"Course you will," said Bob, coolly; "skippers must be. Don't matter to me, messmate--cap'n, I mean--one skipper's good as another. But I say, cap'n, there's Barney Blane and Neb Dumlow knocked on the head in the forksle. They on'y showed fight a-cause they see as I did at first. They're good mates and true, and 'll jyne me as they allus have. `Wheer you sails,' say they, `we sails.' So I thought I'd put in a word, as you wants trusty men." "I can choose my crew, Bob Hampton," said the Frenchman, in a peculiar tone of voice. "Too much talk is only good for parrot birds. Go you and steer." "Right you are, cap'n," said Bob, and I heard him go aft, but could not see him till I wrenched my head round, and could then dimly see something in the halo of soft light shed by the lamp on the compass. And all this time the ship was rolling slowly, with the yards making a strange creaking sound and the sails filling and flapping about with strange flutterings and whimperings; but in a few minutes there was a perceptible change, the ship's head swinging round, and I knew that we were once more gliding swiftly through the water. That there was a group of men below me I felt absolutely certain, though I could see nobody; and at last, when I had come to the conclusion that I had reached the extreme limit of my strength, and that I must drop, Jarette spoke suddenly, but in quite a low voice-- "You two stay here by the sky-light, and if any attempt is made to get on deck, shoot at once. If they are killed, their blood be on their own heads. Where's young Mr Walters?" "Why, you left him on guard with the others at the cabin-door," said a man surlily. "Fetch him here: I did," said Jarette, and I felt then that I was going down on the heads of the men below. But I made one more desperate effort, as I heard the soft footsteps moving off in different directions; and then almost without a sound I got my arm round the outside shroud, then one leg round,--how I can hardly tell you now, I was so exhausted,--and the next minute I had relieved my muscles of the strain, and was standing there with my feet on the ratlines, my arms thrust right through and folded round one of the inner ropes, and my head thrust through as well; safe, I felt, even if I lost my senses and fainted away. Fortunately for me, the ship was heeling over now in the opposite direction, so that my position was easier, and as I half lay, half clung there, the painful stress on mind and body grew lighter--at least the bodily stress did, and I began to think more clearly.