state. "Fire up the engines, pile on the coals and
steam like the devil! and go in chase of her, my good captain, you will?
For Heaven's sake, captain, for the love of God, start at once in chase
of her!"

"In chase of whom?" asked Captain Applegarth, still believing him to be
out of his mind. "In chase of whom?"

The man uttered a heart-rending cry, in which anger, grief and piteous
appeal were alike blended.

"In chase of a band of black miscreants who have committed murder and
piracy on the high seas!" he ejaculated in broken accents. "The blood
of a number of white men massacred by treacherous negroes calls for
vengeance, the safety of a young girl and the lives of your brother
sailors still on board the ship calls to you for help and rescue! Great
Heaven! Will you stand idly by and not render the aid you can? Think,
captain, a little girl like your own daughter--my Elsie, my little one!
Yes, and white men, your brothers, and sailors, too, like yourselves, at
the mercy of a gang of black ruffians! Sir, will you help them or not?"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

WE START IN CHASE OF THE SHIP.

The effect of this appeal was electrical, not only on the skipper, but
on all of us standing by.

"Great heavens, man!" cried the captain, staring at the other in wild
astonishment. "What do you mean? I cannot understand you, sir. Your
ship, you say--"

"My words are plain enough, captain," said the stranger, interrupting
the skipper. "Our ship, the _Saint Pierre_, is in the possession of a
gang of Haytian negroes who rose on us while we were on the high seas
and murdered most of the officers and the crew. They then threw poor
Captain Alphonse, who commanded her, overboard, after they had half
killed him, and the rest of the unfortunate sailors and passengers,
amongst them my little daughter, are now at the mercy of the black
devils!"

"My God!" exclaimed the skipper, confounded by this lucid statement.
"And you, sir?"

"I am an American!" said the other with a proud air, drawing himself up
to his full height of six feet and more, and with his eyes flashing,
while a red flush mounted to his cheeks, which had formerly been deadly
pale. "I'm a white man, captain, and it's not likely I would stand by
and see people of my own colour butchered! Of course, sir, I went to
the poor captain's assistance, but then the murderers served me almost
as badly as they did him, chucking me overboard after him."

"I beg your