Dutch, finding that all was still outside, walked softly to the little cabin where Bessy Studwick and his wife had been placed for safety; and as the door was open he could see that Hester was sleeping peacefully with her head resting on her friend's lap, while pale and anxious looking, Bessy held only her hands, and sat up watchful as she had been all night.

Dutch stole in, and bending down kissed his wife's forehead tenderly, making her start slightly and utter a low sigh, but a happy smile came upon her lip directly, and the sunshine which flooded the little cabin lit up her thin, worn face, giving it so sweet and pure an air that Dutch groaned to himself as he thought of the past, and then stole away, but with a load taken from his breast, as he thought of the revelation he had heard from the doctor, and his heart leaped with joy as he thought of how in the future he would try to wipe away the misery he had inflicted upon the suffering woman.

He was brought back to the present, though, directly by finding a kind of conference going on amongst his friends as to the future, and their proceedings to defend themselves and retake the ship.

The meagreness of the resources was now seen at a glance, for though a portion of the party was pretty well-armed, the others were helpless.

The captain made a full inspection of his cabin to find that every weapon had been carefully removed; and, to make matters worse, not an article likely to be used as a means of defence had been left behind.

At least this was the first impression, but the doctor suddenly remarked that he had a stick in his cabin, and running in he returned with it, and handed his keen long diver's knife to Oak.u.m.

"You'd better keep it, sir," said the old fellow contemptuously. "Them chaps has got heads and hearts too hard to be hurt with a bit of a stick. Oh, that's the game, is it? Well, I'll keep the knife then."

This remark was made on seeing Mr Meldon draw a long, keenly-pointed three-edged sword out of the stick, a weapon likely to prove fatal to any one upon whom it was used.

Unfortunately for the defenders of the cabin, they had but little with which they could make a barricade. There was the bedding, and a few chairs, but even if these were piled up, but little could be done, as Dutch pointed out to the captain in a low voice.

"I am no judge of fortifications," he said with a bitter smile, "but look up."

The captain glanced at the skylight, and stamped with vexation.

"We have not so much as a pistol, Captain Studwick, and the enemy have only to place three or four there to fire down upon us and we are done for."

"Would you give up then, Pugh?" said the captain sternly.

"Not so long as I can strike a blow," was the reply; and the same spirit seemed to nerve all present.

There was not much time left them for consideration, for it was evident that full preparations were going on above. Voices were heard talking and orders being given, but the men kept away from the broken skylight, and the suspense grew more intense.

It was during this interval that Mr Meldon went to the inner cabin, where, weak and feverish, John Studwick lay, watched over now by his sister and Hester Pugh, who seemed to have awakened to a new life as she exchanged glances once with her husband, the trials they were in seeming as nothing compared to the horrors of the past.

As the doctor approached, the young man turned to him impatiently.

"Well," he said, "have you come to make me strong, so that I can fight these scoundrels with you?"

"I wish I could," was the quiet reply.

"Bah! Doctor's talk," said John Studwick bitterly. "You know you can do me no good. Why do you pester me?"

"Don't speak to me like that," he replied; "I have tried my best to help you."

"Yes, yes, I know. But there, go. You worry me by staying, and this heat makes me so weak."

"Yes, I will go directly," said the doctor; but he first went to the cabin window, secured a piece of string to a cloth, and lowered it down, soaking it, and drew it up.

As he did so, a good-sized shark turned over and made a snap at the white, moving cloth, and the doctor shuddered, for it seemed to him that any attempt to escape from the ship to the sh.o.r.e would be in vain, for, as if in antic.i.p.ation of coming carnage, the sharks were gathering round the doomed ship.

"Lay that upon his forehead, Mrs Pugh," he said quietly; and as she turned to the locker upon which the young man lay, Mr Meldon hastily caught Bessy's hand in his and held it.

"I shall fight for you to the last," he said in a low whisper. "Do not think ill of me for speaking now; but, Bessy, I love you--very dearly, and--and we may never meet again. Say one kind word to me before I go."

She s.n.a.t.c.hed her hand from his hastily, and looked upon him in a scared manner. What she would have said was checked by a sharp cry from the captain.

"Quick all!" he shouted, "they are coming."

The doctor rushed back into the little saloon, and he was only just in time, for the door had been quietly unfastened from without, and headed by Laure, armed to the teeth, the enemy, to the number of eight, suddenly appeared, and the two sides stood face to face.

"There, throw down those knives," he said in a sharp voice, "fools and idiots. The tables are turned now. Parkley, Pugh, you little thought that my day would come, but it has. Now, surrender!"

There was no reply by words, and the Cuban read the intention of those he sought to master by their determined front.

"Do you want to be shot down where you stand?" he cried.

"Better that than trust to the mercies of such a scoundrel as you,"

cried Dutch, pa.s.sionately.

"Ah, my brave diver and shark slayer, are you there? Put down that weapon; I don't want you hurt, nor you neither, Master Rasp, for you have to work for me." There was no reply for a moment or two, and then Dutch spoke to the men who were with the Cuban.

"I warn you all," he said; but as he spoke he could see that he was addressing men who were infuriated with drink. "I warn you all that we are desperate, and shall fight to the last. Come over to our side, and help to secure that scoundrel, and you shall all be richly rewarded.

Fight for him, and if you escape death now, the law must overtake you for piracy, and you will be hung."

There was a loud laugh at this, and the captain whispered:

"Shall we make a bold charge?"

"No: stand firm," said Dutch; and the little poorly-armed party closed up more determinedly.

"What does that mean?" thought Dutch as, at a word from the Cuban, three of the men ran back up the cabin steps.

His answer came almost directly.

"Will you surrender?" cried Laure savagely.

"No," was the reply.

"Then your blood be upon your own heads," he yelled. "Fire!"

He raised his own revolver as he spoke, and began to fire shot after shot at those before him, while at the same moment three shots came crashing from behind them through the skylight.

Then, headed by the Cuban, the enemy dashed into the cabin, striking right and left with the cutla.s.ses with which they were armed, and for a few minutes there was a desperate struggle, in which for the time, though weakened by two of their men going down at the first shots, and others being wounded, the cabin party held their own, everyone fighting manfully: but the three men who had been sent to fire through the skylight came shouting down to reinforce their comrades, and thus turned the scale.

The captain went down with a terrible cut across the forehead; Mr Parkley had a bullet through the shoulder. The doctor drove his sword through one of the scoundrels, and then it broke short off, while another stabbed him in the back.

As for Dutch, he singled out Laure, and made a desperate attack upon him with his long, keen knife, the shot the Cuban fired at him having merely grazed his neck, but directly after they were separated in the struggle as the furious knot of combatants swayed to and fro. But he rid himself of another antagonist, and seizing the cutla.s.s with which he was armed again made at the Cuban.

As he approached, Laure raised his revolver once more, took steady aim, and was about to fire; but regardless of this, Dutch struggled to get at him, when a wild shriek from a voice he knew made him turn for a moment, and that threw him off his guard. Poor Hester had been a horrified witness of the struggle, and had seen Laure's deadly aim. Till that moment her lips had been. Sealed, but now the involuntary cry escaped her, and as Dutch turned, the shot struck him on the shoulder, fortunately only ploughing a shallow flesh wound; but the next moment a blow from another hand struck him down, and the rest being mastered, the men, by Laure's orders dragged out two injured comrades and, securing the weapons, left the slippery cabin and secured the door.