ndered
farther east than he had ever been before, he found himself in the
presence of a press-gang, who were carrying off a party of men and boys
to the river's edge. One of the man-of-war's men seized upon him, and
Bill, thinking that matters could not be much worse with him than they
were at present, willingly accompanied the party, though he had very
little notion where they were going. Reaching a boat, they were made to
tumble in, some resisting and endeavouring to get away; but a gentle
prick from the point of a cutlass, or a clout on the head, made them
more reasonable, and most of them sat down resigned to their fate. One
of them, however, a stout fellow, when the boat had got some distance
from the shore, striking out right and left at the men nearest him,
sprang overboard, and before the boat could be pulled round had already
got back nearly half-way to the landing-place.

One or two of the press-gang, who had muskets, fired, but they were not
good shots. The man looking back as he saw them lifting their weapons,
by suddenly diving escaped the first volley, and by the time they had
again loaded he had gained such a distance that the shot spattered into
the water on either side of him. They were afraid of firing again for
fear of hitting some of the people on shore, besides which, darkness
coming on, the gloom concealed him from view.

They knew, however, that he must have landed in safety from the cheers
which came from off the quay, uttered by the crowd who had followed the
press-gang, hooting them as they embarked with their captives.

Bill began to think that he could not be going to a very pleasant place,
since, in spite of the risk he ran, the man had been so eager to escape;
but being himself unable to swim, he could not follow his example, even
had he wished it. He judged it wiser, therefore, to stay still, and see
what would next happen. The boat pulled down the river for some way,
till she got alongside a large cutter, up the side of which Bill and his
companions were made to climb.

From what he heard, he found that she was a man-of-war tender, her
business being to collect men, by hook or by crook, for the Royal Navy.

As she was now full--indeed, so crowded that no more men could be stowed
on board--she got under way with the first of the ebb, and dropped down
the stream, bound for Spithead.

As Bill, with most of the pressed men, was kept below during this his
first trip to sea, he gai