me, and I
do not believe that anybody but a Briton would have thought of it, much
less talked of it so coolly as you have done. But, Bowen, my friend,
dare we attempt it? Is there the remotest chance of our being
successful?"

"There is every chance, if we are but resolute," I answered, a little
impatiently. "But, of course," I continued, "you are not called upon to
join us if--"

"Nay, nay," he interrupted, "you shall never say that Anatole Dumaresq
flinched when desperate work had to be done. I am with you, my friend,
heart and soul. Let me but clearly understand what is to be done, and
you shall have no chance to say that I did not do my fair share. There
is my hand upon it."

I silently grasped his extended hand, and then went to the hammocks in
which Hardy and his mates were pretending to sleep, and told them to
tumble out at once. This they did, when I explained to them very
briefly what I proposed to do. Having made my meaning clear, we
rejoined Dumaresq, and without further ado the six of us seized a number
of jackets, trousers, and other clothing that had been hung to the
bulkheads and beams, and unceremoniously cut them into suitable strips,
which we rolled into gags.

On board the _Jean Bart_ the hammocks were never taken on deck, as they
are on board a man-o'-war--the schooner not being fitted with a hammock-
rail,--but were simply laced up every morning. Each hammock was
consequently fitted with a good stout lacing, which I thought would
admirably serve as a lashing for my prisoners.

Having provided ourselves with as many gags as we could conveniently
stow in our pockets, we next stationed ourselves in couples alongside
three occupied hammocks, and while one of the twain loosely and quickly
passed the lacing through the eyelet-holes the other stood by with the
gag, which, at the proper moment, was slipped into the victim's mouth
and lashed securely, the hammock lacing at the same moment being hauled
taut and made fast; and in this way each prisoner was silently and
effectually secured. It took the six of us fully twenty minutes to
secure everybody below--to the number of sixty-three,--as some of them
had to be gagged first and afterwards lashed into their hammocks; but
the work was done effectually, noiselessly, and without a hitch, every
one of the Frenchmen proving to be too completely intoxicated to offer
the slightest resistance worthy of the name.

This done, I crept up on deck, stag