be
carried right upon it by some undertow.

But every foot of the place, and all its difficulties, were perfectly
familiar to the captain's crew, and by making use of the many cross
streams and eddies, they were able to guide the boat into safety, as in
this case; for just as Mike seized the gunwale with one hand, to be
prepared for the shock, and Vince clenched his fists and gave a glance
to the left, the boat's prow passed the end of the detached rock, they
glided into an opening like a gash cut down through the massive
rock-wall, and the next minute were swept into a comparatively calm
pool, surrounded by towering cliffs, which seemed to overlap on their
right; and there, right before them, rode by a couple of hawsers
attached to great rings fixed in the rock-face behind, a long, low
three-masted lugger of the kind known as a _chasse-maree_.

Vince looked sharply round for the channel by which this vessel must
come and go--for it seemed certain that such a way must exist, since so
large a boat could not by any means have entered the circular cove
facing the cavern; and he was not long in seeing that, some twenty or
thirty feet beyond her bow, the water was coming swiftly in round the
cliff, which lapped over another to its right, but so calmly did the
tide run that at the first its motion was unperceived.

Vince had hardly grasped this fact, when the boat was run up alongside,
one of the men sprang into the lugger with the boat's painter and made
it fast, while the boat seemed to tug to get away, and the captain
turned to his prisoners.

"Aboard!" he said sharply; and as there was nothing for it but to obey,
Vince made a virtue of necessity, and going forward, climbed up and over
the bulwark, to stand upon a beautifully white deck, and see that
rigging, sails and spars were all in the highest state of order.

Six or eight men were waiting, and they came aft at once, to stand as if
waiting for orders, while Mike and the captain stepped on board.

"Back at once!" said the Frenchman to a stern-looking, red-faced man,
who appeared to be the mate. "All ze boats; and work hard to get all on
board."

This order was given in a low tone, but Vince's ears were sharpened by
his position, and he divined its full meaning.

The men hurried to the side, and rapidly began to lower one of the boats
hanging to the davits; while in his close scrutiny Vince grasped the
fact that they were upon no peaceful vessel: there being a