"It was a fine day, and, thinking I should like a bath, I let myself down close by the cabin window with a rope. The window was open, and as I hung half in and half out of the water, I could hear every syllable they said, the sea was so calm. Not a word about the Jewess; but that precious villain was listening to a proposal made by the other villain to seize you, this very night, in your own ship, and murder you outright! It's true, master, as I'm alive! Then Jeromio said it would be better to deliver you up, as a rover, to the government; but Sir Willmott made reply, _that_ might answer _his_ purpose, but it would not do for _him_. Then he promised him a free pardon, and tempted him with the riches of the Crag, and other things;--and, as well as I could understand, they fully agreed upon it. And then, for fear of discovery, I was mounting up, when the rope, as ill-luck would have it, broke, and I went tilt splash into the water! Well, Jeromio looked out, and swore at me; but it mattered not: I scrambled up, resolving, as you may suppose, to keep a good look-out; but that double devil, Sir Willmott, was at it again, and would have it that I was listening, and so I was clapped under hatches; and hard enough I found it to steal off to you." "The villain!" exclaimed the Buccaneer. "But the thing is impracticable; there are not more than ten or a dozen of her crew ashore: my brave fellows would never see their captain murdered!" "On what pretext I know not, but he has, during the afternoon, sent the long-boat off with the truest hands aboard. I heard the men talking, as they passed backwards and forwards, that Bill o' Dartmouth, Sailing Jack, Mat Collins, and the Fire-fly rovers, as we used to call them--those boys who had been aboard with you in foreign parts--had gone ashore by your orders; and I know there are five or six--those Martinicos and Sagrinios, and the devil's own O's, that are 'fore and aft in all things with Jeromio. There's no putting faith in any of them, seeing they have a natural antipathy towards us English. So, now, let us put back, sir." "Put back!" repeated Dalton, casting a look of scorn upon poor Springall; "the man's not born who could make me put back!--The ship's my own--and the sea, the broad sea we look upon, is mine, as long as I have strength to dip an oar in its brine, or wit to box a compass! Avast! avast! boy; you know not what you speak of when you talk to Hugh Dalton of putting back!" "They'll murder us both!" said Springall, in a mournful, and almost a reproachful tone. "My poor boy!" replied Dalton looking in his face, and poising on high the oar he had so vigorously dipped in the blue wave--"My true-hearted boy! it would be, indeed, a bad recompense for your devotedness, to lead you into the tiger's den;--for myself, I have no fear;--I will put you on shore, and return."