come out of gully, an' say cut um tongue out if I'se tell youse, massa!'

"Of course on hearing this I put Captain Alphonse immediately on his
guard, and we locked up all the spare arms and ammunition until we
should require the same, excepting our own revolvers and three other
pistols, which we served out to the two mates and the boatswain, all of
whom were good men and brave Frenchmen. Monsieur Boisson, when he was
asked if he would have one, shrugged his shoulders and said he was a
simple passenger, he did not understand fighting--it was not his affair;
while little Mr Johnson said he was an Englishman and preferred using
his fists. Don Miguel had a pistol of his own.

"Jingo! The emergency we dreaded came soon enough, sir; indeed, sooner
than we expected, and it was fortunate we had been forewarned!

"It was just after the noontide hour, I recollect that well, for Captain
Alphonse had just taken the altitude of the sun to ascertain our
position, when, as he came up from his cabin where he had gone to
consult his chronometers and work out `the reckoning,' as you sailors
call it, that that black devil the `marquis' mounted the poop with a
simpering and fawning air.

"`Ah well, captain,' said he, with a very polite bow, `where do you make
us out to be, monsieur? Near the Bermudas yet?'

"`My word, yes,' replied Captain Alphonse. `We are some ten leagues or
so the westward of the islands, but we're bearing up now, as you see, to
reach them.'

"`And what time, monsieur,' said the `marquis,' speaking louder so that
some of the other niggers who were on the deck below could hear what he
said. `Do you think it will be possible for us to land? My companions
and myself, monsieur, as you can well imagine, are most anxious to get
ashore as soon as possible, so that we may procure a ship to take us on
to Havana.'

"`But, yes, your anxiety is natural enough,' responded poor Captain
Alphonse, suspecting nothing from this. `I hope to approach near enough
to Port Saint George to put you ashore some time in the afternoon.'

"`_Ohe_, below there!' cried out the Haytian in reply to this,
addressing his companions in the waist, who, I noticed, were gradually
edging themselves more and more aft. `Do you hear that, my brave boys?
We are going to land at last. Get the boat ready!'

"This was evidently a signal, for he shouted out the last words in a
still higher key than that in which he had been speaking.

"`You nee