, intending also to warn Monsieur and Madame Boisson
of our contemplated departure; not forgetting also, you may be sure, to
make every arrangement for the safety of my child, who, with the dog,
her constant companion, had remained below with the ex-milliner and her
husband, though these two had retired to their cabin, whence I could not
get them to stir, either by threat of being left behind or any entreaty.
No, they were both as obstinate as mules in their cowardice and foolish
fears!

"Madame declared they had been `betrayed,' and asserted they could `die
but once'; while monsieur, `le brave Hercule,' on his part, said he
`washed his hands of all responsibility.' It was not his affair, he
considered himself perfectly satisfied, and gave me to understand he
would not interfere on either side, except, I expect, the victorious
one!

"Finding all remonstrances in vain, I was just going to force them away
against their will, when suddenly there came a loud shout from the deck
above, and the hasty tramp of feet overhead, which was at once responded
to by Madame Boisson with a shriek at the top of her voice, while
monsieur cursed everybody in a whining voice.

"Telling Elsie to stop where she was until I returned for her, I rushed
up the companion-way, followed by Pedro Gomez, only to find everything
all but lost!

"The French sailors, it seems, so Mr Johnson told me afterwards in a
few hurried words of explanation, had `got into a fog' over the falls of
the boat they had been sent to lower, and seeing the clumsy way they
were setting to work at the job, both Basseterre and Captain Alphonse
thoughtlessly left their post to show the men the proper way to do the
task ordered. Alas! though, in a second, while the whole lot of them
all had their backs turned to the Haytians, these demons, grasping the
opportunity in a moment, rushed up on the poop by the port-ladder way,
now unguarded!

"Captain Alphonse, hearing the noise of their approach, faced about,
fronting his foes like a tiger at bay, and drew his revolver from his
belt.

"But, sir, he was too late!

"Ere he could put up his hand to guard himself, for I could see it all
in an instant, as I emerged from the companion-hatchway, the giant
negro, who had abandoned his pistol for a hand-spike, brought down this
fearful weapon with a tremendous thwack on the side of my poor friend's
head with the result you have seen."

"Aye, faith," said Garry O'Neil. "It must