hardly do it
before it becomes dark; perhaps not until two or three o'clock in the
morning, and as we shall have to be watchful, there is no occasion for
both watches to stay on deck now. The port watch shall go off from two
bells till eight; as they take the first watch they will be all the
brighter for a snooze beforehand."

"I wish the beggars would come out and have done with it," he went on to
Edgar, as the boatswain turned away and blew his whistle. "I think I may
as well go down, as it is your watch on deck. Have me roused when they
change at two bells if I don't wake of my own accord."

Contrary to their usual custom in a calm, the earnest desire of all on
board was that it should continue, for should a breeze spring up they
would be forced to sail away, and the pirates might not pursue them. As
soon as it got dark, Wilkinson told the boatswain that it would be as
well that a song should be started occasionally, but that not more than
five or six men were to join in chorus. If, as they came out, they heard
a dead silence they might think it unnatural, and it was quite possible
that a boat would come on ahead of them to try and make out what they
really were. In the intervals between the songs silence reigned, and all
on deck listened intently.

About nine o'clock Edgar exclaimed: "I can hear oars!"

"So can I," Wilkinson replied, after listening for a minute. "I don't
think that they are sweeps. No, it is a boat rowed by either two or four
men--four, I think."

In a minute or two they were satisfied that it was but a boat. The order
was given for another song, after which three or four men were to talk
and the rest to sit down below the bulwarks and to keep silence. The two
Turks took their places near the officers. From the speed at which the
boat was approaching it was certain that she was not deeply laden, and
there was no fear, therefore, of a surprise being attempted. She passed
within twenty yards of the tafrail, and they could make out that she was
an ordinary fisherman's boat. There was a pile of nets in the stern, and
four men were standing up rowing.

"I wish we could get a little wind!" one of them called out.

"We wish so, too," one of the Turks answered. "We have been lying
becalmed all day."

"Bound for Constantinople, I suppose?" came from the boat.

"No, for Smyrna. We are bringing a cargo from Ancona, and shall load up
at Smyrna with fruit."

With a Turkish good-night the men rowed