asonable comfort.

The days were spent in hard work for the most part. A good deal of
washing and cleaning had to be done aboard all three vessels, and as
labor requiring no special skill, it fell frequently to the lot of
Jeremy and Bob. It was small matter to them whether they toiled or were
idle, for the blistering sun allowed no respite and it seemed preferable
to sweat over something useful than over nothing at all.

On the third day after the return of the _James_ from her foraging trip,
Jeremy, who had been scraping and tarring ropes for hours on end,
straightened his back with a discontented grunt and looked away to the
edge of the woods, his eyebrows puckered in a frown. "Bob," he said in a
voice too low for any of their shipmates to hear, "Bob, I'm going to run
away if something doesn't happen soon."

"You'll be shot, like as not," answered the Delaware boy.

"Well, shot let it be," he replied doggedly. "If I'm to stay aboard here
all my life, I'd _rather_ be shot. It looks like the best chance we've
had, right now. Will you come tonight?"

Bob thought for a moment. "I'm not afraid of their catching us," he
finally said. "It's the Indians, after we're into the woods. You say you
know the Indians and trust them as long as they are treated right. That
may be true of the ones you've known, but these Tuscaroras are
different. They don't talk the same language, and those words you
learned would mayhap go for curses down here. I don't think we ought to
try it."

Jeremy admitted that his previous acquaintance stood for nothing, but
argued, from the fact that Bonnet had been trying to frighten them, that
he had probably exaggerated the danger. Finally, not wishing to leave
his friend if he could help it, he agreed to abandon the plan for the
present.

They worked at the rope-tarring till suppertime, then rose wearily,
stretching, and went for their salt-horse and biscuit. When the coarse
rations were eaten, it was nearly sunset. Jeremy watched the sluggish
water glide by below the canted rail, till at last small quivering blurs
of light, the reflections of stars, began to gleam in the ripples. A
faint breeze, sprung up with the coming of night, blew across the
sweltering lagoon. Bob, tired out, fell asleep, his head pillowed on the
deck. The pirates, some below in the bunks, some stretched on the
planking, lay like dead men. After the hard labor of the day even the
regular watch slumbered undisturbed. Jeremy's