o
I goes to my cabin, gets out a inch and a half auger, a chisel, a hammer
and some nails, and places 'em on the tarpaulin of the fore-hatch, where
anybody going for'ard couldn't help seein' of 'em; and `There,' I says
to myself, `if those fellers haven't brought no auger aboard with 'em,
that's the tool they'll use.' So I chanced it, and made my plugs to fit
a inch and a half hole; and, as it turned out, I was right; they used my
auger what I had left for 'em, and as soon as their backs was turned I
slipped down and screwed the plugs into the holes."

"Excellent!" said I. "And now, Maxwell, the next job is to break open
the state-rooms and release the poor ladies and gentlemen who are
confined there. Do you think you can do it without making much noise?"

"Lord bless you, yes, sir," was the cheerful reply. "I'll just go
for'ard and get a bit of wire, and I'll pick the locks of them
cabin-doors in next to no time, and make no noise about it either."

"Then come along and let us get it done at once. That must be our first
job," said I.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

RE-APPEARANCE OF THE `FRANCESCA'.

While Maxwell stole forward to get his wire, I crept up on the poop
again, and carefully avoiding the skylight, so that my figure might not
be revealed by the coloured rays that streamed from it, found that the
boat with Jose and his companions, and the last of the plunder, was just
going alongside the brigantine. The first to scramble out of her was
Jose; and there was light enough about the brigantine's decks to enable
me to see that he went straight aft to the companion, which he
descended. He was absent from the deck but a very few minutes, however;
and when he re-appeared I supposed that he had been below to make his
report to Mendouca and to receive that individual's orders, for as he
passed along the deck I heard him shout to the crew--

"Now, then, look alive there with those bales, and get the deck clear as
quickly as possible, so that we can get the niggers on deck and the
sweeps at work once more. We've got all that we can take from the
Englishman, and now the sooner we are off the better, for she won't
float above two or three hours longer; and if a breeze was to spring up,
and bring a cruiser along with it, it would be bad for us if we were
found in this neighbourhood. So bundle those bales down the hatchway
anyhow, men, and clear the decks at once. We must stow the goods
properly afterwards."

This