t for them I believe
there would not be very much difficulty in seizing a stock of provisions
and water, together with a boat, and slipping quietly out to sea some
dark night, trusting to good fortune--or Providence rather--to be
eventually picked up by a passing ship. But I should certainly be slow
to recommend so desperate a course under present circumstances, save in
the very last extremity. The hardships those poor creatures passed
through in their last boat-voyage I have not yet forgotten."

It is not necessary to repeat every word of the discussion which
followed; suffice it to say that it was of so protracted a character
that the three individuals engaged in it did not enter their hut until
the first faint flush of dawn was brightening the eastern sky. Bob had
been dismissed within an hour of the termination of the concert with a
message to the effect that Captain Staunton and his two companions felt
more disposed for a walk than for sleep, and that the rest of the party
had therefore better retire when they felt so inclined, as the hour at
which the three gentlemen would return was quite uncertain. The time
thus spent had not, however, been thrown away; for, after a very earnest
discussion of the situation, the conclusion arrived at was that they
could not do better than adhere to their original plan of endeavouring
to make off with the new schooner, and that her construction should
therefore be pushed forward with all possible expedition; but that, as
there was only too much reason to dread a change from the present
pacific and friendly disposition manifested toward them by the pirates,
an attempt should also be made to win over as many as possible of the
prisoners, not only with the object of effecting these poor creatures'
deliverance from a cruel bondage, but also in order that the fighting
strength of the _Galatea_ party (as they came to term themselves) might
be so far increased as to give them a slightly better chance of success
than they now had in the by no means improbable event of a brush with
the enemy.

Now that the keel of the new schooner was actually laid, operations were
resumed with even more than their former alacrity on board the
_Albatross_, and on the evening of the fourth day after the events
related in the last chapter she was reported as once more ready for sea.

During these four days Captain Staunton and the rest of his party--
excepting Dale, who positively refused to do any wor