so," said Mr Collinson. "At all events, we shall be wise
then not to live below. Go forward, and see if there are any people
there. Bill, do you stay on deck."

Jack disappeared down the fore-hatchway, but directly afterwards
returned with a look of horror.

"There are three poor fellows there, sir. One of them is alive; but,
from the way he was crying out, I don't think he can live many minutes
longer. She looks to me like a French vessel--at all events, she is not
English."

This announcement was truly alarming. Mr Collinson told the men to
carry him down, that he might see the poor sick man.

"We don't want to be mutinous, sir," answered Jack, "but that is what we
won't do. You are ill already, and more likely to catch the fever than
we are. I'll carry him down a mug of water, maybe that will do him
good, but it's little use any of us can be to him, I have a notion."

Saying this, Jack again disappeared down the fore-hatch. He quickly
returned.

"It was of no use, sir," he said. "No sooner did I put the water to the
poor fellow's lips, than he gave a gasp and off he went. And now, sir,
there are five of them lying there all dead. The sooner we get them up
and overboard the better."

Mr Collinson agreed to this, and the two men accordingly went at once
into the cabin, and returned bringing a man, whom from his appearance
they supposed to have been the captain. Without more ado, they slid the
body overboard. Thus one after the other was treated. There was no
time for ceremony of any sort. For their own safety, the great point
was to get rid of the bodies at once. A tar-pot having been found, Mr
Collinson then sent the men below, to fumigate the cabin and the
forepeak.

"If we do that thoroughly, I trust that we need not fear the fever," he
observed. "At all events, let us put our faith in Providence, and pray
that we may be preserved."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

There was no time for any one to be idle on board the brig. She had
received a tremendous shaking in the hurricane, and was leaking
considerably. It was a wonder, indeed, that she had not gone down. To
have a chance of safety, jury-masts must be got up before another breeze
should come on, or she might be driven on the reefs and lost.

Jack, having searched the cabin, brought all the papers he could find to
Mr Collinson. By this he discovered that the brig was the _Beatrix_,
bound from New Orleans to Point a Petre in Dominique.