ng sick I don't know, but the
very next night I was struck down with fever. Our masters saw that I
was not shamming. The women also stood our friends, and declared that I
was not fit to get up and work, while Jack was allowed to stay at home
and nurse me. I was very bad, and I believe he thought that I should
die.

"If he had been my own mother's son he couldn't have looked after me
better than he did; night and day he was always by my side, ready to
give me what I wanted. One day I heard a loud shouting and singing, and
Jack, who had gone out, came back and said that the men had all started
with their spears and shields. They had wanted to make him go, but the
women said he must stop behind, though he had a hard matter to escape
from the men. I was already getting better, and this news made me feel
better still.

"`It will be a bad return to run off with one of their boats,' said
Jack, `but there seems no help for it, and it may be our only chance,
for the men will be back again in a day or two.'

"That very night, while Jack and I were sitting up talking, we heard
shrieks and cries in the distance; and presently, looking out, Jack said
he saw the houses lower down the river burning.

"Then depend upon it the pirates have taken the place, I said.

"`No doubt about it,' exclaimed Jack, `and now is our chance. If we
could defend the poor women and children we would, but we cannot do
that. They'll know where to fly to, and so, I hope, escape.'

"Suddenly I felt my strength come back, and I was able to follow Jack
down the ladder, at the bottom of which the boat was kept moored. To
cut the painter by which she was made fast didn't take us a moment, and
springing into her we paddled across the stream. As we looked down the
river we could see all the houses in a blaze, and here and there people
running off into the woods, while we made out half a score or more of
the dark proas stealing up along the shore."

Just as Miles Soper had got thus far in his history I was summoned on
deck, and eager as I was to hear how he and Jack had fared, I was
obliged to attend to my duty.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

MILES SOPER'S NARRATIVE CONCLUDED.

"I've heard news of my brother Jack!" I exclaimed, as I met Jim
directly after I sprang on deck.

"What! Is he alive?" asked Jim.

"Miles Soper, who was his shipmate, thinks so," I answered. "At all
events, he wasn't killed when we thought he was."

"Then, Peter, we'll