was every reason to believe that I should
die a cruel and lingering death of torment--which I considered myself
quite justified in avoiding by every means in my power. Moreover, we
were not very far from the land. The Roccas were only some twenty-five
miles away, at the utmost, and could easily be reached by Dominguez
before midnight; and the weather was fine, and the water smooth. The
voyage of the dinghy was therefore not likely to be of a very
adventurous or dangerous character; so that, by taking possession of the
felucca and turning the Spaniard and his companions adrift, I should
only be inflicting upon them a very mild punishment for their unlawful
seizure of my person, especially when the cruel object of that seizure
came to be taken into consideration. I would not leave them, however,
wholly without provisions and water, if I could help it. My first
thought, therefore, was how I might be able to convey to them a small
supply of each without affording them an opportunity to regain
possession of the felucca; and after a few minutes' deliberation I
thought I could see a way by which this might be accomplished.

Meanwhile the dinghy went drifting rapidly away astern, propelled by
Miguel and Luis, who stood up at their oars, looking ahead, while
Dominguez stood up in the stern-sheets, looking over their shoulders and
occasionally glancing back at me for guidance. At length, however, he
caught sight for himself of the turtle, and thenceforward kept his
attention wholly fixed upon it. As soon as I became fully satisfied of
this I jumped down off the companion, for the moment for action on my
part had now arrived.

The first thing was to get sail upon the felucca again; and to masthead
the long, heavy lateen yard, with its big sail, was no easy task for one
man. There was, however, a little winch affixed to the fore part of the
mast, chiefly used for this very purpose; so, upon jumping down off the
companion, my first act was to assure myself that the mainsheet was
securely belayed, after which I rushed forward, and, setting hand-taut
the main halliard, threw two or three turns of the fall round the barrel
of the winch. I then ran aft again and sprang once more upon the
companion to see what was happening aboard the dinghy. She was by this
time drawing pretty close up to the sleeping turtle, and the whole
attention of the trio aboard her appeared to be absorbed in the effort
to get alongside the creature wi