Part 47 (1/2)

ht,” said Mark sharply

Tom Fillot drew his jacket over the lantern, and they all stood round ready for the next order

”Haul back the chain,” said Mark, in a low voice ”Fillot, stand by, ready to cut at the first hand which thrusts out a pistol” Then going close to the ventilator, he shouted down, ”Below there you heard my orders We shall show no mercy now”

A shout of defiance caan to clink and chink while being hauled back and piled round and round froe toward the centre

”Stop!” cried Mark, as a thought struck him Then in a whisper, ”I'll have an anchor laid on instead of the cable, and then I'll have that run back into the tier No: better still Get up the biggest water cask we have”

”Ay, ay, sir,” cried Tom; and, with all the alacrity of man-o'-war's men, he and his felloent off with the lantern, and before long had a cask on deck and rolled it up to the hatchway

”But what for I dunno,” muttered Tom, ”unless it's for a sentry box”

He soon learned

”Buckets,” said Mark, laconically; and as soon as these were obtained, though in full expectation of shots being fired through the wooden cover at theave his orders and the chain was rapidly hauled to the deck

But no shot was fired fro that they would be attacked, and reserving their fire for the moment when the chain was all off, and the hatch thrown open

But as the last link fell off upon the deck two ed the empty cask down heavily upon the hatch, a couple of buckets of water were splashed in directly, and then as rapidly as they could be drawn from over the side, others followed and were poured in

Those beloere so puzzled that for a time they remained utterly without move, and soon after a heaving up of the hatch a little way, but a man held on to the top of the cask on either side, and their weight proved to be too much for those who tried to heave up the hatch Ten minutes after, the addition of many buckets of water turned the cask into a ponderous object beyond their strength

”Right to the brim,” said Mark; and the cask was filled

”There,” cried Tom; ”it would puzzle theht so too, for they made no further effort, and subsided into a sulky kind of silence, while the chain was run back into the cable tier, and the watch resu

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

”HATCHING MISCHIEF”

A long, busy day si by the coast The weather glorious, the blacks docile to a degree, and the Americans perfectly silent in their prison

Provisions and bottles of water were lowered down to theh the ventilator; but the prisoners h, as he fastened a string round the neck of a well-corked bottle to lower it doon't the Yankee skipper bea bottle, he'll think it's rum

So else”

But no sound caan to feel anxious