p to them, one from
one schooner, one from the other, and before any of us knew what was up,
our fellows were swimming for the shore, and if it hadn't been for the
Count, who was on the look-out for crocs, and let them have two barrels
twice over, neither of the poor fellows would have joined their mates as
had been working with me."

The speaker turned to the Count, who nodded his head quickly, and then
looked at his son as much as to say, Yes, this is quite true.

"Well," continued the skipper, "I felt as if all the wind had been
knocked out of me, and as soon as I could speak and quite understand
that my schooner had been took, I began to bully-rag the poor lads who
had just escaped with their lives, for, not having time to get a gun or
a cutlass, they had been almost as helpless on board as they were in the
water among them reptiles. I couldn't even believe it then, and began
questioning the lads, and you might have knocked me down with a feather,
as people say, and the Count there with another, when they all swore
that our Spanish skipper had led the men from his three-master in one of
the boats. Then we began to see the worst."

The skipper turned with a questioning look at the Count again, to
receive a second grave nod, while this time the latter laid his hand
upon his son's shoulder, and a long eager glance passed between them.

"Well, I don't know that I have much more to say," said the skipper,
"only that it was a bad job, being a fresh one we had got to tackle and
meant to do. The Count here fitted me and my lads up with some weepuns,
and we settled that as soon as it was dark we'd man two of the brig's
boats, and board first one and then the other of the two schooners.
Well, we tried, but they were waiting for us, and I don't know how we
escaped, for they met us with such a fire that if we had kept on both
boats must have been sunk, and we never got within touch of either of
the enemy, but drifted down with the tide; and somehow just then I
suppose there must have been a flood somewhere up the river, down came
the water in a way that we couldn't meet, and it was only by pretty good
seamanship on the part of the Frenchmen more than ours, though we helped
all we knew, that we were able to keep afloat; and since then we have
been right down to the sea, and it's been very hard to get enough to
eat. But somehow we managed to keep alive, shooting what we could and
catching a fish or two now and then as we c