Next I saw a couple of the seamen bending over the side, and in another moment they helped a dripping figure to scramble on to the deck; when, as I pressed nearer to see who the rescued person was, I heard a well- known voice exclaim, in tones of earnest thankfulness and joy: "Bress de Lor', I'se safe!" It was Jake, the very last person in the world, most certainly, whom I could have expected to meet on board the _Josephine_, if I had guessed a hundred times! CHAPTER SIX. THE CAPTAIN'S COW. "Why, Jake!" I cried out. "How have you contrived to come here?" "Am dat you, Mass' Tom?" he answered catching sight of me behind the captain. "Golly, I tole you so; I'se tole you I come 'board ship wid you somehow or nudder. Who 'peak de trute now, hey? golly, yah, yah, I'se so berry glad!" and the poor faithful fellow commencing with one of his hearty African laughs ended in his voice breaking into a sob of joy that evidently came from the bottom of his heart. From hearing his words Captain Miles immediately began to "smell a rat," as the saying goes. "You impudent black rascal!" he said, half in joke, pretending to be angry, and yet partly in earnest. "What the dickens do you mean by shipping yourself aboard my vessel in this fashion without leave or license?" "I'se come for to go wid Mass' Tom," answered Jake meekly. "But how did you get off from the shore and overhaul the ship?" continued Captain Miles, pursuing his inquiries, the hands around meanwhile commencing to nudge one another and exchange grins as the colloquy waxed warm between the two principal performers. "I tell you for true, massa, beliebe me," said Jake earnestly. "Dis forenoon wen I see Mass' Tom agwine I'se go down to de warf an' dere I see um lilly boat lyin' widout nobody a-mindin' it; so I'se jump in and row out ob de harbor an' git roun' by de ole fort till I see de ship make sail. Den I'se pull, an' pull, an' pull, like de debbel, to come up wid you, an' I tinks I nebber reach de bessel, wen, jus' as I'se git 'longside an' cotch you up, de ship gib one big lurch an' squash in de boat, wen I'se trown in water an' you fish um out; dere, massa, dat's de trute, s'help me!" "Lucky for you you didn't go squash, too," observed the captain grimly. "But, was there no one else with you?" "No, massa, only me," replied Jake. "Thank God for that!" said Captain Miles fervently. "I was afraid I had run down one of those fishing sloops from Cariacou, and that all hands were drowned but you. Whose boat was it?" "Dunno, massa, I'se tell you," answered Jake with great nonchalance, apparently giving but little thought to the little craft whose broken timbers were now floating away, far astern of us.