we obtain a glimpse of the bright blue
sea. Our hearts bounded with joy when we saw it. Still more delightful
was it to gaze down from a height which we reached on the well-squared
yards and the white deck of a British frigate which lay at anchor in the
harbour below us. Pat threw up his hat and shouted for joy. He was the
only one of us who retained anything like a hat; only an Irishman,
indeed, would have thought of preserving so battered a head-covering.

"Sure it serves to keep my brains from broiling," he observed, "and what
after all is the use of a hat but for that, and just to toss up in the
air when one's heart's in the mood to leap after it?" So near did the
frigate appear that we felt inclined to hail her to send a boat on
shore, though our voices would in reality have been lost in mid-air,
long before the sound could reach her decks. We should have hurried
down to the shore, had not our guide insisted on our proceeding first to
the Rajah's abode, where he might report our arrival in safety and claim
a reward for himself, as well as the better to enable the Rajah to put
in his own claims for a recompense. We were still standing in the
presence of the great man, when a lieutenant and a couple of midshipmen
with about twenty armed seamen made their appearance in the courtyard.
Dicky Esse and I no sooner caught sight of them than, unable to restrain
our eagerness, we rushed forward intending to shake hands with them.

"Hillo, what are these curious little imps about?" exclaimed one of the
midshipmen, as we were running towards them.

"Imp?" exclaimed Dicky. "You would look like an imp if you had been
made to hoe in the fields all day long with the sun right overhead for
the best part of half-a-year. I am an officer like yourself, and will
not stand an insult, that I can tell you!" This reply was received with
a burst of laughter from the two midshipmen; but the lieutenant,
guessing who we were, received us both in a very kind way, and Pember
with Kiddle and Pat coming up, he seemed highly pleased to find that we
were the prisoners he had been sent to liberate. The frigate, he told
us, was the "Resolution," Captain Pemberton, who, having heard through
some of the natives that some English seamen were in captivity, had
taken steps to obtain our release.

"We told the Rajah that if any of you were injured, or if his people
refused to restore you, we would blow his town about his ears--a far
more effec