outing as shrilly as we could, at the very top of our voices. Again
and again we shouted. I began to fear that the ship would be right over
us, when presently we saw her luff up. The moon was shining down upon
us, and we were seen. So close, even then, did the frigate pass, that
the end of the mast we were clinging to almost grazed her side. Ropes
were hove to us, but the ship had too much way on her, and it was
fortunate we could not seize them. "Thank you," I cried out. "Will you
take us aboard?" There was no answer, and I thought that we were to be
left floating on our mast till some other vessel might sight us. We
were mistaken, though. We could hear loud orders issued on board, but
what was said we could not make out, and presently the ship came up to
the wind, the head yards were braced round, and she lay hove-to. Then
we saw a boat lowered. How eagerly we watched what was being done. She
came towards us. The people in her shouted to us in a strange language.
They were afraid, evidently, of having their boat stove in by the wreck
of the mast. At last they approached us cautiously.

"Come, Clem, we will swim to her," I said. "Catch tight hold of my
jacket; I have got strength enough left in me for that."

We had not far to go, but I found it a tougher job than I expected. It
would have been wiser to have remained till we could have leaped from
the mast to the boat. I was almost exhausted by the time we reached
her, and thankful when I felt Clem lifted off my back, I myself, when
nearly sinking, being next hauled on board. We were handed into the
stern-sheets, where we lay almost helpless. I tried to speak, but could
not, nor could I understand a word that was said. The men at once
pulled back to the ship, and a big seaman, taking Clem under one of his
arms, clambered up with him on deck. Another carried me on board in the
same fashion. The boat was then hoisted up, and the head yards being
braced round, the ship continued her course. Lanterns being brought, we
were surrounded by a group of foreign-looking seamen, who stared
curiously at us, asking, I judged from the tones of their voices, all
sorts of questions, but as their language was as strange to us as ours
was to them, we couldn't understand a word they said, or make them
comprehend what we said.

"If you would give us some hot grog, and let us turn into dry hammocks,
we should be much obliged to you," I cried out at last, despairing