iece for the squire and me and Redruth
and the captain. The rest of the arms and powder we dropped overboard in
two fathoms and a half of water, so that we could see the bright steel
shining far below us in the sun, on the clean sandy bottom.

By this time the tide was beginning to ebb, and the ship was swinging
round to her anchor. Voices were heard faintly halloaing in the direction
of the two gigs; and though this reassured us for Joyce and Hunter, who
were well to the eastward, it warned our party to be off.

Redruth retreated from his place in the gallery, and dropped into the
boat, which we then brought round to the ship's counter, to be handier
for Captain Smollett.

"Now, men," said he, "do you hear me?"

There was no answer from the forecastle.

"It's to you, Abraham Gray--it's to you I am speaking."

Still no reply.

"Gray," resumed Mr. Smollett, a little louder, "I am leaving this ship,
and I order you to follow your captain. I know you are a good man at
bottom, and I daresay not one of the lot of you's as bad as he makes out.
I have my watch here in my hand; I give you thirty seconds to join me
in."

There was a pause.

"Come, my fine fellow," continued the captain, "don't hang so long in
stays. I'm risking my life, and the lives of these good gentlemen, every
second."

There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and out burst Abraham Gray
with a knife-cut on the side of the cheek, and came running to the
captain, like a dog to the whistle.

"I'm with you, sir," said he.

And the next moment he and the captain had dropped aboard of us, and we
had shoved off and given way.

We were clear out of the ship; but not yet ashore in our stockade.

CHAPTER XVII

NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR--THE JOLLY-BOAT'S LAST TRIP

This fifth trip was quite different from any of the others. In the first
place, the little gallipot of a boat that we were in was gravely
overloaded. Five grown men, and three of them--Trelawney, Redruth, and
the captain--over six feet high, was already more than she was meant to
carry. Add to that the powder, pork, and bread-bags. The gunwale was
lipping astern. Several times we shipped a little water, and my breeches
and the tails of my coat were all soaking wet before we had gone a
hundred yards.

The captain made us trim the boat, and we got her to lie a little more
evenly. All the same, we were afraid to breathe.

In the second place, the ebb was now maki