--to the boatswain--"cast off that drag and get it
inboard over the port-rail with as little fuss as may be, so that if
those fellows in the brig are watching us they may not know what we're
about; I want to keep that conthrivance a saycret as long as I can. Be
as smart as you like about it. Mr Dugdale, I want twenty men to arm
themselves forthwith, and then creep into the waist under the lee of the
starboard bulwarks, taking care that they are not seen; pick me out the
best men in the ship, if you please. Ah, here is Gowland, the very man
I wanted to see! Mr Gowland, you see that brig--" and as I turned away
to muster the men, and see that they were properly armed, he drew
Gowland away to the other side of the deck, and began to communicate
something to him in a very rapid, earnest manner.

By the time that the drag had been got inboard and stowed away, I had
picked out the required men, and had contrived to get them by twos and
threes under the starboard bulwarks without--so far as I knew--being
seen by those on board the brig, watching the roll of the schooner and
giving the word for the men to pass up through the scuttle and make a
crouching run for it as the schooner rolled to port and hid her deck
from the brig. That craft had by this time overhauled us, and was far
enough ahead to permit of our reading her name--the _Conquistador_, of
Havana--upon her stern; while our helmsman, taking Ryan's hint, had
steered so wildly, that he had sheered the schooner almost to within
biscuit-toss of her neighbour. Meanwhile, now that the drag was no
longer impeding us, we were gradually lessening the small space of water
that separated us from the brig, and we could see that the schooner and
her movements were exciting much curiosity and speculation, if not
actual suspicion, in the minds of three men who stood right aft on her
monkey-poop, intently watching us.

"Go for'ard and hail them," said Ryan to me; "I want to get a little
closer if I can without unduly exciting their suspicions. You can
affect to be deaf if you like; perhaps that will give us a chance."

I took the speaking-trumpet in my hand and, clambering leisurely into
the fore-rigging, hailed in Spanish--

"Ho, the brig ahoy! what brig is that?"

"The _Conquistador_, of Havana," was the reply. "What schooner is
that?"

I turned to one of the men who was standing near me and asked, in the
most natural manner in the world, "What did he say?"

"The _Co