"That is an expedient of which I have thought, but it is next to impracticable. As anything is better than capture, however, I will make one more close examination of the proceedings of the demons, and look nearer into our own means." Paul Blunt now got a lead and dropped it over the side of the ship, in the almost forlorn hope that possibly she might lie over some hole on the bottom. The soundings proved to be, as indeed he expected, but a little more than three fathoms. "I had no reason to expect otherwise," he said, as he drew in the line, though he spoke like a disappointed man. "Had there been sufficient water the ship might have been scuttled, and the launch would have floated off the deck; but as it is, we should lose the vessel without a sufficient object. It would appear heroic were you and I to contrive to get on the reef, and to proceed to the shore with a view to make terms with the Arabs; but there could be no real use in it, as the treachery of their character is too well established to look for any benefit from such a step." "Might they not be kept in play, until our friends returned? Providence may befriend us in some unexpected manner in our uttermost peril." "We will examine them once more with the glass. By a movement among the Arabs, there has probably been a new accession to their numbers." The two gentlemen now ascended to the top of the hurricane-house again, in feverish haste, and once more they applied the instrument. A minute of close study induced Mr. Blunt to drop the glass, with an expression that denoted increased concern. "Can any thing possibly make our prospects worse?" eagerly inquired his companion. "Do you not remember a flag that was on board the Dane--that by which we identified his nation?" "Certainly: it was attached to the halyards, and lay on the quarter-deck." "That flag is now flying in the camp of these barbarians! You may see it, here, among the tents last pitched by the party that arrived while we were conversing forward." "And from this, you infer--" "That our people are captives! That flag was in the ship when we left it; had the Arabs returned before our party got there, the captain would have been back long ere this; and in order to obtain this ensign they must have obtained possession of the wreck, after the arrival of the boats; an event that could scarcely occur without a struggle; I fear the flag is a proof on which side the victory has fallen." "This then would seem to consummate our misfortunes!" "It does indeed; for the faint hope that existed, of being relieved by the boats, must now be entirely abandoned." "In the name of God, look again, and see in what condition the wretches have got their raft!" A long examination followed, for on this point did the fate of all in the ship now truly seem to depend.