defence, for it was impossible to arm them as well as the attacking
party would probably be armed, if there should be an attacking party.

Captain Horn now went to Edna and told her of the approaching danger,
and for the second time in his life he gave her a pistol and requested
her to use it in any way she thought proper if the need should come. He
asked her to stay for the present in the cabin with her maid, promising
to come to her again very shortly.

Then he called all the available men together, and addressed them very
briefly. It was not necessary to tell the crew of the _Dunkery Beacon_
what dangers might befall them if the pirates should come upon them a
second time, and the men he had brought with him from Vera Cruz now knew
all about the previous affair, and that it would probably be necessary
for them to stand up boldly for their own defence.

The Captain told his men that the only thing to be done was to keep the
fellows on that approaching steamer from boarding the _Monterey_ whether
they tried to do so by what might look like fair means or by foul means.
All the firearms of every kind which could be collected were distributed
around among those who it was thought could best use them, while the
rest of the men were armed with belaying pins, handspikes, hatchets,
axes, or anything with which a blow could be struck, and they were
ranged along the bulwarks on each side of the ship from bow to stern.

The other steamer was now near enough for her name, _Vittorio_, to be
read upon her bow. This and her build made the captain quite sure that
she was from the Mediterranean, and without doubt one of the pirates of
whom he had heard. He could see heads all along her rail, and he thought
it possible that she might not care to practise any trick upon him, but
might intend a bold and undisguised attack. She had made no signal, she
carried no colors or flag of any kind, and he thought it not unlikely
that when she should be near enough, she would begin operations by a
volley of rifle shots from her deck. To provide against this danger he
made most of his men crouch down behind the bulwarks, and ordered all
the others to be ready to screen themselves. A demand to lie to, and a
sharp fusillade might be enough to insure the immediate submission of an
ordinary merchantman, but Captain Horn did not consider the _Monterey_ a
vessel of this sort.

He now ran down to Edna, and was met by her at the cabin door. She had
had