ore hopeful tone than his depressed manner indicated,
looking round at us with his large, melancholy, dark eyes. "I ought not
to despair!"

"Certainly not, sir; I dare say we'll soon overhaul the ship now, for
we're more than an hour and a half in chase of her at full speed,"
remarked the skipper, recovering himself from his fit of abstraction and
looking at his watch to see the time. "Go on, colonel; go on, please,
and tell us the end of your story."

"There is little more for you to hear, sir," replied the other, settling
himself back in his seat again, after Mr O'Neil had once more dressed
the wound in his leg. "Before it was dark that terrible night I sent
Elsie below, while Captain Alphonse with myself stayed up on the poop
for the first watch, each of us with a loaded revolver, besides having a
box of cartridges handy on the skylight near by, should we want to
replenish our ammunition. But the Haytians, sir, had evidently had
enough of us for that evening, making no further attempts to attack us
as the hours wore on.

"They were as watchful as ourselves, though, for as Cato, anon, trying
to creep forwards so as to release the French sailors confined under the
main hatchway, had a narrow escape of his life, a heavy spar being
suddenly let down by the run almost on top of his head when he ventured
out on the exposed deck. This was at midnight, when the second mate,
Basseterre, and Don Miguel, with the French sailor Duval, relieved
Captain Alphonse and me, taking the middle watch.

"Next morning, however, soon after Captain Alphonse and I, with the
little Englishman, had resumed charge of the poop and the others were
resting--alas, my friends, without my knowledge or sanction, poor Cato
made another attempt to reach the hatchway, which, unfortunately
resulted in his death!

"Hearing Ivan growl and my little daughter cry out as if something had
frightened her, I had gone down to the cabin shortly after daylight to
see what was the matter, cautioning Captain Alphonse, who hardly needed
my caution, not to leave his post for a moment, and not thinking of
Cato, who had disappeared from the top of the companion-way and had gone
below to Elsie--heard her cry, I thought, and gone to her even before
myself.

"He was not in the cabin, however; nor did I find anything much the
matter with my child, who had evidently unconsciously cried out in some
dream she had, Ivan, of course, gushing in sympathy and waking her up