, knew nothing and heard nothing of all
that had passed so near them. The darkness of the night and the roaring
of the storm was all they saw or heard of the world without, as they sat
in their watch tower reading or trimming their lamps.

But Ruby was not sorry for this; he felt glad to be alone with God, to
thank Him for his recent deliverance.

Exhausting though the struggle had been, its duration was short, so that
he soon recovered his wonted strength. Then, rising, he got upon the
iron railway, or "rails", as the men used to call it, and a few steps
brought him to the foot of the metal ladder conducting to the
entrance-door.

Climbing up, he stood at last in a place of safety, and disappeared
within the doorway of the lighthouse.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

THE WRECK.

Meantime the French privateer sped onward to her doom.

The force with which the French commander fell when Ruby cast him off,
had stunned him so severely that it was a considerable time before he
recovered. The rest of the crew were therefore in absolute ignorance of
how to steer.

In this dilemma they lay-to for a short time, after getting away to a
sufficient distance from the dangerous rock, and consulted what was to
be done. Some advised one course, and some another, but it was finally
suggested that one of the English prisoners should be brought up and
commanded to steer out to sea.

This advice was acted on, and the sailor who was brought up chanced to
be one who had a partial knowledge of the surrounding coasts. One of
the Frenchmen who could speak a few words of English, did his best to
convey his wishes to the sailor, and wound up by producing a pistol,
which he cocked significantly.

"All right," said the sailor, "I knows the coast, and can run ye
straight out to sea. That's the Bell Rock Light on the weather-bow, I
s'pose."

"Oui, dat is de Bell Roke."

"Wery good; our course is due nor'west."

So saying, the man took the wheel and laid the ship's course
accordingly.

Now, he knew quite well that this course would carry the vessel towards
the harbour of Arbroath, into which he resolved to run at all hazards,
trusting to the harbour-lights to guide him when he should draw near.
He knew that he ran the strongest possible risk of getting himself shot
when the Frenchmen should find out his faithlessness, but he hoped to
prevail on them to believe the harbour-lights were only another
lighthouse, which they should have