Not so with Jack Tier.  His leap had been seen, and a dozen eyes in the cutter watched for his person, as that boat came foaming down before the wind.  A shout of “There he is!” from Mulford succeeded; and the little fellow was caught by the hair, secured, and then hauled into the boat by the second lieutenant of the Poughkeepsie and our young mate.

Others in the cutter had noted the incident of the hellish fight.  The fact was communicated to Wallace, and Mulford said, “That yawl will outsail this loaded cutter, with only two men in it.”

“Then it is time to try what virtue there is in lead,” answered Wallace.  “Marines, come forward, and give the rascal a volley.”

The volley was fired; one ball passed through the head of the boatswain, killing him dead on the spot.  Another went through the body of Spike.  The captain fell in the stern-sheets, and the boat instantly broached-to.

The water that came on board apprised Spike fully of the state in which he was now placed, and by a desperate effort, he clutched the tiller, and got the yawl again before the wind.  This could not last, however.  Little by little, his hold relaxed, until his hand relinquished its grasp altogether, and the wounded man sank into the bottom of the stern-sheets, unable to raise even his head.  Again the boat broached-to.  Every sea now sent its water aboard, and the yawl would soon have filled, had not the cutter come glancing down past it, and rounding-to under its lee, secured the prize.

CHAPTER VIII.

  Man hath a weary pilgrimage,
  As through the world he wends;
  On every stage, from youth to age,
  Still discontent attends;
  With heaviness he casts his eye,
  Upon the road before,
  And still remembers with a sigh
  The days that are no more.

Southey.

It has now become necessary to advance the time three entire days, and to change the scene to Key West.  As this latter place may not be known to the world at large, it may be well to explain that it is a small seaport, situate on one of the largest of the many low islands that dot the Florida Reef, that has risen into notice, or indeed into existence as a town, since the acquisition of the Floridas by the American Republic.  For many years it was the resort of few besides wreckers, and those who live by the business dependent on the rescuing and repairing of stranded vessels, not forgetting the salvages.  When it is remembered that the greater portion of the vessels that enter the Gulf of Mexico stand close along this reef, before the trades, for a distance varying from one to two hundred miles, and that nearly everything which quits it, is obliged to beat down its rocky coast in the Gulf Stream for the same distance, one is not to be surprised that the wrecks, which so constantly occur, can supply the wants of a considerable population.  To live at Key West is the next thing to being at sea.