heir cargo, if they had one, I suppose they hove overboard,
to make room for ours. How long they continued at this work, I don't
know. It seemed to me an age, you may be sure, sir. At last they
knocked off, and there was silence for some time. I thought they were
going to leave us, when I heard them return on board; and there was a
sound which I could not mistake. The murderous villains were boring
holes in the ship's bottom. I felt it was all up with us. They
intended to let the brig founder, with all her crew, so that there
should be no witnesses to their robbery. In vain I tried to get my
hands loose. They were too well secured, and I had, therefore, nothing
to do but to resign myself to my fate. It was not the first time that I
had faced death; and, sirs, I knew in whom to trust. He had before
preserved my life. Gentlemen, I should be an ungrateful wretch if I did
not thus at once acknowledge God's great mercy to us. He has preserved
our lives, and we are here."

The reverential way in which the worthy master spoke made a deep
impression on me. There was no ostentation, no hypocrisy, no cant; but
heartfelt gratitude, and humble reliance on God's protecting hand.

"No excuse necessary. What you say is right--perfectly right. You
speak as a Christian should, and I honour you for it; but go on,"
replied Captain Poynder, who was evidently anxious to arrive at the
conclusion of the master's somewhat prolix narrative.

"Well, sir," he continued, "of one thing I felt pretty certain, that
Delano was the perpetrator of this horrible outrage. It was the very
trick he was reported to have played before, and which, from what I had
seen of him, I judged he would be ready to play again. I could hear the
water begin to rush into the ship, but it did not reach the deck of the
cabin so soon as I expected. There was a good deal of noise on deck, as
if the pirates were knocking things to pieces; and then I judged that
the vessels had separated, and that the pirate had sheered off to leave
us to our fate. All was silent, and I could not tell whether my poor
fellows had been carried off or been left to share my fate with the
brig. Some twenty minutes or half an hour had passed in this state of
uncertainty, when I heard a noise, as if bulkheads were being knocked
in, and my own name was called by a voice which I recognised as that of
my mate. I shouted joyfully in return, and in a few seconds he and some
of the cr