"The captain has sent word for'ard arter you, and faith ye had betther be in a hurry, for he's a savage when he's mad." "O! now I've got to do it." "Do what?" "Why walk the plank to be sure." "Arrah, jewel! don't be onaisy now." "Wont I's, don't you think?" "Not a bit of it, darling. I think he will be afther running you up to the yard-arm." "But I can't run up it." "Ha! ha! but come along, honey." Half dragging John after him, the sailor led him to the quarter-deck. "Here's the lady, captain, an' faith she's a swate one." The truth of the case had already been explained to the pirate. "You cowardly fool," said he, "did you expect to escape by such a subterfuge? Pat, run him up to the yard-arm." "Yes, captain, and that will be a relaif to him, for he was mighty afraid he'd have to walk the plank." "He was? well then he shall." The vindictiveness of the pirate commander, who had only changed the mode of John's death because he thought that by so doing he should render it more fearful and bitter to the victim, was the means of saving the poor cockney's life. So do revenge and malice often overreach themselves. A long plank was laid out over the side of the brig and John commanded to walk out on it. He showed a strong disinclination to obeying, but a huge pistol placed against his forehead quickly influenced his decision, and with a cry of anguish he stepped out upon it. As the board tipped he turned to spring back to the brig, but slipping up, fell upon the board, which he pulled after him into the water. "Fool," cried the captain to one of his men, "what did you let the board loose for, he will float now till the chase picks him up--fire into him." A dozen balls were fired at John, and it seems he was hit, for he let go the board and sunk. "There, captain, he's done for." The brig by this time had reached a considerable distance from the place where John had been committed to the deep, and when he rose to the surface, as he soon did, he was out of danger from their shot. "O dear!" cried he, "I shan't ever get ashore; I never could swim much." The waves threw him against the plank. "O! a shark! a shark!" shouted John, "now don't;" and he grasped hold of the plank in a frenzy of fear. He soon discovered the friendly aid it would afford him, and held on to it with the tenacity of despair. In less than half an hour the Raker came up. John was noticed from its deck, and a brawny tar seizing a rope and taking two or three turns of it round his left arm sprang overboard to rescue the half unconscious cockney.