f course," interrupted Brown; "Mr Delamere it is! I
knowed that I knowed that voice of yours, sir. Here, you Joe, rouse and
bitt, man; here's the skipper come to life again. Half a minute, sir,
and we'll have a light. Joe, you lighted the `glim' last; what did ye
do wi' the tinder-box?"

The two men were broad awake, out of their bunks, and bustling about
almost before one could draw a breath, and the next moment they had
lighted a lantern, in the dim glimmer of which they stood up side by
side, saluting, as I stared into their faces scarcely able to credit
such a stupendous piece of good fortune as the unexpected discovery of
these two men, not only Englishmen, but actually members of my own late
crew!

"My lads," I exclaimed, as they stood before me at attention, "I am more
glad than I can express, not only to find that you, like myself, have
managed to escape with your lives, but also that you are here, aboard
this felucca. For I fully intended to make the somewhat desperate
attempt to escape in her single-handed; but the presence of you two men
puts a very different complexion upon the affair. What I might have
been wholly unable to accomplish alone, we three can together manage
with ease. There is only one possible difficulty in our way: Can you
tell me whether there happens to be any food and water aboard this
craft?"

"Yes, sir," answered Brown, "there's both, for we're fed every day out
of the ship's stores. There's the scuttle butt on deck nearly full o'
water, and there's grub down in the lazarette, but how much I don't
know."

"Then let us go at once and ascertain," said I, "for my escape may be
discovered at any moment, and naturally this would be where they would
first look for me. Mask that lantern with your jacket, one of you, and
bring it along aft. Every second is now of importance to us."

It took us but a few minutes to penetrate to the little vessel's
lazarette, where we found an ample supply of provisions of all kinds for
a much larger crew than ourselves and a much longer voyage than we
contemplated.

"Very well," I remarked, as I ran my eye over the array of biscuit and
flour barrels and the casks, some of which were branded "prime mess
beef," while others contained potatoes and sundry other commodities,
"that will do; we shall certainly not starve during the next few days,
whatever else may happen to us. Now clap on that hatch again, and we
will go on deck, slip the cable, and