ggested Martin.

"Bad luck to them," said Barney as he slipped over the side, "they're
welcome to me. I'll take my chance. They'll find me mortial tough,
anyhow. Come along, lad, look sharp!"

Without a moment's hesitation Martin slid over the gunwale into the sea,
and, just as the pirate boats grappled with those of the barque, he and
Barney found themselves gliding as silently as otters towards the shore.
So quietly had the manoeuvre been accomplished, that the men in their
own boat were ignorant of their absence. In a few minutes they were
beyond the chance of detection.

"Keep close to me, lad," whispered the Irishman. "If we separate in the
darkness we'll niver foregather again. Catch hould o' my shoulder if ye
get blowed, and splutter as much as ye like. They can't hear us now,
and it'll help to frighten the sharks."

"All right," replied Martin; "I can swim like a cork in such warm water
as this. Just go a little slower and I'll do famously."

Thus encouraging each other, and keeping close together, lest they
should get separated in the thick darkness of the night, the two friends
struck out bravely for the shore.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

MARTIN AND BARNEY GET LOST IN A GREAT FOREST, WHERE THEY SEE STRANGE AND
TERRIBLE THINGS.

On gaining the beach, the first thing that Barney did, after shaking
himself like a huge Newfoundland dog, was to ascertain that his pistol
and cutlass were safe; for, although the former could be of no use in
its present condition, still, as he sagaciously remarked, "it was a good
thing to have, for they might chance to git powder wan day or other, and
the flint would make fire, anyhow." Fortunately the weather was
extremely warm; so they were enabled to take off and wring their clothes
without much inconvenience, except that in a short time a few
adventurous mosquitoes--probably sea-faring ones--came down out of the
woods and attacked their bare bodies so vigorously that they were fain
to hurry on their clothes again before they were quite dry.

The clouds began to clear away soon after they landed, and the brilliant
light of the southern constellations revealed to them dimly the
appearance of the coast. It was a low sandy beach skirting the sea and
extending back for about a quarter of a mile in the form of a grassy
plain, dotted here and there with scrubby under-wood. Beyond this was a
dark line of forest. The light was not sufficient to enable them to
ascertain the