first attack upon us, and
we have shot five more now. All the rest are battened down below."

"There they had better remain for the present. Well, Gilmore, I
congratulate you on having recaptured the ship. It has been a bad affair,
for we have lost nine men killed; but as far as you are concerned you have
done splendidly. I am afraid I shall get a pretty bad wigging for allowing
them to get out, though certainly the bolts of the hatchways were all
right when we changed the watch. Of course I see now that I ought to have
placed a man there as sentry. It is always so mighty easy to be wise after
the event. I expect the rascals pretty nearly cut the wood away round the
bolts, and after the watch was changed set to work and completed the job.
We shall not, however, be able to investigate that until we get to Malta."

"We have blocked up the door between the fore and the after parts of the
ship," said Will; "but I think it would be as well to place a sentry at
each hatch now, as they might turn the tables upon us again."

"Certainly. Are you badly wounded, Dimchurch?"

"I have got a slash across the cheek, sir, but nothing to speak of."

"Well, will you take post at the after-hatch for the present. Stevens, you
may as well go down and guard the door. You will be able to tell us, at
least, if they are up to any mischief. I should think, however, the fight
is pretty well taken out of them, and that they will resign themselves to
their fate now."

"This is a bad job for me," Forster said, as he and Will sat down together
on a gun.

"I am awfully sorry, Forster, but I am afraid there is no getting out of
it."

"No, that is out of the question."

"There is one thing, Forster. If you did not put a sentry over the
hatchway, neither did I, so I am just as much to blame for the disaster as
you are. If I had had a man there they could hardly have cut away the
woodwork without his hearing. I certainly wish you to state in your report
that you took the watch over from me just as I left it, and that no sentry
had been placed there, as ought certainly to have been done when I came on
watch at eight o'clock."

"It is very kind of you, Gilmore, to wish to take the blame upon your own
shoulders, but the responsibility is wholly mine. I ought to have reminded
you to put a man there, there can be no question at all about that, but I
never gave the matter a thought, and the blunder has cost us nine good
seamen. I shall be lucky if I