‘Down with him again,’ cried the captain. The end of the rope which had been before used as a guy was promptly manned, and Bell again disappeared beneath the water, was again rudely jerked against the keel, and then hauled up the side of the ship, and cast upon deck all bleeding and insensible, with his hands blue and cramped, and his limbs quite limp and motionless. By Captain Jem’s direction he was held up by the legs, when presently he vomited up a great quantity of sea water, and then began to stir and moan, with great fits of coughing. His hands and legs were then released, and he managed to sit up on deck, leaning against the mast, and looking as if he had just wakened out of a dream. ‘Let this be a warning to you, Mr. Bell,’ said the captain, ‘how you play dice in future. I presume you will only stay in this ship until you have a chance of going on board another. None of your own property, however you came by it, will be taken away, but all that you cheated your comrades of must be restored.’ Accordingly, Bell’s chests were opened, a general distribution took place, and that evening Simon Radley appeared in his former attire. As for the sharper himself, we afterwards learned that he had been a well-known rogue in London, and after having been twice flogged at the cart’s tail, had been tried for ring-dropping, and transported to the plantations of Virginia, from which he managed to escape, and after divers adventures in the West Indies—whereof the greater part were more complimentary to his ingenuity than to his honesty—he had shipped on board our schooner at Jamaica, as the reader has seen. CHAPTER XIX. WE CRUISE OFF CARTHAGENA AWAITING THE GALLEON, AND I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE SPANIARDS