to get the dinghy
head-on and as close as possible to the spot over which they expected me
to pass. But I was not to be quite so easily caught napping; so,
carefully measuring the distance with my eye, I again put the helm up,
just at the right moment, and, sweeping past the dinghy within half a
dozen fathoms, hailed her discomfited occupants somewhat to this
effect:--

"Dinghy ahoy! I am not going to allow you to come alongside again, so I
would recommend you to make the best of your way to the Roccas, which,
as you know, bear south-south-west, some twenty-five miles distant. I
have no doubt that, if you can reach them, you are certain to be taken
off sooner or later. Meanwhile, I do not wish you to starve, so I am
going to launch overboard some provisions and water for you to pick up;
also the boat's mast and sail. The weather promises to hold fine, so
you ought to make a fairly good and quick passage of it."

Meanwhile, the moment that Dominguez became aware of what I was doing he
swept the boat round with a couple of powerful strokes of his oar, and
once again they gave chase with might and main, Dominguez at the same
time shouting to me that if I would allow them to return on board they
would land me wherever I pleased, and never ask so much as a penny-piece
by way of ransom. Could I have trusted the fellow, I would willingly
have acceded to his proposal; but I could not. He had already shown
himself to be so coldly callous, so absolutely indifferent to the
fearful fate to which he had undertaken to consign me, that I felt it
would be the sheerest, most insane folly to place myself in his power
again. I therefore kept the felucca away until I found that she was
rather more than holding her own in the race, when I once more lashed
the tiller, and, calling to Dominguez to look out for the things that I
was about to launch overboard, ran to the gangway, and first
successfully set the wash-deck tub afloat, then rolled the breaker of
water out through the open _gangway_, and finally sent the mast and sail
adrift; after which I returned to the tiller and watched the process of
picking up the several articles, as I gradually brought the felucca to
her former course, close-hauled upon the starboard tack.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

HEAVY WEATHER.

The provisions, water, and the mast and sail were all successfully
secured by the occupants of the boat, after which Dominguez, to my great
satisfaction, made sail to th