n't I be put on shore?"

"No, but you can keep below and help the doctor, where you may be of use
and out of harm's way, if we don't go down, or blow up during the
action," said Murray, with no little disdain in the tone of his voice.

"Oh! oh!" groaned Pigeon. "Go down, or blow up! Oh, dear!"

CHAPTER SIX.

PADDY ADAIR, HURRAH!

The beautiful frigate looked like a vast cloud of snowy whiteness, as,
with studding-sails alow and aloft, she swept proudly along over the
blue waters of the Mediterranean in chase of the stranger. The latter
had been standing to the eastward; but seeing herself pursued, she also
altered her course, and ran off before the wind towards the land. Night
was coming on, and it was very important to get up with her, near enough
to ascertain her character, to prevent her escaping, should such be her
design, in the dark. Every one was on deck or in the tops, looking out
at the stranger, and those considered themselves fortunate who could
command the use of a spyglass. One person--bully Pigeon--was below, and
he sat quaking on a chest in the orlop deck, where he had been told that
he would be least likely to have his head shot away.

"I am a non-combatant, you know. It would be very wrong in me to expose
my life," he observed with a trembling lip. "If I was one of you, of
course I would do my duty as bravely as anybody; but as I am a civilian,
and am come aboard for my health, I think it is my duty to take care of
myself."

"Oh! of course," was the reply; "so precious a person should run no risk
of losing his valuable life."

"Oh, I wish poor Adair were with us," exclaimed Jack. "He did so wish
to see a real fight; and to have to go out of the world without having
been in one was very trying." Jack spoke just as his feelings for the
moment prompted him, without much consideration, I suspect.

"Do you know, Rogers, that since we escaped in so wonderful a way from
drowning, I have more than once thought that perhaps some of the people
of the _Onyx_ may have been saved," observed Murray. "I do not say that
I have any great hopes on the subject, but still I cannot help thinking
that it is possible."

"I'm afraid not, though; we should have heard of them before now,"
replied Jack. "But if anybody escaped, I would rather it were Paddy
Adair than any one else."

Their conversation was cut short by that rolling sound of a drum which
makes the heart of every true man-of-war's man le