e
schooner's hull became almost startlingly audible. But as long as we
were able to see them the lines of native warriors still stood, silent
and motionless, guarding the whole river front of the town. As a matter
of precaution, I now ordered the boarding nettings to be triced up all
round the ship, the guns to be loaded with grape and canister, the small
arms to be prepared for immediate service, a double anchor-watch to be
kept, and the men to hold themselves ready for any emergency, after the
bustle of which preparations the schooner subsided again into silence
and darkness, the men for the most part "pricking for a soft plank" on
deck, and coiling themselves away thereon in preference to seeking
repose in the stifling forecastle. As for Gowland and myself, we paced
the deck contemplatively together until about ten o'clock, discussing
the chances of getting away on the morrow, and then, everything seeming
perfectly quiet and peaceful, we had our mattresses brought on deck, and
stretched ourselves out thereon in the small clear space between the
companion and the wheel.

I had been asleep about two hours, when I was awakened by a light touch,
and, starting up, found that it was one of the anchor-watch, who was
saying--

"Better go below, sir, I think, because it looks as though it was goin'
to rain. And Bill and me, sir, we thinks as you ought to know that we
fancies we've heard the dip o' paddles occasionally round about the ship
within the last ten minutes."

"The dip of paddles, eh?" exclaimed I, in a whisper. "Where away,
Roberts?"

"Well, first here and then there, sir," answered the man, in an equally
low and cautious tone of voice; "both ahead and astarn of us; sometimes
on one side, and then on t'other. But we ain't by no means certain
about it; that there whirl-pool away off on our port-quarter a little
ways down-stream is makin' such a row that perhaps we're mistaken, and
have took the splash of the water in it for the sound of paddles. And
it's so dark that there ain't a thing to be seen."

It was as the man had said. It was evident that a heavy thunderstorm
was about to break over us, for the heavens had become black with
clouds, and the darkness was so profound that it was impossible to see
from one side of the deck to the other. I scrambled to my naked feet
and went first to the taffrail, then along the port side of the deck
forward, returning aft along the starboard side of the deck, list