l catching crabs together!" cried Prose.

"Caught something worse than a crab, sir," replied the
coxswain--"Wilson, are you much hurt?"

"The rascals have let daylight in, I'm afraid," answered the man,
faintly.

"Well, I do declare I'd no idea the poor fellows were wounded.
Coxswain, take one of the oars, and I'll steer the boat, or we shall
never get alongside. I say, Mr Jolly, can't you pull?"

"Yes, sir, upon a pinch," answered the marine whom he addressed, laying
his musket on the stern-sheets, and taking one of the unmanned oars.

"Well, there now, give way."

But the delay occasioned by this mishap had left the cutter far astern
of the other boats, who, paying no attention to her, had pulled
alongside, and boarded the vessel. The conflict was short, from the
superior numbers of the English, and the little difficulty in getting on
board of a vessel with so low a gunwale. By the time that Prose came
alongside in the cutter, the pirates were either killed or had been
driven below. Prose jumped on the gunwale, flourishing his cutlass--
from the gunwale he sprung on the deck, which was not composed of
planks, as in vessels in general, but of long bamboos, running fore and
aft, and lashed together with rattans; and as Prose descended upon the
rounded surface, which happened where he alighted to be slippery with
blood, his feet were thrown up, and he came down on the deck in a
sitting posture.

"Capital jump, Mr Prose," cried Courtenay; "but you have arrived too
late to shed your blood in your country's cause--very annoying, an't
it?"

"O Lord!--O Lord!--I do declare--oh--oh--oh!" roared Prose, attempting
to recover his feet, and then falling down again.

"Good heavens, what's the matter, Prose?" cried Seymour running to his
assistance.

"O Lord!--O Lord!--another--oh!"--again cried Prose making a half spring
from the deck, from which he was now raised by Seymour, who again
inquired what was the matter; Prose could not speak--he pointed his hand
behind him, and his head fell upon Seymour's shoulder.

"He's wounded, sir," observed one of the men who had joined Seymour,
pointing to the blood, which ran from the trousers of Prose in a little
rivulet. "Be quick, Mr Seymour, and get on the gunwale, or they'll
have you too." The fact was, that the deck being composed of bamboos,
as already described, one of the pirates below had passed his creese
through the spaces between them into Prose's body, when he c