ir intention to seize upon the boat
and carry her off!

CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT.

THE TABLES NEARLY TURNED.

The sight thus unexpectedly brought before the eyes of the rescuers
sends a shiver through their hearts, and draws exclamations of alarm
from their lips. With quick intuition one and all comprehend the
threatened danger. All at that moment remember having left only two or
three men on the barque; and, should the pirates succeed in boarding,
they may carry her off to sea, leaving themselves on the isle.

The prospect is appalling! But they do not dwell upon it; they have
neither time, nor need. It is too clear, like a flash passing before
their minds, in all its dread details! Without waiting to exchange word
with one another, they rush on to arrest the threatened catastrophe,
bounding over the rocks, crashing through shells and pebbles. But they
are behind time, and the others will reach the boat before them!

Crozier, perceiving this, shouts to the coxswain--

"Shove off, Grummet! Into deep water with you!"

Grummet, understanding what is meant, brings the boat-hook point
downward, and with a desperate effort, pushes the keel clear, sending
the boat adrift.

But before he can repeat the push, pistols are fired, and, simultaneous
with their reports, he is seen to sink down, and lie doubled over the
thwarts.

A yell of vengeance peals from the pursuing party; and, maddened, they
rush on. They will be too late! Already the pirates have reached the
boat, now undefended; and all four together, swarming over the gunwale,
drop down upon the thwarts, each as he does so seizing hold of an oar,
and shipping it.

In agony, Crozier cries out--

"O God! are they to get away--these guilty, redhanded wretches?"

It would seem so. They have already dipped their oar-blades into the
water, and commenced pulling, while they are beyond pistol-range.

Ha! something stays them! God is not for them. Their arms rise and
fall, but the boat moves not! Her keel is on a coral bottom; her bilge
caught upon its rough projections. Their own weight pressing down,
holds her fast, and their oar-strokes are idly spent!

They had not thought of being thus stayed; though it proves the
turning-point of their fate.

No use their leaping out now, to lighten the boat; no time for that, nor
any chance to escape. But two alternatives stare them in the face--
resistance, which means death; surrender, that seems the same