him that the attempt should be made, though far from free of risk.
And most people, indeed, would have agreed that the passage was
hazardous in the extreme, but yet no one on board doubted that it was
the right thing to do.

The second mate, who was at the helm with another steady hand, was
ordered to steer towards the opening. The tide was still running in
strong, which gave us greater command over the vessel than would have
otherwise been the case. All hands were at their stations, and every
one of us knew the position we were in. A shift of wind, the least
carelessness, the carrying away a spar or rope, might bring upon us the
same fate which had destroyed the rover. Scarcely had the determination
I have mentioned been arrived at, when, as I was looking out ahead, I
saw on the starboard-bow a spar floating in the water. I looked again;
a man was holding on to it, and drifting up towards us. I was certain I
saw him lift up his hand and wave it. I immediately reported the
circumstance to the captain.

"Although he is probably one of those wretched Moors, he is a
fellow-creature, and it is our duty to try and save him," he observed.
"About-ship! helm a-lee!" he sung out.

The brig, under her topsails, worked like a top, and we had ample room
to put her about and heave her to. Just as we had done so, the spar
came drifting up close to us. Again the man clinging to it waved his
hand. His unshorn head of light curling hair showed that he was no
Moor.

"Here, mates, just pay out this line as I want it!" sung out Peter,
passing the bight of a rope under his arms and leaping overboard. "I'll
tackle him to, I warrant."

In an instant he was in the water, and a few strokes bringing him up to
the spar as it floated by, he grasped hold of the person hanging to it,
and then sung out, "Haul away, my lads; it's all right!"

The whole incident took place, it seemed, in a few seconds. Once more
he was on the deck, and there could be no doubt of it, with no other
than Walter Stenning in his arms! The poor fellow breathed, but the
dangers he had gone through, and the sudden restoration to safety, had
overcome him, and he lay almost unconscious on the deck.

"Now, sir, the sooner we fill and stand out of this the better," said
Peter, turning to the captain, after he had placed Stenning on the deck.
"I did not speak of it before, but just now I saw another of those
piratical fellows getting under way just from opposit