ey said he could not make out.
Dangerous as his present position was, he felt no inclination to entrust
himself to their care. However, they made signs to him to come down
into the canoe, and after a little reflection, and thinking it better
not to show any fear or mistrust of them, he complied with their
demands, and as he slid down over the side of the vessel, they caught
him, and hauled him in. He saw them minutely examining the vessel, and
then they asked him a number of questions in Spanish, or a sort of
mongrel Spanish, which he could not clearly comprehend, and he thought
it more prudent not to show that he understood them at all. He made
out, however, that the strangers were inquiring how the vessel was
capsized, and how he came to be on board her. He guessed also that they
knew that she was a slaver, and had been captured by the party to which
he had belonged. When they found that he did not reply to their
questions, they let him sit down at the bottom of the canoe, while the
two whites and one of the black men talked together among themselves.
They every now and then cast glances ominous of evil intentions towards
him. Poor Jack did not at all like their looks, still less the tenor of
the few words whose meaning he caught. "Knock him on the head at once,"
said one. "Throw him overboard, and let the sharks have him," proposed
another. "Shoot him with pistol," quoth the big negro,--grinning
horribly. These words were uttered with the most cold-blooded
indifference, as if the act proposed by the speakers was one of everyday
occurrence with them. Jack, as he listened, longed to make an effort to
save his life; anything was better than to sit there quietly and be
murdered. Far rather would he die struggling bravely for existence.
Still, as the pirates did not make any further demonstration, he thought
it would be wiser to appear unconscious of their threats, and remained
where he was without moving. Jack, however, every now and then, looked
over the gunwale of the canoe, to ascertain where they were going. They
quickly arrived off the bar, but the slave-dealers or pirates, or
whatever they were, seemed to think that there was too much surf to
allow them to cross it. They therefore pulled back a little way to the
south. Jack observed a patch of sandy beach, with a clear channel up to
it, between two rocks. They waited for a short time, and then the
canoe, mounting on the top of a roller, was carried r