"Well, good-bye, mates; a pleasant residence to you," exclaimed old Tom, insisting on shaking hands with us; and then he and his companions stepped into the boat and shoved off from the shore.  We were not sorry, however, to see their no very pleasant visages grow less and less distinct, till they were lost in the distance.  They stopped rowing as they passed the other boat, and exchanging a few words, again pulled on. We anxiously watched the approach of the other boat, to ascertain what it contained.  One of the chief mates was steering.  Silva, also, to our surprise, was in the boat.  His head was bent down, and, from his attitude, it appeared as if his hands were lashed behind him.  But there were two other people.  We looked, and looked again.  "Why," exclaimed Jerry, in a joyful tone, "it's Mr Brand, and no other than Ben Yool! How fortunate!  Now we shall go all right."  I at the same time, with no less surprise and satisfaction, recognised my kind cousin and old Ben. Mr McRitchie did not appear to be as surprised as we were.  He all the time, we found, had known that they were on board, but had been directed not to mention it to us.  He told us that, as far as he could make out, Silva had been the means of saving the lives of Cousin Silas and Ben, as he had saved ours, but that the pirates had kept them below, that they might not discover whereabout they were landed; and, for the same reason, had prevented them communicating with us.  Silva had another reason also for consenting to this arrangement, for he was afraid that their appearance might excite the anger of the pirates, and that they might perhaps throw us all overboard together.  Indeed, it was owing to a happy combination of circumstances that our lives had been spared by that gang of bloodthirsty and cruel desperadoes.  Even now, we were not quite certain that they might not take it into their heads to shoot us all, and we longed to see them making sail and clear away.  The provisions, however, they had left with us, showed that the intentions of some of them had been kinder than the conduct of the crew in general would have led us to expect.