king into the hold we found that several men were
there. The captain hailed them, and gave the welcome news that the
pirate was off, and that they might venture on deck. As soon as they
heard his voice they sprang up, but looks of horror were on their
countenance.

"It's all over with us, sir," said they. "The villains have bored holes
in the ship's bottom, and the water is rushing in by bucketsful."

I accompanied the captain below. Unhappily he found that what they said
was too true, and at the first appearance of things it looked as if the
schooner could not swim another half hour. On further examination,
however, it appeared that, whatever might have been the intention of the
villains, they had not bored the holes very cleverly. Some of them were
through the timbers, and others were even above the water line, and they
had providentially been prevented from finishing their work by breaking
their auger, the iron of which was sticking in one of the timbers. When
this had occurred they made the attempt to knock a hole through the
ship's side; but they had found the ribs and planking too strong for
their axes, and had been compelled to desist before accomplishing their
purpose. They had, however, effectually destroyed the pumps,--a few
strokes of their axes had done that,--so that we had little hope of
freeing the vessel of water, as it would take long to repair them. Why
they did not set her on fire I do not know. Perhaps because they were
afraid that the blaze might attract the attention of any ship of war
which might be in the neighbourhood, and bring her down upon them. At
all events, they refrained from no tender feeling of love or mercy for
us.

"Don't give in, my lads," cried the captain, after he had examined the
state of affairs. "All who can manage to move, come with me; we may
still have a chance of saving our lives. See if any of you can find an
axe and wood to make plugs to drive into these holes."

The pirates had of course intended to heave overboard everything of the
sort; but fortunately, without loss of time, a hatchet was found under
the windlass forward, where one of the men recollected he had left it,
after chopping wood for firing, and another discovered an axe in the
carpenter's store-room, under a number of things which had been routed
out of the chests by the pirates in their search for money. With these
two tools we set to work, and as soon as a plug was cut, we drove it
into s