"Sail, ho!"
"Where?" asked his brother and several others.
"Estribord (starboard)," replied Zuares, as the ship was running before the wind at the time.
"A sail! a sail! hope at last!" exclaimed the prisoners in the cabin, while Tom Bartelot sprang up the stern-lockers, and looked forth, but saw sea and sky alone. How to communicate with her, without being immolated on the spot, was the first and fullest idea of all.
They writhed in agony of spirit at the prospect of succour—it might be vengeance—being, perhaps, within hail, all to be attained, or all lost for ever.
At that moment, Badger, the long Yankee, appeared at the open skylight, armed with a sharp axe, which he shook significantly, and then shrank back, lest a pistol-shot might respond to the menace.
This man had long served on board an American otter-hunter, and was hence, perhaps, the most lawless character on board, as these craft are all armed with cannon, have their hammocks in netting, man-o'-war fashion, and, being illegal traders, fight their way through the Pacific, and among the Sandwich Islands, and, somewhat like the buccaneers of old, are not wont to stand on trifles, so, in such a service, Badger had long been inured to crime and outrage.
Suddenly a spare mizzen-topsail was drawn over the skylight, nearly involving the cabin in darkness.
"What does this mean?" asked Mr. Basset; "are they about to smother us?:
"It means that they are about to muffle us, for the strange sail is close at hand," said Tom Bartelot.