"Ready, Jem?"

"Yes, I'm ready, lad. Rope's just where you stand."

"What!" cried the captain's voice loudly, and then there was a quick
murmur of talking.

"What's that mean, Mas' Don?"

"Don't know. Some order."

"Boat ahoy!" cried one of the watch forward, and there was a buzz of
excitement which told that the paddling of the canoe had been seen.

"Watch there forward!" roared the captain.

"Ay, ay, sir," came back.

"Follow me, Jem; we must swim to her now."

"I'm after you, my lad."

"Jem!" in a tone of despair.

"What is it!"

"The rope's cut!"

"What? So it is. Never mind. After me! There's the one in the
forechains."

In the midst of a loud buzz of voices, and the pad, pad--pad, pad of
bare feet on the deck, Jem and Don reached the forechains; and Jem ran
his hand along in the darkness till he felt the knot by which he had
secured the rope.

"Here she is, Mas' Don. Now, then, over with you quick, or I shall be
a-top of your head."

"I've got it," whispered Don.

Then in a voice full of despair,--

"This is cut, too!"

At the same moment the captain's voice rang out,--

"Look out there, you in the watch forward; two men are trying to leave
the ship!"

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

WHAT MR. JONES THOUGHT.

"What's to be done, Mas' Don?" whispered Jem, whom this second proof of
treachery against them seemed to have robbed of the power to act.

"This way," cried a voice, which they recognised as Ramsden's. "By the
forechains."

"Oh, if I had hold of you," snarled Jem, as he ground his teeth.

"Do you hear me?" whispered Don. "Come on."

He spoke from where he stood on the bulwark, holding by one of the
shrouds, and offering his hand to Jem, who could not see it, but climbed
to his side.

"Header?" he whispered.

"Yes.--Off!"

Don gave the word as he glanced in the direction where he believed the
canoe to lie; and then, raising his hands above his head, he sprang
right off the bulwark into the sea.

_Splash_!

A moment's pause and then--

_Splash_!

Jem had followed suit, and there was a faint display--if the expression
is allowable--of water fireworks, as innumerable pinhead-like beads of
light flashed away in every direction.

"Lanthorns here!" cried the captain. "Sentries, quick! This way."

He reached the spot from which Don and Jem had taken their daring leap,
and in less than a minute the light of a couple of lanthorns was thrown
upon the sea.

"Com