on."

"I've thought every way I can," continued Mark, "but I can find no means
of escape."

"Might perhaps get on deck when it's dark, sir. Dessay I could manage
to get up enough to make a jump on to the chap on the watch, and hold
him till you were all alongside."

"A desperate venture, Tom."

"Yes, sir, and we're all desperate now, I can tell you."

No more was said then, and after making a hearty meal from the
provisions in the cabin, the men sat about and went off fast asleep,
worn out as they were with watching and exertion.

But Mark could not sleep. There was the great sense of responsibility
to keep him awake, and the question always troubling him: Had he done
the best as an officer who had succeeded to so important a charge?

He went to where Mr Russell lay in his berth, and bent over him for a
few minutes, but only to go away again with his feeling of misery
increased, and seat himself once more at the cabin window in the hope of
catching a glimpse of the other schooner when a tack was made; but fate
did not favour him. All he could make out was that the vessel must be
sailing south and south-west, and the one they were in keeping on in
full pursuit.

"I don't wonder," he thought. "It means a splendid profit for them to
take her and her living freight."

It was terribly hot down in that cabin, and an intense longing came over
the lad to get on deck in the fresh air. Then he looked longingly down
into the clear sparkling water through which they were rushing, and
thought of how delightful it would be to plunge down and swim.

"Right into the jaws of some shark," he muttered, bitterly, and then,
"Oh, Bob Howlett, I wish you were here to take your share of the worry."

The heat and anxiety seemed too much for him, and despair made
everything now look black; he could see no ray of light.

But nature is very kind, and she came to the sufferer's help, for as he
looked round sourly at those in the cabin, Mr Russell in his
stupor-like slumber, and the rest breathing heavily in perfect repose,
he muttered:

"Not one of them seems to care a bit. Even Tom Fillot and that black
asleep, and at a time like this!"

It is a bad thing to set up as a judge without a plentiful stock of
profundity. Mark scowled angrily at the sleepers, and turned away in
disgust to gaze out of the cabin window at the flashing sea and try in
vain to catch sight of some sail, that might bring help.

The next minute he, too