whom they were astonished to find
among the assailants.

"Why, Jemmy, how did you get a berth among those chaps?"

"I'll tell you," said Moggy, interrupting: "when he was last at
Portsmouth, they heard him playing his fiddle and singing, and they took
such a fancy to him, that they were determined to have him to amuse them
in the cave. So one evening, they _kidnapped_ him, took him away by main
force, and kept him a prisoner ever since."

"That's carrying the joke rather too far," observed one of the men.

"Mein Gott! yes," replied the corporal.

"But I am at liberty again now at all events," replied Jemmy, taking the
cue from his wife; "and if that chap, Vanslyperken, don't command the
cutter any more, which I've a notion he will not, I shall enter as
boatswain--heh, Dick."

"Yes," replied Short, who was swinging in his hammock.

"Well--when I found that Jemmy couldn't be found, that my dear darling
duck of a husband--my jewel, a box of diamonds (arn't you my Jemmy),
didn't I tear my hair, and run about the streets, like a mad woman,"
continued Moggy. "At last I met with Nancy Corbett, whose husband is one
of the gang, and she told me where he was, fiddle and all, and I
persuaded her to let me go to him, and that's why we both are here."

This was a good invention of Moggy's, and as there was nobody who took
the trouble to disprove it, it was received as not the least apocryphal.
But now Mr Vanslyperken was dragged past them by two of the
conspirators, and all the men of the _Yungfrau_ followed on deck, to see
what was to take place.

When Mr Vanslyperken had been brought aft, his legs tottered, and he
could hardly stand. His face was livid, and his lips white with fear,
and he knew too well that he had little mercy to expect.

"Now, sir," said Sir Robert, with a stern air, "hear the accusation
against you, for although we may be lawless, we will still be just. You
voluntarily entered into our service, and received our pay. You were one
of us, with only this difference, that we have taken up the cause from
principle and loyalty, and you joined us from mercenary motives. Still
we kept our faith with you; for every service performed, you were well
and honourably paid. But you received our money and turned against us;
revealed our secrets, and gave information to your government, by which
that gentleman" (pointing to Ramsay) "and many others, had not they
fortunately received timely notice, would have perished