aimed. "It was a thought worthy of him. What! and has he
escaped?"

"We found no one who appears to be your mate," said Mr Vernon. "But
what could have induced him to commit such an atrocious act?"

"To try and save his own neck by sending us all to perdition before our
time," exclaimed Delano, evidently for the moment forgetting all
caution, from his feeling of exasperation, and thus clearly inculpating
himself.

"Where do you think he has gone, then?" inquired Mr Vernon, quickly,
hoping to gain further information from the pirate in his present mood.

"That's not for me to say," he replied; but not another word could we
elicit from him on the subject.

He kept his fierce eyes glaring on us as we searched the cabin. We came
on a box of cigars in one of the lockers.

"Ah! bring me one of those," he growled out. "You will let a man make
himself comfortable in his own cabin, at all events."

A seaman, as sentry, had been placed over him, with a pistol in his
hand.

"May I give it him, sir?" asked the man.

"No; not on any account," replied Mr Vernon; "but do you, D'Arcy, light
one and put it in his mouth."

As I stooped down to follow my superior's directions, I fancied the
pirate would have tried to bite off my fingers, he gave so vindictive
and fierce a look at me. As I stood by him, I asked, "Has your mate,
whom you call Dawson, ever been known by the name of Myers?"

"What's that to you, youngster? Most men have more than one name," was
his somewhat equivocal answer.

His manner, however, rather confirmed me in my suspicion that the man I
had seen on deck was no other than the daring smuggler we had so often
tried in vain to capture in the cutter. Having thoroughly examined the
ship, we transferred Delano and five of his crew into the schooner,
while the remainder were secured on board the brig, into which Adam
Stallman and Sharpe, with ten of our people, were sent as a prize crew.
Before sailing, Mr Vernon went on shore to report to the English
Consul, as well as to the Turkish authorities, what had occurred. He
got great credit from the merchants for the mode in which he had
captured the pirate. It appeared that even there the conduct of the
crew had begun to excite suspicion; but as it happened to be nobody's
business to inquire into the affair, they would have escaped, had we not
opportunely arrived, that very day.

No information could be obtained of the missing mate. He had not been
s