, so I came
to the conclusion that they must have carried you away with them. As
this thought struck me, I observed the pirate schooner standing away to
the nor'ard, almost hull down on the horizon, and I sat down on the
rocks to watch her as she slowly sank from my sight. And I tell you,
Ralph, my boy, that I shed more tears that time at losing you than I
have done, I verily believe, all my life before--"

"Pardon me, Jack, for interrupting," said Peterkin; "surely you must be
mistaken in that. You've often told me that when you were a baby you
used to howl and roar from morning to--"

"Hold your tongue, Peterkin!" cried Jack.--"Well, after the schooner had
disappeared, I dived back into the cave, much to Peterkin's relief, and
told him what I had seen. We sat down and had a long talk over this
matter, and then we agreed to make a regular, systematic search through
the woods, so as to make sure at least that you had not been killed.
But now we thought of the difficulty of getting out of the cave without
your help. Peterkin became dreadfully nervous when he thought of this;
and I must confess I felt some alarm, for, of course, I could not hope
alone to take him out so quickly as we two together had brought him in.
And he himself vowed that if we had been a moment longer with him that
time, he would have had to take a breath of salt water. However, there
was no help for it, and I endeavoured to calm his fears as well as I
could; `for,' said I, `you can't live here, Peterkin,' to which he
replied, `Of course not, Jack; I can only die here, and as that's not at
all desirable, you had better propose something.' So I suggested that
he should take a good, long breath, and trust himself to me.

"`Might we not make a large bag of cocoa-nut cloth, into which I could
shove my head, and tie it tight round my neck?' he asked with a haggard
smile. `It might let me get one breath under water!'

"`No use,' said I; `it would fill in a moment and suffocate you. I see
nothing for it, Peterkin, if you really can't keep your breath so long,
but to let me knock you down, and carry you out while in a state of
insensibility.'

"But Peterkin didn't relish this idea. He seemed to fear that I would
not be able to measure the exact force of the blow, and might, on the
one hand, hit him so softly as to render a second or third blow
necessary, which would be very uncomfortable; or, on the other hand,
give him such a smash as would en