itedly.

"Lie down, sir! Quiet, will you?" cried Bob fiercely. "How am I to
flow on if you keep stopping me?"

"Go on, please," said Mark.

"Of course I didn't let him fire," continued Bob, importantly. "How
could I go plunging round-shot into the miserable schooner and kill no
end of niggers? Wasn't to be thought about. So we crowded on again
till they dropped another black overboard, and we had to heave to and
pick him up, and then another and another till we had got four. The
other two were either hurt, I think, or so weak that they couldn't swim,
and the poor fellows went down before our lads could get to them."

"How horrible!"

"Yes; it'll be pretty horrible for Yankee Doodle if old Maitland ever
gets his paw on him."

"If ever--" began Mark.

"Will you lie down?" cried Bob.

"Well, I am lying down," replied Mark. "I don't feel as if I could sit
up."

"No, nor you won't till Whitney and I have bricked and mortared you
well."

"Pray, pray go on, and tell me about capturing the schooner."

"You won't let me with your interruptions," cried Bob. "It's always the
way with you fellows when you're getting better. You are right down
nasty."

"Go on, Bob."

"Well, on we went after my gentleman, getting close enough to make his
sails ragged, and then being dodged about in every direction as he went
through all sorts of manoeuvres to escape. Now we were hove to, to pick
up some of his cargo, now in full chase again, till I got sick of it by
daylight, and every one else too, and the men so savage that they would
have liked to pour in a broadside if it hadn't been for the poor fellows
under hatches. At last it was morning, and the sun up, with the
schooner a good mile away, and then came the worst of it."

"The worst of it?"

"Ay, ay, sir! as we say at sea. No sooner was the sun well up than the
sails began to shiver.

"`Wind's failing, sir,' says old Staples.

"`Bah! nonsense!' says the skipper, and there came a hot puff and filled
the sails again, making us careen over. `There, Mr Staples,' says the
skipper, `what do you think of that?'

"`Last puff, sir, for the day,' says Staples.

"`Nonsense we shall have her now,' says the skipper; and then he crossed
just in front of me and gave a big stamp, for the sails flopped down all
at once, and there we were gliding slowly on for a bit, and then
settling on an even keel, while a mile away there was the schooner with
a light breeze, going al