ake your chance; but take my advice, if you do
not put to sea immediately, you will the very next tide be attacked by
five longboats full of men, and perhaps if you are taken you will be
hanged for a pirate, and the particulars be examined afterwards. I
thought, sir," added he, "I should have met with a better reception than
this for doing you a piece of service of such importance."--"I can never
be ungrateful," said I, "for any service, or to any man that offers me
any kindness; but it is past my comprehension what they should have such
a design upon me for: however, since you say there is no time to be lost,
and that there is some villainous design on hand against me, I will go on
board this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men can stop the
leak; but, sir," said I, "shall I go away ignorant of the cause of all
this? Can you give me no further light into it?"

"I can tell you but part of the story, sir," says he; "but I have a Dutch
seaman here with me, and I believe I could persuade him to tell you the
rest; but there is scarce time for it. But the short of the story is
this--the first part of which I suppose you know well enough--that you
were with this ship at Sumatra; that there your captain was murdered by
the Malays, with three of his men; and that you, or some of those that
were on board with you, ran away with the ship, and are since turned
pirates. This is the sum of the story, and you will all be seized as
pirates, I can assure you, and executed with very little ceremony; for
you know merchant ships show but little law to pirates if they get them
into their power."--"Now you speak plain English," said I, "and I thank
you; and though I know nothing that we have done like what you talk of,
for I am sure we came honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such a
work is doing, as you say, and that you seem to mean honestly, I will be
upon my guard."--"Nay, sir," says he, "do not talk of being upon your
guard; the best defence is to be out of danger. If you have any regard
for your life and the lives of all your men, put to sea without fail at
high-water; and as you have a whole tide before you, you will be gone too
far out before they can come down; for they will come away at high-water,
and as they have twenty miles to come, you will get near two hours of
them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the way:
besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they will not venture to