"Tell me the worst, Powis, I implore you. I am equal,--I think I am equal, to hearing it." "I fear your imagination has exaggerated the danger." "The coast?" "Of that there is no cause for apprehension. The sea is calm, and our fasts are perfectly good." "The boats?" "Will doubtless be back in good time." "Surely--surely," said Eve, recoiling a step, as if she saw a monster, "not the Arabs?" "They cannot enter the ship, though a few of them are hovering about us. But for the vigilance of Mr. Sharp, indeed, we might have all been captured in our sleep. As it is, we have warning, and there is now little doubt of our being able to intimidate the few barbarians who have shown themselves, until Captain Truck shall return." "Then from my soul, I thank you, Sir George Templemore, and for this good office will you receive the thanks of a father, and the prayers of all whom you have so signally served." "Nay, Miss Effingham, although I find this interest in me so grateful that I have hardly the heart to lessen your gratitude, truth compels me to give it a juster direction. But for the promptitude of Mr. Blunt--or as I now find I ought to address him, Mr. Powis--we should truly have all been lost." "We will not dispute about your merits, gentlemen. You have both deserved our most heartfelt thanks, and if you will awaken my father and Mr. John Effingham, I will arouse Mademoiselle Viefville and my own women. Surely, surely, this is no time to sleep!" The summons was given at the state-room doors, and the two young men returned to the deck, for they felt it was not safe to leave it long at such a moment. All was quite tranquil above, however, nor could the utmost scrutiny now detect the presence of any person on the reef. "The rocks are cut off from the shore, farther to the southward by deeper water," said Paul Blunt--for we shall continue to call both gentlemen, except on particular occasions, by their _noms de guerre_--"and when the tide is up the place cannot be forded. Of this the Arabs are probably aware; and having failed in their first attempt, they will probably retire to the beach as the water is rising, for they might not like to be left on the riband of rock that will remain in face of the force that would be likely to be found in such a vessel." "May they not be acquainted with the absence of most of our people, and be bent upon seizing the vessel before they can return?" "That indeed is the gloomy side of the conjecture, and it may possibly be too true; but as the day is beginning to break, we shall soon learn the worst, and anything is better than vague distrust." For some time the two gentlemen paced the quarter-deck together in silence. Mr. Sharp was the first to speak. "The emotions natural to such an alarm," he said, "have caused Miss Effingham to betray an incognito of mine, that I fear you find sufficiently absurd. It was quite accidental, I do assure you; as much so, perhaps, as it was motiveless."