o the deck.

Job was out of breath and much bruised but had suffered no lasting hurt.
He saw Jeremy led forward, heard the men's cries and realized that the
torture was in store for them both.

Unbound, but helpless to interfere, he saw the boy stretched on the deck
and the rope attached to his arms and legs. He suffered greater agony
than did Jeremy as the crew made ready to begin their awful work, for he
had seen keelhauling before. And then suddenly Stede Bonnet was standing
by the companion and the ringing shout that saved the boy's life struck
on Job's ears. He could hardly keep from cheering the Captain then and
there, but relief at Jeremy's delivery brought with it a return of his
quick wits. He himself was in as great danger as ever.

He was facing aft, and his eye, roving the deck for a means of escape,
lit on the brig's boat, which the pirates had tied astern after
reboarding the sloop. She was trailing at the end of a painter, her bows
rising and falling on the choppy waves. He waited only long enough to
see that the Captain succeeded in freeing Jeremy, then drew a great
breath and plunged over the side. Swimming under water, he watched for
the towed longboat to come by overhead, and as her dark bulk passed, he
caught her keel with a strong grip of his fingers, worked his way back
and came up gasping, his hands holding to the rudder ring in her stern.

The hot, still days had warmed the surface of the sea to a temperature
far above the normal, or he must certainly have become exhausted in a
short time. As it was, he clung to his ring till near noon, when,
cautiously peering above the gunwale, he saw the sloop's deck empty save
for a steersman, half asleep in the hot sun by the tiller. With a great
wrench of his arms the ex-buccaneer lifted himself over the stern and
slipped as quietly as he was able into the boat's bottom. There he lay
breathless, listening for sounds of alarm aboard the sloop. None came
and after a few moments he wriggled forward and made himself snug under
the bow-thwart. The boat carried a water-beaker and a can of biscuit for
emergency use. After refreshing himself with these and drying out his
thin clothing in the sun, he retreated under the shade of the thwart and
slept the sleep of utter fatigue.

Late the next day he took a brief observation of the horizon. There was
sandy shore to the east and from what he knew of the coast and the
ship's course he judged they must be nearing the