, was sleeping heavily, for nature was building
them all up again ready for the struggles yet to come.

A heavy bang as of a closing door made Mark Vandean start up and strike
his head against a piece of wood--a blow which for the moment increased
his confusion.

Where was he? What had happened?

No answer came, but there was a question from out of the darkness.

"Say, messmates, hear that?"

"Tom Fillot."

"Ay, ay, sir."

"Where are we?"

"Dunno, sir. Here, I think."

"But where is here, stupid?"

"That's a true word, sir. I am stupid--who's this?"

"Dick Bannock, AB, it is," said the familiar voice of that seaman.

"Know where we are, mate?"

"No. Awake, I think."

"Well, we know that," cried Mark, pettishly. "Yes, I remember now. I
must have gone to sleep."

"That's about as near as we shall get to it, sir," said Tom Fillot.
"This here's the cabin, and there ought to be a locker here, with
matches in it, and a lamp. Wait a moment."

There was a rustling as Mark listened, and the rush of the water came up
from below, and he could feel that the schooner was gently careening
over as she glided on through the calm sea.

"Hooroar!" said Tom; and the next moment there was the scratch of a
match, and the little cabin was illumined, showing Tom Fillot learning
over a lamp, which directly after burned up, and showed that the cabin
door must have been opened while they slept, for a tub of water and a
bucketful of biscuits had been thrust in.

"Look at that," cried Dick Bannock. "Now, if we'd been awake, some of
us might have got out and took the schooner again."

"Not much chance o' that, messmate," said Tom Fillot. "They're too
cunning not to have taken care. Don't mean to starve us, seemingly."

"Put out the light," said Mark, after a glance round, to see that Mr
Russell was unchanged, and the next moment the cabin was in darkness.

"Have your arms ready," he whispered, "and keep silence. Perhaps--"

He did not finish speaking, for a faint shadow lay across the cabin
skylight, and he was aware of the fact that some one must have been
watching, probably listening as well.

The shadow passed away; and mounting on the cabin table by the
midshipman's orders, one of the men tried hard to find some way of
opening the light, but short of breaking it open with sturdy blows of a
sledge-hammer, there was no possibility of escape that way.

After a time Mark whispered with Tom Fillot as to the