able
to undershtand a worrud we say to thim; and bedad we're in the same fix
with regar-rd to thim. So we want an interpreter; and maybe you'll be
able to act that same for us."

"Very well," said I; "what do you want me to do?"

"Whoy, we'll take it kindly of ye if you'll just be so obligin' as to
shtep aboard the barque, and say what we want ye to say," answered the
fellow. "But, mind," he added warningly, "don't ye attimpt to say
annything else, or by the Piper it'll be the worse for ye--and for the
young woman down below. I can undershtand Frinch like a native--so I
shall know everything that you say--but begorra the Oirish brogue of me
makes it difficult for thim froggies to undershtand me when I shpake to
thim."

"All right," I answered, perfectly easy in my mind, "you can stand
alongside me, and hear everything that passes."

So saying, without further ado I leapt upon the brig's bulwarks, from
thence to those of the barque, and so down upon her deck, closely
followed by O'Gorman.

CHAPTER TEN.

WE PLUNDER THE FRENCH BARQUE.

As my feet touched the barque's deck, I flung a lightning glance about
me to gather as much information as possible, not knowing but that at
any moment such knowledge might be of priceless value to me. The craft
was somewhat bigger than I had at first set her down to be, being of
fully four hundred, or maybe four hundred and fifty, tons measurement.
Looking for'ard to the swell of her bows, I saw that she must evidently
be of a motherly build, which accorded well with the fact that she had
lost steerage-way long before such had been the case with the brig. Her
decks were in a very dirty and untidy condition, looking as though they
had not been washed down, or even swept, for at least a week, and they
were lumbered up with quite an unusual number of spars and booms. Yet
she was evidently a passenger ship, for the cabin under her full poop
was brilliantly lighted up, and through its open door I caught a glimpse
of several men and women so attired as to at once proclaim their status
on board; moreover, the quarter-deck was also occupied by a group of men
and women, evidently passengers, with two or three sailorly-looking men
among them, over whom a party of O'Gorman's people were mounting guard,
the remainder being stationed on guard over the fore-scuttle, down which
I presumed the barque's crew had been driven.

My attention was almost instantly attracted toward the little