WESTWARD--A DANGEROUS POSITION--AMONG ISLANDS AND REEFS--A SUSPICIOUS
SAIL--CHASED--THE OUZEL GALLEY--THE PIRATE'S FLAG--THE PIRATE BEGINS
FIRING--NORAH PLACED IN THE HOLD--A FORT SEEN ON THE ISLAND--NO BOATS
COME OFF--THE ISLAND PASSED--THE PIRATES FORE-TOPSAIL YARD SHOT AWAY--
THE SECOND MATE AND SEVERAL MEN OF THE RESEARCH KILLED OR WOUNDED--A
CALM--DAMAGES REPAIRED--A BREEZE SPRINGS UP--THE PIRATE OVERTAKES THE
RESEARCH--RUNS HER ON BOARD--FEARFUL SLAUGHTER OF HER CREW--CAPTURED--
THE TWO OLD CAPTAINS UNHURT--NORAH'S INTERVIEW WITH THE PIRATE--TAKEN ON
BOARD THE OUZEL GALLEY--COURTEOUSLY TREATED--A SAIL IN SIGHT--CHASED BY
A FRIGATE--THE OUZEL GALLEY ESCAPES AMONG THE REEFS--A CALM--THE
FRIGATE'S BOATS APPROACH TO ATTACK HER--A BREEZE SPRINGS UP--SHE
ESCAPES.

The two old captains were well aware of the numerous perils they might
possibly have to encounter when they sailed on their voyage in the
_Research_, but for the sake of Norah they took care to make light of
them whenever their prospects of success were discussed in her presence.
Norah very naturally would ask questions, and to those questions they
were compelled to try and find answers. In what part of the numberless
groups of those western islands were they to search for Owen and Gerald?
One subject absorbed all their thoughts--on that alone could they
converse. Even when Captain O'Brien, as he frequently did, tried to
introduce any other, it before long was sure to merge into that one.
Norah day after day would unroll the chart of the West Indies, and pore
over it for hours, till she knew the form and position and size of every
island and key, and reef and sandbank, delineated thereon. The ship had
already reached the tropics when a heavy gale sprang up from the
westward, before which she was compelled to run for three days. She
then had a long beat back, and the weather being unusually thick, no
observations could be taken to determine her position. Day after day
the two captains and the first mate came on deck at noon with their
quadrants, but not a break in the clouds appeared through which they
could get a glimpse of the sun.

They calculated at last that they could not be far off the most western
of the Bahamas, and, as they hoped, near the entrance of the Windward
Passage. At sunset the clouds dispersed, the wind shifted to the
northward, the stars shone brightly forth from the clear sky, and it was
hoped that the next day they might be able to