arm.

"Hurt, sir!" grumbled the man. "Just you lose your footing, and come
down with your ribs on the edge of that table, and see if you wouldn't
be hurt."

"But I mean shot--wounded."

"Yah! no. He couldn't hit a hay-stack, sir. I'm all right."

"Let me try," said Dick Bannock, "while he's loading his pea-shooter."

The man mounted the table, and began to drag at the canvas and tangle of
rope, and blocks, but there was no attack made upon him, and he
struggled on till he was obliged to give up with a sigh of despair.

"Can't you do it?" cried Mark.

"No, sir, nohow. Wants someone on deck with a hax."

"Let's try the window again," cried Mark; but a few minutes decided
that. Hampered by the great sail hanging down, there was no exit there
without cutting a way through, while those who tried would have been
quite at the mercy of the men on deck.

Back at the door, they hammered and beat and thrust, trying all they
knew without avail, till suddenly, as a cheer was heard alongside, one
of the pieces of wood which wedged them in so securely gave way a
little, then a little more, and with the tramping of feet increasing
overhead, the door flew open.

Mark bounded out, but was driven back into the cabin by Bob Howlett, who
forced his way in with his men, his first words shouted in the dark
cabin--doubly dark to those who entered from the glaring Afric
sunshine--silencing Tom Fillot and his comrades, who shrank back puzzled
at first, then full of mirth and enjoyment at the midshipman's mistake.

For, seeing in the blackened object whom he had helped to drive back
into the cabin a foe of a calibre suited to his size, and one whom he
could tackle, Bob Howlett shouted to his men--"Cut 'em down if they
resist," and then to Mark. "Now you slave-catching dog, surrender, or
this goes through you like a spit."

CHAPTER FORTY ONE.

FUN!

"This" was, of course, Bob Howlett's little midshipman's dirk, a weapon
worn more for ornament than use. But the boy looked as if he meant to
use it, for, according to his own way of expressing himself, his monkey
was up, he was bubbling over with excitement, and ready for anything.
As it happened, he was exceeding his duty, for the officer in command
would never have given a mere lad charge of men to make a desperate
attack upon enemies who had apparently taken refuge below. But without
a moment's hesitation he bore Mark back against the bulkhead, gripping
him with one ha