den to cry out on peril of their lives. I
compelled them to tell what hands and what arms were left on board. The
sloop from which they came, and the schooner, its consort, were bound
for Gaspe, to bring provisions for several hundred Indians assembled
at Miramichi and Aristiguish, who were to go by these same vessels to
re-enforce the garrison of Quebec.

The sloop, they said, had six guns and a crew of twenty men; but the
schooner, which was much larger, had no arms save muskets, and a crew
and guard of thirty men.

In this country there is no twilight, and with sunset came instantly the
dusk. Already silence and dark inclosed the sloop. I had the men bound
to a tree, and gagged also, engaging to return and bring them away
safe and unhurt when our task was over. I chose for pilot the boy,
and presently, with great care, launching our patched shallop from the
stocks--for the ship-boat was too small to carry six safely--we got
quietly away. Rowing with silent stroke, we came alongside the sloop. No
light burned save that in the binnacle, and all hands, except the watch,
were below at supper and at cards.

I could see the watch forward as we dropped silently alongside the
stern. My object was to catch this fellow as he came by. This I would
trust to no one but myself; for now, grown stronger, I had the old
spring in my blood, and I had also a good wish that my plans should
not go wrong through the bungling of others. I motioned my men to sit
silent, and then, when the fellow's back was toward me, coming softly up
the side, I slid over quietly, and drew into the shadow of a boat that
hung near.

He came on lazily, and when just past me I suddenly threw my arms about
him, clapping my hand upon his mouth. He was stoutly built, and he began
at once to struggle. He was no coward, and feeling for his knife, he
drew it, and would have had it in me but that I was quicker, and, with
a desperate wrench, my hand still over his mouth, half swung him round,
and drove my dagger home.

He sank in my arms with a heaving sigh, and I laid him down, still and
dead, upon the deck. Then I whispered up my comrades, the boy leading.
As the last man came over, his pistol, stuck in his belt, caught the
ratlings of the shrouds, and it dropped upon the deck. This gave the
alarm, but I was at the companion-door on the instant, as the first
master came bounding up, sword showing, and calling to his men, who
swarmed after him. I fired; the bull