y with a flaming
brand. The instant of suspense that followed was awful. A bright
flash followed, and as the accompanying roar met their ears a harsh
spattering and hissing beyond relieved their anxiety immensely.

Not a thing touched the boat or its occupants.

"Overshot--by thunder!" cried Duff with an exulting whoop, that ended
in a groan of pain. "We are all right now; the beggars can never
reload. They don't know how, and be hanged to 'em!"

After that, while resting, Ralph briefly related his own adventures,
though touching lightly upon his suffering for food and the pain of his
wound.

"You've had a time of it, sure," replied Duff. "Yet it was lucky for
you and me both that you parted company with us as you did. Ah! 'twas
a very trying day yesterday and a fearful time last night. Eat a bite,
lad. I can't till I've tried to do something for my leg."

So Ralph fell to on the bag of biscuit and the keg of water, while Duff
bathed and bound up his leg as best he could. The bone had been
fractured just above the ankle by a bullet.

Fortunately it was an easy though painful matter to straighten the
limb, as nothing had been unjointed. A spare shirt and some of the
canvas sufficed to keep the bone in place after a fashion. As Duff
said grimly:

"It will do until we're picked up; and if we ain't picked up, it will
do anyhow."

Ralph, after eating, dressed his own wound, and the two made themselves
as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. The mate's account
of what happened after Ralph's drifting away was in substance as
follows.

Things remained tolerably quiet for several hours after the defeat of
the attempt on the part of the blacks to gain the deck by way of the
forecastle. It was concluded that the negroes were sleeping off the
effect of the rum they must have taken. As most of the water was
below, they probably quenched their thirst without stint.

Meanwhile, on deck things looked more blue than ever. The whites were
without provisions, nearly everything in that line being in the store
rooms below. A large breaker of water was on tap in the waist, which,
with some ship's biscuits, formed their only diet that morning.

No sail was sighted all that day. Ralph's absence was detected only
when it was found that one of the boats was gone. Gary swore some at
the loss of the last, but seemed relieved rather than otherwise over
the fate of the boy.

"He's gone and a good riddanc