y as some poor wretch felt the
stroke of the merciless steel; the cries and groans of those who had
been smitten down, and, still conscious, were being trampled underfoot
by the combatants; the deep muttered curse; the sharp word of command;
and the occasional cheer that broke from the lips of our own gallant
lads. Suddenly there was a louder hurrah, a quick scurrying rush, a
loud shout of command in Spanish for every man to save himself, an
outcry of terrified ejaculations in the same tongue, a quick succession
of splashes in the water alongside, and a sudden silence, broken the
next instant by a gasping but triumphant shout from Ryan of--

"Hurroo, bhoys! By the blessed--Saint--Pathrick--but--that's nately
done! Ugh!--pouff!--we've--drove them--clane overboard! Murther! but
it's meltin' I am--and as dhry--as a limekiln!"

CHAPTER FOUR.

CHANGO CREEK.

Then I heard the skipper hailing, apparently from the forecastle--

"Is that Mr Ryan's voice that I hear, aft there?"

"Ay, ay, sorr," answered the second luff; "it's myself, bedad, all
that's left ov me!"

A sound of footsteps followed, suggesting that he had walked away
forward to join his superior; but as the man at my feet just then
stirred uneasily, as though his senses were returning to him, I made a
quick grab at my cutlass, and drawing from my belt a loaded pistol, the
existence of which I had until then forgotten, I pulled myself together
and made ready for the next emergency.

Presently, my prisoner, for such he now was, stirred again, sighed
deeply, and opened his eyes, his glance immediately falling upon me.
For a few seconds he seemed not to know where he was, or what had
happened; then, as we gazed into each other's eyes, I saw that his
memory had returned to him, and as he made a motion to rise to his feet,
I sprang to mine, and pointing my pistol straight at his head, said in
the best Spanish that I could muster--

"Stay where you are! If you make the slightest attempt to move I will
blow your brains out, you villain!"

He continued to gaze steadfastly at me for some moments; and then
seeing, I suppose, that I fully meant what I said, he smiled bitterly
and muttered--

"So it has come to this, has it, that I must lie here in my own cabin,
helpless, at the mercy of a mere boy? _Car-r-am-ba_!"

He still kept his regards steadfastly fixed upon me; and as I seemed to
read in the expression of his eyes a dawning determination to make a