n through the passage between the
Scilly Islands and the main.

"If the wind holds as it does now," he said, "we'll be in Cork harbour
in a jiffy. Shure the little hooker would find her way there if we were
all to turn in and go to sleep till she gets up to Passage."

"As I'm not so confident of that same, captain, I must beg you to keep
your wits about you till you put me ashore," I observed.

He gave me a wink in reply, but said nothing.

During the day I walked the deck, going into the cabin only for meals.
The skipper spent most of his time there, only putting up his head now
and then to see how the wind was, and to give directions to the man at
the helm. From the way the crew talked, I began to suspect that they
had obtained some liquor from the shore, probably by the boat which
brought the skipper off. Not being altogether satisfied with the state
of things, I offered to keep watch. The skipper at once agreed to this,
and suggested that I should keep the middle watch, while he kept the
first.

Before I went below the wind veered round almost ahead. The night, I
observed, was very dark; and as there was no moon in the sky, while a
thick mist came rolling across the water, had I not supposed that the
skipper was tolerably sober I should have remained on deck; but, feeling
very sleepy, I went below, though thinking it prudent not to take off my
clothes. I lay down in the berth just as I was. I could hear the
skipper talking to the man at the helm, and it appeared to me that the
vessel was moving faster through the water than before. Then I fell off
to sleep.

How long I had slept I could not tell, when I was awakened by a loud
crash. I sprang out of my berth, and instinctively rushed up the
companion ladder. Just then I dimly saw a spar over me, and, clutching
it, was the next moment carried along away from the deck of the vessel,
which disappeared beneath my feet. I heard voices shouting, and cries
apparently from the hooker. The night was so dark that I could scarcely
see a foot above me. I scrambled up what I found must be the dolphin
striker of a vessel, and thence on to her bowsprit.

"Here's one of them," I heard some one sing out, as I made my way on to
the forecastle of what I supposed was a ship of war.

My first thought was for Larry.

"What has become of the hooker?" I exclaimed. Has any one else been
saved?

The question was repeated by the officer of the watch, who now came
hu