ake up your mind whether it is
overboard you would wish to go, or be carried below. Speak, man; I ax
ye again for the last time: are ye alive or dead?'

"The Frenchman, maybe, might not have understood exactly what Brady was
saying, but he must have had a pretty horrible idea that he was about to
be sent overboard. This time he not only groaned, but uttered some
words, and endeavoured to drag himself along the deck. `Arrah, now,
that's like a dacent, sinsible man,' observed Pat. `Anyhow, you deserve
to have your hurts looked to, and so we will carry him below, Jim.'"

The truth was that the man had been only slightly wounded, and
afterwards stunned by a blow. Had he not come to himself at that
moment, his career would undoubtedly have been finished. Hands were now
sent aloft, the studden-sails hauled down, and the brig brought on a
wind. The sweeps, which had all this time remained run out, were taken
in-board, and the boats were veered astern.

"We now stood in the direction we hoped to find the frigate, hoisting
two lights at the mast-head, firing guns, and burning blue lights to
show our position. It was an anxious time, however, and we had to keep
a very watchful eye on the Frenchmen. They evidently were hatching
mischief, for they must have known as well as we did that the frigate
was still a long way off, and that if they could overcome us they might
yet get away with their brig. She was called the `Loup' (the Wolf), and
a wolf she had proved herself among our merchantmen. I had been
relieved at my station at the magazine, when Pat Brady came up to me.
`Burton,' he said, `I wish you would just take a look at the wounded
prisoners. There is one of them whom I thought dead, and there he is,
sitting up and talking away as if there was nothing the matter with him.
I cannot understand his lingo, but, by the way he moves his arms about,
I think he means mischief!'

"I went below with Brady, and there, sure enough, was the man he had so
nearly thrown overboard, apparently very little the worse for his hurt,
and evidently, as it appeared to me, trying to persuade his countrymen
to do something or other which he had proposed. Sentries had been
placed over the other prisoners, of course, but desperate men might soon
have overpowered them, especially if the prisoners knew that there would
be a little diversion in their favour.

"Hurrying on deck, I reported what we had seen to Mr Schank, who
immediately ord