hit, that
I saw him jump down to release his companions. It was with a sense of
misery and degradation I have never before experienced, that I watched
till we lost sight of the unfortunate _Susannah_.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A week passed away on board the _Foam_. Whereabouts we were I had no
means of telling; for the captain kept me in his cabin, and would not
allow me to go on deck without first asking his leave, nor would he
permit me to communicate with Mr Jones. He treated me very kindly, and
even gave me books with which to amuse myself; but I was very far from
happy. I felt that the schooner might some day be captured by a ship of
war, and that I might probably be hung as a pirate before I had an
opportunity of establishing my innocence. I also did not like to be a
prisoner, even though I was kindly treated; and I thought that most
probably, when Hawk found I would not join in any piratical acts, and I
had resolved that nothing should compel me to do so, his behaviour would
change, and that if I escaped with my life, I should no longer be
treated as before.

Abraham Jones had, I am sorry to say, as far as I was able to judge from
appearances, taken readily enough to the office imposed on him, and on
two occasions when I went on deck, I saw him doing duty as the officer
of the watch. My opinion of him was, that he would not have sought to
become a pirate, but that, having no nice sense of right and wrong--
finding himself thrust, as it were, into the life--he did not think it
worth making any exertion to escape from it.

Whether we went to the Havanah or not I did not know. We certainly were
once at anchor, and three times we either chased vessels or were chased
by a superior force, from the eager tone in which the captain ordered
sail to be made. Once we fired several shots, and were fired at in
return; and I suspect it must have been at some vessel on our beam
chasing us, and that some of her rigging or her masts must have been cut
away, from the loud cheers the pirates gave, perhaps they sunk the
enemy.

An hour afterwards, Hawk came down into the cabin, looking as cool and
unconcerned as if nothing had happened. I tried to gain some
information from him, but he would answer none of my questions. He only
gave a ghastly smile when I asked if the vessel at which he had fired
had sunk; and he then took up a book, in which he soon seemed to be
deeply absorbed. After some time the book dropped from