had yielded a seeming acquiescence to Miss Onslow's
misguided wish to share my captivity--should it be continued--aboard the
brig, it must not be supposed that I had any intention of lending myself
to so terribly dangerous and mistaken a proceeding. It was perfectly
clear to me that the high-spirited girl had, in some unaccountable way,
completely missed the point of my remarks, and utterly failed to
comprehend the frightfully precarious and perilous character of her
position aboard the brig; moreover, her mere presence there served
O'Gorman as a lever and a menace powerful enough to constrain me
irresistibly to the most abject submission to his will; so long as she
remained where she was, in the power of these ruffians, I could do
absolutely nothing, for fear of what they might inflict upon her by way
of revenge; but with her removed from their power, and placed in safety,
I might possibly be able to bring every one of the wretches into the
grip of the law that they had so audaciously defied. And so, when I
began to pen my letter to the unknown skipper, I was careful--after
briefly describing our peculiar situation--to appeal to him, as
powerfully as I could, to effect the rescue of the girl by any means at
his command, regardless of what might become of me.

Having at length finished my letter, I folded it up into a suitably
small and compact form, placed it by itself in one of my pockets, in
readiness to transfer it at the first favourable opportunity to the
individual for whom it was intended, and then, filling my pipe, made my
way leisurely up on deck to take a look round and see in what direction
matters were trending.

It was a magnificently fine and brilliant moon-lit night, with only a
few small, scattered shreds of light fleecy cloud floating overhead, and
a soft, warm air breathing out from the north-east so gently that it
scarcely stirred the oil-smooth surface of the ocean, which indeed it
only touched here and there in faint, evanescent cat's-paws that barely
sufficed to give the brig steerage-way with squared yards and every
possible inch of canvas spread. As for the barque, she was now about a
point on the starboard bow, not more than a mile distant, and was
evidently not under command, as she had swung round head to wind, and
lay there in the bright moonlight swaying with an almost imperceptible
swing over the long, low hummocks of glassy swell, with her canvas--
gleaming softly and spectrally under