had shinned aloft and cut it--and
we half tumbled, half scrambled down upon her deck all in a heap, and
were instantly engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand struggle with her
crew, who greatly out-numbered ourselves, weakened as we were by the
casualties that had already seriously reduced our force. Moreover, we
soon discovered that our antagonists were by no means the despicable
poltroons that we are perhaps too prone at all times to believe them to
be; on the contrary, they fought manfully, and held their own with a
sturdy determination worthy of a better cause. The casualties were
rapidly multiplying on both sides, yet we were slowly driving the
Frenchmen forward, when they were unexpectedly reinforced by a crowd of
at least sixty people who had come alongside in boats from the other
craft, boarding on the larboard side of the schooner, on which side, as
it had been impossible for us to reach it with the _Felicidad_, the
nettings had not been triced up, and in an instant we found ourselves
confronted by overwhelming odds. Above the tumult of shouts and oaths
and groans, of pistol-shots and clashing steel, I heard Ryan give a
ringing cheer and an encouraging shout of "Hurroo, bhoys, the more the
merrier! Lay on with a will, now, and make short work of it;" and I saw
him at the head of a small division of our men laying about him manfully
and driving himself and his little band wedge-like through the thickest
of the crowd, and I turned and struck out right and left to get to his
assistance, for it seemed to me that he must be speedily overpowered.
Before I could reach him, however, he suddenly threw up his hands, and
striking one of them to his temples sank in an inert heap to the deck,
and at the same instant a sickening blow fell upon my head, the whole
scene whirled confusedly before my eyes for the fraction of an instant,
and for a time I knew no more.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

When at length I recovered my senses I found that I was undressed and
comfortably stowed away in a bunk in a small but light and airy
state-room that certainly was not my own, nor had I ever seen it before.
The snuggery was very tastefully fitted up, the bunk itself being of
polished mahogany, enclosed with handsome lace curtains, that I presumed
were intended as a protection against the mosquitoes, the sharp, ringing
buzz of multitudes of which pertinacious tormentors I heard distinctly
as