
+brighter when he spoke of him.
+
+Some weeks had passed, when the frigate and brigs were standing in for
+the land, a steamer hove in sight, and a signal was made that she had
+the mail-bags on board.  It was the first day Terence had been able to
+sit up in the midshipmen's berth.  Jack had come on board to see him.  A
+long, official-looking letter was handed to each of them, "On Her
+Majesty's Service."  One was addressed to Lieutenant Jack Rogers,
+another to Lieutenant Alick Murray, and a third to Lieutenant Terence
+Adair.  There was a general shout, and warm congratulations were
+showered on them.  I ought to have said that, when last in England, they
+had all passed their examination for navigation, having before that
+passed for seamanship.  They were in reality, what were then called
+master's mates, a rank to which the more satisfactory title of
+sub-lieutenants has been given.  They were appointed to different ships
+on the station; when in their new rank they performed a number of very
+gallant acts, which may some day be chronicled for the benefit of my
+friends.  However, as they now belong to a higher rank, I must bring to
+a termination the adventures of my old schoolfellows, the Three
+Midshipmen.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Midshipmen, by W.H.G. Kingston
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