ting which seemed to resemble the one
now floating from the _Dunkery_. Of course, under the circumstances,
there was nothing for him to believe but that this approaching vessel
was one of the pirate ships, and that she was coming down not to capture
the _Dunkery Beacon_, but to join her.

Now matters were getting to be worse and worse, and as Shirley glanced
over at the yacht,--still hovering on the weather quarter of the
_Dunkery_, ready at any time to swoop down and hail her if there should
be occasion,--he trembled for the fate of his friends. To be sure these
two pirate vessels--for sure the Dunkery Beacon now belonged to that
class--were nothing but merchantmen. There was no cannon on this
steamer, and as the other was now near enough for him to see her decks
as she rolled to windward, there was no reason to suppose that she
carried guns. If these rascals wished to attack or capture a vessel,
they must board her, but before they could do that they must catch her,
and he knew well enough that there were few ordinary steamers which
could overhaul the _Summer Shelter_. If it were not for his own most
unfortunate position, the yacht could steam away in safety and leave
these wretches to their own devices, but he did not believe that his old
friend would desert him. More than that, there was no reason to suppose
that the people on the _Summer Shelter_ knew that the _Dunkery Beacon_
was now manned by pirates, although it was likely that they would
suspect the character of the new-comer.

But Shirley could only stand, and watch, and wait. Once he thought that
it might be well for him to jump overboard and strike out to the yacht.
If he should be seen by his friends--and this he believed would
happen--and if he should be picked up, his report would turn back into
safer waters this peaceful pleasure vessel, with its two ladies and its
seven clergymen. If he should be struck by a ball in the back of the
head before he got out of gunshot of the _Dunkery's_ crew, then his
friends would most likely see him sink, the reason for their remaining
in the vicinity of these pirates would be at an end, and they might
steam northward as fast as they pleased.

The strange vessel came on and on, and soon showed herself to be a
steamer of about nine hundred tons, of a model with which Shirley was
not familiar, and a great many men on board. The _Dunkery Beacon_ lay
to, and it was not long before this stranger had followed her example,
a