at the lower extremities said,
"Massa Easy, dat Massa Jolliffe, I know him trousers; marine tailor say
he patch um for ever, and so old dat de thread no hold; yesterday he had
dis patch put in, and marine tailor say he damn if he patch any more,
please nobody."

Mesty was right; it was poor Jolliffe, whose face was burned as black as
a coal by the explosion. He had also lost three fingers of the left
hand, but as soon as he was brought out on the deck he appeared to
recover, and pointed to his mouth for water, which was instantly
procured.

"Mesty," said Jack, "I leave you in charge of Mr Jolliffe; take every
care of him till I can come back."

The investigation was then continued, and four English sailors found who
might be expected to recover, as well as about the same number of
Frenchmen; the remainder of the bodies were then thrown overboard. The
hat only of the master was picked up between the guns, and there were
but eleven Frenchmen found below.

The vessel was the _Franklin_, a French privateer, of ten guns and
sixty-five men, of which eight men were away in prizes. The loss on the
part of the vessel was forty-six killed and wounded. On that of the
_Harpy_, it was five drowned in the cutter, and eighteen blown up
belonging to the pinnace, out of which total of twenty-three, they had
only Mr Jolliffe and five seamen alive.

"The _Harpy_ is standing in with a breeze from the offing," said
Gascoigne to Easy.

"So much the better, for I am sick of this, Ned; there is something so
horrible in it, and I wish I was on board again. I have just been to
Jolliffe; he can speak a little; I think he will recover. I hope so,
poor fellow; he will then obtain his promotion, for he is the commanding
officer of all us who are left."

"And if he does," replied Gascoigne, "he can swear that it was by having
been blown up which spoiled his beauty--but here comes the _Harpy_. I
have been looking for an English ensign to hoist over the French, but
cannot find one; so I hoist a wheft over it--that will do."

The _Harpy_ was soon hove-to close to the brig, and Jack went on board
in the cutter to report what had taken place. Captain Wilson was much
vexed and grieved at the loss of so many men: fresh hands were put in
the cutter to man the pinnace, and he and Sawbridge both went on board
to witness the horrible effects of the explosion as described by our
hero.

Jolliffe and the wounded men were taken on board, and al