s over his forehead and about his face, dripping with
perspiration caused partly by the excessive heat of the cabin and still
more by the anguish from which he was suffering. A sheet was his only
covering, his body being bare from the chest upwards, for greater
convenience in dressing his wound; and his right shoulder and arm down
to the elbow was closely swathed in bandages through which the blood
still oozed here and there. There was a restless feverish gleam and
glitter in his eyes which told all too plainly how acutely he was
suffering; and there was an occasional nervous twitching of the fingers
of the right hand which I did not like to see, and which he said had
come on within the last half-hour. But his spirits were excellent; and
his voice became stronger almost with every word he spoke as he
questioned me about our doings since the moment of his being struck
down. He expressed himself as highly satisfied with all that we had
done, and especially so at the watchfulness which had defeated the
pirates' attempt at a night attack; but he intimated his expectation
that, although he was unable to actually command the schooner, I would
keep him fully acquainted with everything which might transpire, and
consult him with regard to every proposed movement of an important
character. This I, at the time, thought reasonable enough; but I soon
had cause to regret that he had imposed any such condition upon me.

Daybreak next morning found us some eight miles off the mouth of the
Barcos Channel, and in such a position that we should be dead to
windward of it upon the springing up of the sea-breeze. We were,
consequently, as well placed for the run down to it as heart could wish.
But, on the boatswain calling me--I had remained in my berth all
night--I was greatly annoyed to learn that there was a small craft of
some kind, apparently a one-masted felucca, hovering about the entrance
of the channel and manoeuvring in such a way as to lead to the belief
that she was enacting the part of lookout. Courtenay and I had both
been called at the same time; but he was the quicker of the two in his
movements; and upon my reaching the deck I discovered him on the
topsail-yard scrutinising the stranger through his telescope.

The craft was then becalmed, though _we_ had a nice little breeze from
about east-north-east; but on our filling upon the schooner and edging
away in her direction, the felucca--for such she was--at once rigged