"_All_? There don't seem to be very many of you," replied the stranger, as his boat came sheering alongside, and the oars were all uplifted and laid in together, while he swung himself up with great agility, and jumped over the bulwarks on deck, when the eight of the _Hermione_ gathered round him. "Creeping along the shore in search of fresh water," he resumed, "we were told by an old Malay boatman----"
"Yes; you know him then--that we should find it here."
"With the same story he snared us into the creek," added Phillips.
"Old Puffadder wasn't to blame, for he begged me to make haste and assist a British ship that some island pirates were attacking, so we clapped on royals, skysails, gaff-topsail, and everything that would draw, got our small arms up, our guns cast loose and all ready to help you, and we seem just to have been in time."
"You have done well and bravely, sir," said Mr. Basset, with gratitude and enthusiasm.
"And what ship is yours?" asked Phillips.
"The _Duke of Rothesay_, 800 tons, hailing from Alloa, and bound for Singapore, Duncan Davidson, master (that is me) at your service; and yours?"
"The _Hermione_, of London, also bound for Singapore, and touching at the Isle of France."
And now various matters, which are already known to the reader, were related and explained to the Scotch skipper, which made him wonder very much; and much more was his wonder excited when, on being invited down to the cabin, he found himself fairly hugged by Rose Basset, who, in fact, was rather in a delirious state, after all the cannonading she had heard and the number of savage brown figures she had seen from the stern-windows skipping among the mangroves.
Ethel threw herself into her father's arms in a passion of tears, and pressed Morley's hand to her heart.
"Saved, Ethel, saved!" said Mr. Basset, caressing her tenderly.
"Yes, Ethel, saved," added Morley, "and except my scratched ear and Noah's cheek, not a man of us the worse of the whole affair."
"By Heaven's mercy and this gallant seaman's safe arrival, we have, indeed, escaped a great--it would have been, indeed, a _last_--peril, Ethel," said Mr. Basset, as she presented her hand to Captain Davidson, who, though a rough, weather-beaten, and rather plain Scotsman, surveyed her soft dark eyes, her pale and thoughtful face, that beamed with soul and feeling, her glossy hair and fine figure, with an admiration that he was too honest or too unsophisticated to conceal. So, while he addressed some words of congratulation and soothing, to the effect that "all danger was now over, as he had knocked the black niggers into the middle of next week," Captain Phillips, acting as his own steward, has wedged his fat figure into a locker, from whence he fished out sundry case-bottles and glasses with nervous rapidity.