t shed
his rays across its surface. That is the period when seamen of every
nation are more particularly accustomed to take a steady scrutinising
glance round the horizon, to see what ships or land may be in sight. We
could observe the sails of the prahus gliding by to the westward like
silent phantoms in the cold pale light of the morning. We were to the
eastward of the greater part of the fleet, and we began to hope that all
might pass us, when Fairburn and I simultaneously perceived three
others, more to the north than the rest, and directly to the eastward of
us. Being thus more to windward than the rest, they came down rapidly
towards us.

"What shall we do now?" I asked of Fairburn. "If we stay where we are,
they will scarcely miss us. If we pull on, we shall be directly to
leeward of them, and they will certainly see us, and we cannot escape
them."

"To own the truth, I do not see that we have a chance of escape," he
whispered. "In attempting to pull away out of their course to the
northward, we shall certainly be observed. We must make up our minds to
the worst."

"What do you think that will be?" I asked.

"If they grant us our lives--abject slavery," he answered, with a groan.
"If we could fight first, I should not so much mind; but to be picked
up by those rascals without a struggle, as a worm is picked up by a
bird, is very trying."

"But don't you think we might master one of the prahus, and escape in
her?" I asked.

"A brave thought; but one, I am afraid, our captain is not a man to
execute," was his reply. "I am thinking about the poor women. We may
one of these days find means of escaping out of the hands of these
villains; but they never can."

"Indeed I can feel for them," I said, thinking of the fate of my own
sister.

"Well, we will try if we can stir the captain up to adopt your plan," he
exclaimed, after a minute's silence. "We have arms enough, and we will
throw ourselves altogether on board the first vessel which comes up. If
we take her by surprise, we shall have a greater chance of success."

"I will back you up," I said. "I am sure all hands here will join us."

"Yes, yes," said the men; "we will fight before we yield."

And to show that they were in earnest, they set to work to examine the
arms we had in the boat. We then hailed Captain Van Deck, and told him
what we proposed doing.

"It would be madness," he answered. "We should not have a chance of
success