hem into brutes."

The Knight's reply was more courteous.

"At another time, worthy Captain, it were a pleasure to accept thine
invitation, but bethink thee that it is early in the day."

"It is near upon twelve," answered the Captain, looking at the sun,
"or I never squinted through a quadrant; and may it please ye,
Governor, wont ye let the red skins speak for themselves?"

"Nay," said Dudley, "so long as they are within my charge, nothing
stronger than water shall pass their lips."

"But," persisted the Captain, "if all I hear on shore be true, I take
it ye are trying to drive a bargain with them imps. Now, have ye never
noticed that the best time to trade with a man is when half a dozen
glasses have warmed his heart?"

"Peace," said Dudley, "no more of this. We came to see the ship and
not to trespass on thy mistaken hospitality."

"The lubberly milksop!" muttered the Captain betwixt his teeth. "But
what," he added aloud, "are the red skins looking at so sharp out to
sea?"

While this conversation had been going on, the attention of the
savages had been arrested by an object floating on the water. It rose
and fell on the heaving sea, at one moment visible, and at the next
hid from view. At first it had been impossible to say what it was. It
might be a spar, or plank, or any part of a shipwrecked vessel. The
tide was coming in, and the object became more and more distinct,
until an old sailor, whose experienced eyes had also been attracted
sea-ward, exclaimed,

"Captain, I'm a green hand, and never weathered the Cape, if there
ben't a man lashed on yon spar."

"By St. George's cross, but I believe thou art right, Dick Spritsail,"
cried the Captain. "It's some poor fellow, I warrant me, whose ship
has gone down, and who made a raft to try his luck. Johnny Shark, do
ye see, is no pleasant customer to become acquainted with, and so he
took a venture on the spar for a Christian burial, instead of making
Jonah's viage."

"It's no Christian," replied Dick, "unless the waters in these
latitudes have the faculty to turn a man black."

The sailor had hardly pronounced the last words, when one of the
Indians, divesting himself of the skin that covered his shoulders,
leaped from the side of the ship, and swam in the direction of the
object which had attracted their attention. It would seem that his
keen eyes, like those of the sailor, had detected the body, and that,
unable to repress his curiosity, he had taken