hailed us and told us that she had just passed over a
number of tubs, pointing out the direction where we should find them.
While we were engaged in picking them up, she made sail for the shore;
and we afterwards learned, to our mortification, that she had run a very
large cargo of contraband goods.

Thanks to Larry's instructions, as I was very handy in a boat, and
understood the duties of a midshipman tolerably well, I was, to my great
delight, soon placed in charge of one of the gigs.

A few days after the occurrence I have described, when we were about mid
Channel, we observed a vessel whose appearance was suspicious. It had
just gone two bells, in the forenoon watch. It was blowing pretty fresh
from the south-west, and there was a lop of a sea, but not enough to
endanger a boat. We made sail towards the stranger, and as we neared
her we perceived that she was veering about, apparently under no
control.

"Her main-boom has gone," observed Hanks, "and there doesn't seem to be
a soul on deck; her crew have been knocked or washed overboard, I
suspect."

"I am afraid so," said the Commander. "She looks to me like a
pilot-boat. She was probably struck by a squall, with only a couple of
hands left in her."

"Lubberly work somehow, at all events," remarked Hanks.

In another ten minutes we were close to the pilot-boat, and the cutter
being hove-to, a boat was lowered, and Hanks and I were ordered to go in
her and see what was the matter. When we gained the deck, we found that
the boom had knocked away part of the bulwarks and companion-hatch, and
committed other damage. The first thing we did was to lower down the
mainsail and to secure the boom, which task, after some difficulty, we
accomplished. We next set about searching the vessel, thinking that no
one was on board. The main hatch was on, but there was a little cabin
aft, with a small stove in it, and six berths, in which the crew lived.
There was a table in the cabin, and on it were a couple of tumblers, a
thick-necked, square-sided glass bottle, on its side, a broken pipe, and
wet marks, and ashes of tobacco, as if people had very lately been
drinking there.

"What's wrong here?" said Hanks. "It could not have been long ago since
some one was on board."

Our eyes soon began to get accustomed to the sombre light of the cabin,
which was darkened by the mainsail hanging over it. I happened to stoop
down, and my eyes glanced under the table, where