e,
and he pointed to the black flag which still floated overhead, unharmed
through all the battle. He boasted of it as a good omen and succeeded in
infusing into them some of his own spirit.

Robert was still unnoticed and at first he wandered about his strait
territory. Then he lent a helping hand with the wreckage. His own life
was at stake as well as theirs, and whether they wished it or not he
could not continue to stand by an idler. Circumstance and the sea forced
him into comradeship with men of evil, and as long as it lasted he must
make the best of it. So he fell to with such a will that it drew the
attention of the captain.

"Good boy, Peter!" he cried. "You'll be one of us yet in spite of
yourself! Our good fortune is yours, too! You as well as we have escaped
a merry hanging! I'll warrant you that the feel of the rope around the
neck is not pleasant, and it's well to keep one's head out of the noose,
eh, Peter?"

Robert did not answer, but tugged at a rope that two other men were
trying to reeve. He knew now that while they had escaped the sloop of
war their danger was yet great and imminent. The wind was still rising,
and now it was a howling gale. The schooner had been raked heavily. Most
of her rigging was gone, huge holes had been smashed in her hull, half
of her crew had been killed and half of the rest were wounded, there
were not enough men to work her even were she whole and the weather the
best. As the crest of every wave passed she wallowed in the trough of
the sea, and shipped water steadily. The exultant look passed from the
captain's eyes.

"I'm afraid you're a lad of ill omen, Peter," he said to Robert. "I had
you on board another ship once and she went to pieces. It looks now as
if my good schooner were headed the same way."

A dark sailor standing near heard him, and nodded in approval, but
Robert said:

"Blame the sloop of war, not me. You would lay her aboard, and see what
has happened!"

The captain frowned and turned away. For a long time he paid no further
attention to Robert, all his skill and energy concentrated upon the
effort to save his ship. But it became evident even to Robert's
inexperienced eye that the schooner was stricken mortally. The guns of
the sloop had not raked and slashed her in vain. A pirate she had been,
but a pirate she would be no more. She rolled more heavily all the time,
and Robert noticed that she was deeper in the water. Beyond a doubt she
was leakin