"No more have I," replied he, "or I would not have come to you. Now then, father came to the back of the island to do a little business with a pirate schooner, as he said just now; and he has very often done it before, as he said just now; but father did not tell you all. When we were in Port Royal, father went to the captain of a king's vessel who is there, having been sent to put down the pirates if possible, and he offered this captain of the king's ship, for a certain sum, to put our friends that we exchange with into his hands." "What, betray his friend the pirate?" "Yes, father agreed that he would come round as he has done this day, and would contrive to chaffer and bargain with him and keep him so late in the bay that the king's ship should come upon him all of a sudden and take him, and this was father's intention, only you have pinned him. The king's ship will be round that point in two hours or thereabouts, so if you are found here you will be taken and hanged as sure as I ain't hanged yet. Now ain't this important news, and worth all I asked for it?" "It certainly is, if it is true, boy." "Oh, I'll prove it, for I always goes with father, and he trusts me with every thing. I saw the paper signed. The king's ship is called the Vestal, and the captain who signed the paper, signed it Philip Musgrave." "Indeed," said I, turning away, for I did not wish the boy to perceive my emotion at this announcement. I recovered myself as soon as I could, and said to him, "Boy, I will keep my promise. Do you stay below, and I will go on deck and plead for your life." "Mayn't I go on deck for a bit?" said he. "What, to wish your father good-bye? No, no, you had better spare yourself and him that painful meeting." "No, I don't want to wish him good-bye; I'll wait till it's over, only I never did see a man hanged, and I have a curiosity to have just a peep." "Out, you little monster," cried I, running up on deck, for the information I had received was too important not to be immediately taken advantage of. "Well, captain, has the boy saved his father's life?" "No," replied I, in a loud voice. "Then, up he goes," said the men, for the halter had been round his neck and run out to the yard-arm for some time, and the men had manned the rope, only awaiting my return on deck. In a second, the captain of the Transcendant was swinging in the air, and certainly if ever a scoundrel merited his fate, it was that man. Shortly afterwards I turned round, and there was the young hopeful looking at his father's body swinging to and fro with the motion of the vessel. I looked in vain for a tear in his eye; there was not a symptom of emotion. Seeing me look sternly at him, he hastened down below again. "My lads," said I to the men, who were all on deck, "I have received intelligence of that importance that I recommend that we should cut that vessel adrift, and make sail without a moment's loss of time."