of," cried Henry, who was now ready to plunge,
"fetch it me, quick--and mind, Jakolu, keep your eye on me; when I hold
up both hands you'll know that I'm dead beat, and that you must come off
and help us both."

So saying, he seized the small piece of drift-wood which the native
brought to him, and, plunging into the sea, struck out vigorously in the
direction in which the pastor was still perseveringly, though slowly,
swimming.

While Henry was stripping, his eye had quickly and intelligently taken
in the facts that were presented to him on the bay. He had seen, on
descending the hill, that the man-of-war had entered the bay and
anchored there, a fact which surprised him greatly, and that the _Foam_
still lay where he had seen her cast anchor on the morning of her
arrival. This surprised him even more--for, if the latter was really a
pirate schooner, (as had been hinted more than once that day by various
members of the settlement,) why did she remain so fearlessly and
peacefully within range of the guns of so dangerous and powerful an
enemy? He also observed that one of the large boats of the _Talisman_
was in the water alongside and full of armed men, as if about to put off
on some warlike expedition, while his pocket telescope enabled him to
perceive that Gascoyne, (who must needs be the pirate captain, if the
suspicions of his friends were correct,) was smoking quietly on the
quarterdeck, apparently holding amicable converse with the British
commander. The youth knew not what to think, for it was preposterous to
suppose that a pirate captain could by any possibility be the intimate
friend of his own mother.

These and many other conflicting thoughts kept rushing through his mind
as he hastened forward, but the conclusions to which they led him--if,
indeed, they led him to any--were altogether upset by the unaccountable
and extremely piratical conduct of the seamen who carried off Alice and
her companions, and whom he knew to be part of the crew of the _Foam_,
both from their costume, and from the direction in which they rowed
their little boat.

The young man's perplexities were, however, neutralised for the time by
his anxiety for his friend the pastor, and by the necessity of instant
and vigorous effort for his rescue. He had just time, before plunging
into the sea, to note with satisfaction that the man-of-war's boat had
pushed off; and that if Alice really was in the hands of pirates, there
was the ce