t nothing of the kind happened: the yacht remained
right side up; and if Tom Newcombe had placed a barrel of gunpowder in
her, with a slow-match attached, intending to blow the vessel and her
crew to atoms, there might yet be time to frustrate his designs.

"Quartermaster, spring that rattle!" shouted the officer, as if suddenly
awaking out of a sound sleep--"Smith and Simmonds, lower away the
jolly-boat."

Jackson ran below to report the matter to the first lieutenant; the
sailors hurried off to execute their orders; and, before Tom Newcombe
and his companions were out of sight of the yacht, they heard the rattle
calling the crew to quarters.

"Wake up, sir," cried Jackson, roughly shaking his superior officer by
the shoulder--"Tom Newcombe!"

The second lieutenant knew that the mention of that name would arouse
the executive sooner than any thing else.

"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Harry, "you don't say so! Where is he?"

"In his boat, now, and going down the harbor at the rate of ten knots an
hour. He has been on board this yacht doing some mischief, of course,
and I am expecting every instant to find myself going to the bottom. His
pirate crew is with him."

"The Crusoe band!" Harry almost gasped.

"There are several fellows with him, and I don't know who else they can
be."

"Call away the jolly-boat, and man her with an armed crew," said Harry.
"Mr. Richardson!"

"Here, sir," answered the midshipman, who had just come into the cabin
with his boots in one hand, and his coat in the other.

"Take charge of the jolly-boat, pursue those fellows, and capture them,
at all hazards, if they can be found. Mr. Jackson, stand by to get the
vessel under way immediately."

The second lieutenant sprang up the ladder, followed by the midshipman,
and, a few moments afterward, Harry heard the boat's crew scrambling
over the side, and the boatswain's whistle calling the men to their
stations.

"Am I doomed to live in constant fear of that fellow as long as I remain
at the academy?" said the first lieutenant to himself. "What could he
have wanted here? I'll have the yacht searched at once, and discover, if
I can, what he has been up to."

But the executive soon learned that it was not necessary to search the
vessel to find out what Tom Newcombe had been doing, for, just at that
moment, he was alarmed by the rapid tolling of the bell, and Jackson
burst into the cabin, pale and excited.

"The yacht is on fire, sir!" said