with us.

The cry was too sharp and loud to have proceeded from any distance; and
there was no visible explanation of it. It was not repeated a third
time, I am happy to say; and I wish never to hear anything like it
again. What it was, or whence it came, we never knew, and I was, and am
to this day, utterly unable to account for it.

I have since been informed that such sounds have occasionally been heard
at sea by others as well as ourselves, but never with the result of any
discovery as to their origin.

During the next three days we had nothing but light variable winds, and
calms.

On the morning of the fourth day, at daybreak, we made a sail directly
ahead. At this time we had a nice little breeze, and were going about
six knots.

As we neared her, we noticed that she was hove-to, her courses brailed
up, and her topgallant yards on the caps. When close to her, it struck
us that something must be the matter on board, for not a soul could we
see about her decks. The vessel herself too--a full-rigged ship of
about fourteen hundred tons--struck us as being unusually deep in the
water. There being no sea on, we decided to run alongside and board
her, thinking she might possibly prove derelict. We did so,
accordingly, rounding-to under her stern, and ranging up alongside on
her lee quarter; having first, however, taken in our gaff-topsail and
lowered our topmast, so as not to foul her rigging.

As we came gently alongside, an exclamation escaped Bob, who was
standing forward, ready to heave a line on board or jump up the side
with it, according to circumstances.

"There's been some cursed foul play here, by the look of it, Harry,"
exclaimed he.

Good heavens! what a sight met our horrified gaze as we leaped down upon
the ship's deck!

Some three or four and twenty corpses lay there, with the blood still
slowly oozing in a few instances from wounds in various parts of their
bodies.

The wounds were mostly inflicted by cutlasses and pistol-shots; but two
of the bodies, apparently those of officers, had the heads almost
severed from the trunks, the gashes having been evidently inflicted by a
keener weapon than a ship's cutlass. These bodies had the arms lashed
tightly behind the back.

Too horror-stricken to speak a word, I walked aft, Bob following me, and
entered the cabin, which was on deck, and from which I thought I heard a
groan issuing. On entering, the first object I saw was the body of a
yo