t
perfect self-possession, therefore, he repeated his farewell to the
Maltese, and was about deliberately to lower himself into his boat, when
the colonel threw the whole ship into commotion, by exclaiming in a
voice of thunder--

"That's him!--The scoundrel--the pirate--stop him--fire at him. I'm
right, Mitchell, am I not? That's the villain who attacked the
_Zodiac_, and carried off my poor niece?"

"Not a doubt of it your honour. It's the thief of the world who
murdered us all, and by the holy poker I'll have him."

As he uttered these words he sprang towards the gangway, nearly
capsizing his master, and almost grasped Zappa by the croup of the neck
before anybody else understood what the commotion was all about. He
missed him, however, and the pirate, with a spring, which the imminence
of his danger would alone have enabled him to take, leaped into his
boat, and as he did so, he exclaimed to his crew, who saw that something
was wrong--

"Shove off, or we are dead men!"

The pirates waited no further words to excite them to exertion, and a
few strokes sent the boat clear off the brig's side.

So great, mean time, was the impetus Mitchell had gained, that when he
missed catching Zappa, he could not again bring himself up, and souse
overboard in the water he went, his head fortunately escaping the gunnel
of the pirate's boat by a few inches. In revenge, an old pirate
attempted to give him his _coup de grace_ with the blade of his oar, but
missed him.

"Arrah, ye cowardly thief to hit a man like that in the water, but I'll
mark ye--remember--bad luck to ye," exclaimed Mitchell, as after his
first immersion he rose to the surface, where his spluttering and cries
drew the attention of the sentry off from the pirates.

"A man overboard," was the first intelligible cry which was heard, and
scarcely was it uttered, when three or four men, headed by a midshipman,
were overboard to attempt to pick him up. Mitchell's own eagerness to
stop the pirates, very nearly prevented them from saving him, for though
he had little enough notion of swimming, he struck out manfully after
the boat, which the confusion had enabled to gain a good distance from
the vessel before any means had been taken to stop her progress. At
this juncture the first lieutenant, hearing a noise, came on deck, and
soon brought matters into order.

"Silence there, fore and aft," he exclaimed. "Let the proper crews
stand by the falls of their b