crowd of swarthy-skinned strangers, who, with bared daggers and
sword-blades, were making their way down to the cabin. That they were
enemies was so instantly apparent that George unhesitatingly levelled
his pistol at the foremost man and fired. The bullet struck the man in
the shoulder, shattering the bone, and he staggered to one side,--only
to make way for others, however, who, pressing upon George, disarmed and
overpowered him before he had opportunity to do further harm. Mr
Bowen, who had dashed out of his cabin just behind George, was similarly
disarmed and overpowered; and then the crowd pressed on into the cabin,
where they found and secured Walford and the lad Tom.

Having made a thorough search of the various state-rooms, the
strangers--who were evidently Spaniards--hurried their prisoners on
deck. Here a single glance sufficed to show Captain Leicester that his
ship had been taken from him by a clever surprise, aided--or rather
rendered possible--by terrible carelessness on the part of those left in
charge of the deck. The crew, as he found on rapidly counting heads,
were all present--with one exception--securely bound hand and foot, and
huddled together under the bulwarks. The exception--the missing man--
was Ritson; and the overturned and broken chair, the blood-spattered
deck in its immediate vicinity, and the heavy splash into the water
alongside, which George had heard, rendered the whole story as plain and
clear as the moon which rode so serenely in the heavens above. Poor
Ritson! he had paid with his life the penalty of his disastrous lapse of
duty. And the drowsy helmsman--who had obviously awakened in time to
spring to the assistance of his superior--was lying near the skylight,
white and ghastly in the moonlight, with his skull cloven, and a great
black pool of blood slowly spreading on the planking beneath his head.
The brig ahead, now hove-to and evidently awaiting the approach of the
_Aurora_, told George from whence his enemies had sprung; and--now that
it was all too late--he bitterly reproached himself for his lack of
caution with regard to her.

The individuals who had thus cleverly gained possession of the barque
were as ruffianly a set of scoundrels as could well be met with on the
high seas. Their leader, a brawny, thick-set Spaniard, with a skin
tanned to the hue of well-seasoned mahogany, his ragged black locks
bound round with a filthy red silk handkerchief, and surmounted by