e possibility of its being overheard; but,
though George could see that a figure stood on the brig's rail by the
main-rigging, not a word was uttered.

Keeping his gaze steadfastly fixed upon the brig, Captain Leicester saw
that her helm had suddenly been ported, for she was sheering strongly in
toward his own vessel.

"Brig ahoy!" he hailed. "What is it you have to say to me? Do not come
too close, sir, or you will be into us."

"Never fear," answered in perfect English the dark figure on board the
brig, "we will not carry away so much as a rope-yarn belonging to you.
But I must be on board you before I can venture to give you your
instructions."

"Oh! very well," said George. "If you intend boarding us, you had
better do so by way of our fore-rigging, or you may get a nasty fall; we
are very much littered up here abaft with spars and so on."

"Ah, thank you very much; I will take your advice," was the reply.

George saw the man motion with his arm, and the brig's course was
altered sufficiently to put her alongside with her gangway even with the
_Aurora's_ fore-mast. Another second or two, and the ships gently
jarred together, the brig's quarter dropping alongside the barque at the
same moment.

"_Enfans, allons-nous-en_!" exclaimed the voice of the stranger forward,
followed by the sound of a leap on to the barque's deck, and a scramble
among the spars which littered it there.

"Now is your time, lads; jump for your lives!" exclaimed George in a
low, excited tone; and, setting his men the example, he forthwith sprang
from his own ship's bulwarks to those of the brig; and dashing at the
helmsman, cut him down with his cutlass before the fellow could recover
sufficiently from his astonishment to utter a cry. Then, without a
moment's pause, he seized the wheel and exerting all his strength, sent
it with a single twirl spinning hard over to starboard, where he lashed
it.

The shock of collision, slight as it was, caused the two vessels to
recoil from each other, and they were barely alongside when they
separated again; George's manipulation of the brig's wheel, and a
similar manipulation of the _Aurora's_ helm at the last moment before
the touching of the two vessels, greatly expediting the separation. By
the time, therefore, that George had looked about him, and satisfied
himself that the whole of his crew were safely with him on the brig's
deck, the two vessels were a dozen feet apart and increasing th