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through being struck sharply in the small of the back and then brusquely elbowed to one side by Mr. Benyon in response to the lieutenant's call.
    "Mr. Benyon," Lieutenant Strope said, "if any of you young gentlemen happen to know where there's a prayer book, bring it at once. There's an ah lady on the prize and we kent do a thing with her until we've fed the old man to the sharks in a manner to suit her! In this heat I couldn't remember a word of the burial service, by Ged, even if I knew the demned thingl"
    The pale child saluted smartly and disappeared. His place was taken by the elderly, bald, disillusioned-looking sailing master in shrunken nankeen breeches and a gingham coat.
    "Oddsly," the lieutenant said, "send ten men aboard the prize, with one of the young gentlemen in command I think Mr. Jowkes. See to it, Oddsly, while I'm getting this Yankee overboard. They tried to fight us, Oddsly, the demned ruffians. Demnedest nuisance of all, Oddsly, is that one of 'em blew his leg offl Demned well wish it had been his headl Can't put him with the prisoners, demn ill See to it, and search the prisoners; then clap 'em in the hold. And just bear in mind, will you, that we've got to close with the other two prizes before nightfall?"
    Clutching a prayer book that Mr. Benyon had brought him, the lieutenant scrambled down into the boat once more; while a detail of marines, under the eye of the sailing master, searched Marvin and the crew of the Olive Branch, removing from them not only knives but even belt buckles, coins and every metal thing.
    298 CAPTAIN CAUTION
    "Smartly, nowI" Oddsly told them, when this was done. "You'll go under guard in the main hold and we'll stow your dunnage where it'll be safe. You'll be allowed on deck in sections, starting as soon as the hatch comes off in the morning. Settle your differences peaceably if you don't want a bullet in your gizzards. We're overburdened with prisoners, and the guards have orders to take no chances not with such ugly brutes as you Yankees. Step lively, nowl"
    He stared arrogantly at the dejected group of seamen and jerked a thumb toward the hatchway. Marvin raised a protesting hand. "Leave us our dunnage," he said. "It's not right to clap these men under hatches half naked, as they are. They'll need clothes."
    Oddsly's reply was contemptuous. "No they won't! Not here they won'tl This brig ain't Buckingham Palacel The state bedrooms were overlooked when she was launched, and you'll find your quarters somewhat restricted." He laughed appreciatively at his own facetiousness and swung himself down the ladderway at the main hatch.
    Marvin, waiting for the men to follow the sailing master into the darkness below, cast a look astern. The Beetle's crew had mounted to the carronades and the hammock nettings to watch the Olive Branch, wallowing under the brig's lee, her slack sails a bright pink from the setting sun. Between the shoulders of the British sailors, Marvin could see small figures on the barque's quarter-deck, and as he watched, a grey lump fell from the larboard rail, half turned in mid-air, struck the water with a clumsy splash and vanished as if it had never been.
    "'He bringeth them out of their distresses,'" Marvin quoted, thinking of kindly Captain Dorman and how he had come to stand close beside him, not an hour since, and speak of his and Corunna's needs. At the thought, Marvin laughed, but at the sound, which was more of a croak than a laugh, he licked his heat-cracked lips and passed his hand across his face, which seemed to him stiff. His eye ran quickly along the brig's armament along the eight stubby carronades to a side, and the two long guns, twenty-four pounders, that had been run out of the larboard bow ports preparatory to raking the Olive Branch if the need had arisen. His shirt, drenched with perspiration, seemed to become even wetter when he contemplated what must have happened aboard the barque if those two guns had loosed their double loads of ball