batten him down in the hold, and that's the end of the adventure."

"How can you go on like that?" said Mike piteously. "Making fun of it
all, when we're so miserable."

"That's why: just to cheer us up a bit, and set us thinking about what's
next to do."

"I can't think," said Mike. "It's a pity we didn't stop in the seal
hole."

"Stop there? We should have felt nice by now. Why, our legs would be
all swollen, and we should be so hungry that--Here, I say, Ladle, you
wouldn't have been safe. I wonder how you'd taste?"

"I say, do be serious, Cinder. It's too horrible to laugh at it."

"Well, so it is, old chap, but I am thinking hard all the time, yet I
can't see any way out of it. I know we could swim almost like seals;
but look at the water out there,--we couldn't do anything in it."

"No, we should be sucked down in five minutes."

"Yes. The old pirate knows it, too, and that's why he leaves us alone.
I say, he does look like a pirate, though, doesn't he? with that pistol,
and the rings in his ears."

"Oh! I never saw a pirate, only on those pictures we tried to paint.
But what about the cliffs?"

"No good. They're either straight up and down or overhanging. We
couldn't do it."

"We might get over the other side and make signals."

"Yes; there is something in that. But don't you think we might get away
by the passage? The sentry may go to sleep."

"No good," said Mike bitterly. "Those fellows daren't."

"S'pose not," said Vince thoughtfully. "Old Jarks is the sort of chap
to wake 'em up with his pistol. It's of no use yet, Ladle; the idea
hasn't come. Yes, it has! Why can't we wait our chance and seize the
boat and get it off? We could manage."

"Hush!" whispered Mike.

The warning was needed, for the captain came from the back of the stack
of packages, and marched down towards where they were.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

WHAT WILL HE DO WITH US?

"Aha!" he cried. "So you sall not try to escape any more?"

"No," said Vince coolly, looking the speaker full in the face. "I say,
what time do you have dinner?"

The Frenchman stared at him for a few moments fiercely, and then burst
into a boisterous fit of laughter.

"You are a _drole de garcon_" he said. "You are again hungry?"

"I shall be by the time it's ready. But, I say, captain, how much
longer are you going to keep us here?"

"Aha!" he said, with a shrug of the shoulders and a peculiar
gesticulation with his ha