below they found that the Frenchman whom Fid had shot was not
dead, having only been stunned by the fall. He would, however, very
shortly have bled to death had they not bound up his wound. In mercy to
the poor wretch, they placed him in a bunk, but did not tell him that
either of his companions had escaped.

"Ah, I deserve my fate!" he observed to Mr Nott. "Had we succeeded, we
should have thrown you all overboard and carried the vessel into a
French port. There is a large sum of money on board stowed away below
the after-lockers. It escaped the vigilance of the officers who
examined the vessel. We knew of it, and for its sake we intended to get
rid of you, that we might obtain possession of the whole."

"Much obliged for your kind intentions," answered Johnny, laughing.
"The dollars we'll look after, and you will consider yourself a prisoner
in your berth till I give you leave to get out of it. If you put your
head above the hatchway, you'll be shot. That is an understood thing
between us."

The Frenchman could only make a grimace as a sign of his acquiescence.

"I'm in earnest, remember!" said Mr Nott as he climbed up the ladder on
deck.

Fid now reported all that he had done, and he and True Blue received the
praise from their young commander which they so fully merited. The
compass was got up on deck and shipped in the binnacle, and the arms
were carried aft and placed in the cabin. The other chests belonging to
the Frenchmen were broken open; but nothing particular was found in
them.

When all these arrangements were made, the officer and his small crew
assembled on deck to hold a council of war.

"The first thing we had better do, sir, is to shorten sail, seeing how
shorthanded we are," observed Paul Pringle. "We couldn't do it in a
hurry, and if it comes on to blow, our spars and sails may be carried
away before we know where we are."

This advice was too good to be neglected. "Then, sir, as these
Frenchmen have been steering to the southward and east whenever they
have had the helm, oughtn't we to steer so much to the nor'ard to make
up for the distance we have run out of our course?" observed True Blue
with much modesty.

"Capital idea, Freeborn!" exclaimed the midshipman with a patronising
air. "You've a very good notion of navigation; we'll do it."

Mr Nott now took the helm, while the crew went aloft to furl the
lighter canvas and to take a reef in the topsails. While True Blue wa