bounded by the horizon, the other by the yellow shores and the lofty
broken tree-covered heights of the island. We remained at anchor,
intending to sail in the morning, should there be sufficient wind to
enable us to move. As the sun was sinking into the ocean, the sky and
water for a few seconds were lighted up with a glow of brightest orange,
which faded away as the shades of night came stealing across the water
from the east. In a short time the stars overhead burst forth, and
shone down upon us, their light reflected in the mirror-like expanse on
which we floated. The heat was very great. Esse and Pember had the
middle watch under the Third-Lieutenant of the ship (the second had gone
away in the prize). The heat making me unwilling to turn into my
hammock, I continued to walk the deck with Esse. Sometimes we stopped
and leaned against a gun-carriage, talking, as midshipmen are apt to
talk, of home, or future prospects, or of late occurrences.

"That foreign-looking pilot aboard here is a strange fellow," observed
Esse to me. "The people think him not quite right in his mind. They
say he talks in his sleep, and did you observe his look when he caught
sight of the murdered people aboard the brig?" I did not, however,
agree with Dicky's notions.

"The man had been employed on board ships of war for many years, I am
told," I answered. "And if he was not a respectable character it is not
likely that they would take him."

"As to that I have my doubts," answered Esse. "All they look to is to
get a good pilot who knows the ugly navigation of these seas, and that,
I suppose, at all events, he does. But see, who is that on the other
side of the deck?" As he spoke he pointed to a person who was standing,
apparently looking out at some object far away across the sea.

"Yes, that is he," I whispered. "I hope he did not hear us."

"If he did it does not signify," said Esse. While we were looking at
him, the man walked directly aft, and remained gazing, as he had done
before, into the distance over the taffrail. The watch at length came
to an end. "I shall caulk it out on deck," said I. Esse agreed to do
the same. Indeed several of the crew were sleeping on deck--Kiddle and
Brady among them. There also was Pember. Indeed it seemed surprising
that anybody could manage to exist in the oven-like heat which prevailed
in the lower part of the ship. "Sound slumber to you, Burton," said
Esse, and he and I bef