will not do," cried Mark, as the splash of the schooner's
boat in the water was heard, and the voice of the skipper shouting some
directions.

Mark stood hesitating for a few moments, and then, acting upon a sudden
thought, he placed his hands to his mouth, reached out of the cabin
window, and shouted with all his might:

"Schooner ahoy! Coxswain!"

"Ay, ay, sir," cried Dance from the bows of the towed vessel, just as
the boat with five men in glided into sight close to her right.

"Danger! Prisoners!"

"Hi! yew stop that!" cried a voice from the boat, and a man stood up and
pointed a pistol at the midshipman.

"Ay, ay, sir," cried Dance.

"Keep the schooner off, and follow at a distance," roared Mark.

_Bang_!

There was a puff of smoke, the dull thud of a bullet striking the side
of the cabin window, and, directly following, the sharp report.

"Loose the schooner," yelled Mark, between his hands.

"Go in, yew," roared the man in the boat, presenting his pistol again;
but at that moment Tom Fillot took aim with an empty bottle he had
kicked from out of a locker, and hurled it over Mark's head with all his
might.

So true was Tom's aim, and so swiftly was the bottle sent, that the
American had not time to avoid it, and received a heavy blow in the
chest, sufficient to disorder his aim as he fired again.

"Ay, ay, sir," cried Dance, who seemed quite clear again in his head.

"Quick, then," cried Mark, excitedly. "Cut the tow-rope and stand off."

"Yah!" came in a roar from the boat, as the man suddenly sat down, "give
way--pull, boys--pull like steam!"

The men began to send the boat through the water, making it foam, and
they had but a cable's length to go, but the moments were lengthened out
by excitement, and it seemed to Mark as if Joe Dance would never get the
cable cut in time.

For while the oars splashed and the men pulled, the coxswain tried to
get out his knife, and as Mark and the others watched him, he was
evidently nervous, and fumbled. Then he tried to open it with his
teeth, but the spring was strong, and he had to alter his tactics and
begin to open it with his forefinger and thumb nail, and still it seemed
as if he could not get it open; and all the time the boat was rapidly
setting nearer. In another few seconds it would be alongside, and the
Americans would be on board, five against two, unless Taters made a
brave defence. There were a couple of dozen blacks on deck, but they