, the very fires he had kindled
in his den on shore prevented his escape; for while the calm lasted the
bright flames shone upon him with the glare of hell! There we lay all
that night without moving a muscle or a mile until day dawned--and such
a day as did dawn!

"Meanwhile the barometer had fallen an inch and a half, until the master
began to believe the bulb leaked, and the mercury was dropping into the
case. Then, through the murky gloom of daylight, with the sea one flat
greasy surface, with never the splash of a fish to disturb it, while the
lowest whisper of the topmen aloft could be distinctly heard on deck, as
if we were hung in the vacuum of an exhausted receiver where a feather
would drop like a bullet, suddenly there came a sound from the direction
of the cays. Suppose, Burns, you saw a forty-two pound shot coming
toward you, and without you dodged quick, your head would be flying off
with it in the same direction?"

"Whist, mon!" said Stewart, with a groan, "dinna be calling up sic
peectures of the brain, Cleveland. Paddy, there, ne'er thinks of ony
meesals bigger than a peestol bullet."

"Well, my friends, we ran precisely a similar risk, though the
cloudy embrasures over the island had not quite enough thunder to
reach us. However, the brigantine knew what would follow as well as we
did--better, perhaps--and before you could swallow that glass of wine
she was stripped as bare as a bone, and down came her yards too, but
keeping the sticks up, and spreading a patch of a storm staysail
forward that you might apparently have put in your pocket. Her decks
and rigging were crowded with men while she was doing all this, but
the moment it was done, and well done too, they ran into their holes
below like so many rats, and we could only see a man or two left on
deck near the helm.

"All hands had been called on board the 'Scourge' at four o'clock, and,
with the exception of securing the battery, every thing was ready to
make a skeleton of the ship the moment we saw the brigantine begin; for
she was a wary fish, and we had no idea of letting her give us the slip
the third time. I had the trumpet, however, and with the captain at my
elbow, the instant he saw that the brigantine was once more rigged
nearly in her old way, he gave me the word, 'Now, Cleveland, work
sharp!'

"With a hundred and twenty men aloft, jumping about like cats, the light
sails, studding-sail booms, royal and top-gallant yards came down,