They had just turned a point which shut the vessel out of view, when surly Dick suddenly recovered his self-possession and his tongue, and, starting up in an excited manner, exclaimed to Montague: "The schooner you have just left, sir, is a pirate.

I tell the truth, though I should swing for it." The crew of the boat ceased rowing, and glanced at each other in surprise on hearing this.
"Ha! say you so ?" exclaimed Montague, quickly.
"It's a fact, sir.

Ask my comrade there, and he'll tell you the same thing." "He'll do nothin' o' the sort," sharply returned honest Bumpus, who, having been only a short time previously engaged by Gascoyne, could perceive neither pleasure nor justice in the idea of being hanged for a pirate, and who attributed Dick's speech to an ill-natured desire to get his late commander into trouble.
"Which of you am I to believe ?" said Montague, hastily.
"W'ichever you please," observed Bumpus, with an air of indifference.
"It's no business o' mine," said Dick, sulkily; "if you choose to let the blackguard escape, that's your own lookout." "Silence, you scoundrel!" cried Montague, who was as much nettled by a feeling of uncertainty how to act as by the impertinence of the man.
Before he could decide as to the course he ought to pursue, the report of one of the guns of his own vessel boomed loud and distinct in the distance.

It was almost immediately followed by another.
"Ha! that settles the question; give way, my lads, give way." In another moment the boat was cleaving her way swiftly through the dark water in the direction of the Talisman..