t you when the ship heeled over, but missed you; and
thought that the skylight hatch carried you away overboard when it
lifted."

"Me watchee him sharp, sah," explained Jake. "I'se see de squall comin'
an' run aft for tell, an' den I clutch hole Mass' Tom, an' here we is!"

"You've saved your young master then," exclaimed the captain; "so, Tom,
you've got to thank the darkey instead of me! But, how many of us have
escaped?"

As he said this, Captain Miles glanced about and appeared to be
reckoning up the list of the crew on his fingers, for I could see his
lips move.

"Marline, you're all right, eh?" he went on presently, speaking out
aloud.

"Oh, yes, I'm here, thanks to Providence," said the first mate with
almost a sob in his voice. It told better than words his gratitude to
the power on high that had preserved him.

"And Jackson, I see, with Davis and Cuffee," continued the captain,
running through the names of the survivors as far as he could make them
out.

"There's Adze, the carpenter, too, in the main-chains, with those two
German sailors, Hermann and Gottlieb; while there are five more of the
hands alongside me," said Mr Marline looking round, too, and taking
stock.

"But, where's Moggridge?" asked Captain Miles, missing the boatswain at
that moment and not seeing him anywhere. I felt my heart sink at the
thought that he was gone.

"Here I am, your honour," however, sang out the old fellow, climbing up
over the stern gallery. "I almost lost the number of my mess; but I've
managed to cheat Davy Jones this time."

"That makes, with Master Tom here, just sixteen souls, out of eighteen
we had on board, all told," said the captain. "Anybody seen the
steward?"

"No, he isn't here, poor fellow," replied Mr Marline. "He was below in
his pantry at the time the squall struck us, and must have been drowned
before he could scramble out."

"There's only one other, then, missing," said the captain. "Count the
hands again, Marline."

The first mate did this; and, then, it was found, on hailing Jackson in
the main-chains--the sea at present making a breach between us and
dividing our forces--that the other sailor was a man named Briggs, who
had been ailing for some days past. He had been in his bunk in the
forecastle when the ship capsized, so his fate was almost as certain as
that of Harry, the mulatto steward.

All things considered, though, it was a great mercy, from the sudden
nature of the ca