o her poor mother!"

"O! come to Johnson, please," she said, taking Sam by the hand with a
very trustful look and manner.

"Why; he's not worse, is he?"

"O no! he has just awakened, and says he is _very_ much better, and _so_
peckish. What does he mean by that?"

"Peckish, my dear, is hungry," explained Robin, as they went into the
cave together.

They found that Johnson was not only peckish but curious, and thirsting
for information as well as meat and drink. As his pulse was pronounced
by Dr Shipton to be all right, he was gratified with a hearty supper, a
long pull at the tankard of sparkling water, and a good deal of
information and small-talk about the pirates, the wreck of the Triton,
and the science of electricity.

"But you have not told us yet," said Sam, "how it was that you came to
fail into the hands of the pirates."

"I can soon tell 'ee that," said the seaman, turning slowly on his
couch.

"Lie still, now, you must not move," said Sam, remonstratively.

"But that not movin', doctor, is wuss than downright pain, by a long
way. Hows'ever, I s'pose I must obey orders--anyhow you've got the whip
hand o' me just now. Well, as I was sayin', the yarn ain't a long 'un.
I sailed from the port o' Lun'on in a tea-clipper, of which I was the
cook; got out to Hong-Kong all right, shipped a cargo, and off again for
old England. We hadn't got far when a most horrible gale blew us far
out of our course. When it fell calm, soon arter, we was boarded by a
pirate. Our captain fought like a hero, but it warn't of no use. They
was too many for us; most of my shipmates was killed, and I was knocked
flat on the deck from behind with a hand-spike. On recoverin', I found
myself in the ship's hold, bound hand and futt, among a lot of
unfortunits like myself, most of 'em bein' Chinese and Malays. The
reptiles untied my hands and set me to an oar. They thrashed us all
unmercifully to make us work hard, and killed the weak ones to be rid of
'em. At last we came to an anchor, as I knew by the rattlin' o' the
cables, though, bein' below, I couldn't see where we was. Then I heard
the boats got out, an' all the crew went ashore, as I guessed, except
the guard left to watch us.

"That night I dreamed a deal about bein' free, an' about former
voyages--specially one when I was wrecked in the Atlantic, an' our good
ship, the Seahorse, went down in latitude--"

"The Seahorse!" echoed Robin, with an earnest look at t