though the
commander still hoped to be able to maintain the crew for many months to
come, with the help of such wild-fowl and fish as could be caught.

Next morning, before daybreak, all hands were roused up, it being
arranged that the pinnace was to start directly there was light enough
for her to see her way between the reefs. Those who were to go were
first to breakfast, while a party who had been told off for the purpose
carried the stores and water down to the pinnace. She was soon loaded;
and a ruddy glow had just appeared in the eastern sky as Mr Foley and
his companions stepped on board.

It had again become perfectly calm. Not a breath of air ruffled the
smooth surface of the ocean; scarcely a ripple broke on the beach.

"You will have a long pull of it among the reefs," observed the master;
"but you will get a breeze, I hope, from the north-east when the sun
rises."

The mists of night had begun to clear away, when Mr Foley, looking
towards the south-west, exclaimed, "There's a vessel at anchor."

The pinnace was on the point of shoving off.

"Wait till we see what she is," said the commander, who had come down,
as had all the officers and men, to bid farewell to their shipmates.

The sun now quickly rising, shed its rays on the stranger, towards which
several telescopes were turned.

"She is the very merchantman we saw yesterday, or I am much mistaken,"
observed the commander.

"No doubt about it, sir," said Mr Tarwig.

"Foley, you will be saved a voyage in the boat. We must board her
without delay, or she may be getting under way, although it seems
strange that she should not have noticed our flag," said Commander
Olding. "Can she have beaten off the pirate?"

"It looks like it, sir," answered the first lieutenant. "Either the
pirate must have escaped or been sent to the bottom."

"We shall soon hear all about it, I hope; and we must get her to take us
off," said the commander.

"As the pinnace is ready, I will pull on board at once, sir, if you will
allow me," said Mr Foley.

The commander hesitated for a moment. "We will run no unnecessary
risk," he observed. "She may have beaten off the pirate, or she may
have become her prize, and if so, it will be safer for all the boats to
proceed together well armed."

Some minutes were occupied in unloading the pinnace, that more men might
go in her; and in the mean time the crews of the other boats hurried
back to the fort to obtain their