im over the rail. Still clutching each other
tightly, the two disappeared with a splash into the sea.

Fears were beginning to steal into the valiant heart of Captain Horn.
The pirates were so well armed, they kept up such a savage fire upon his
decks, that although their shots were sent at random, several men had
been killed, and others--he knew not how many--wounded, that he feared
his crew, ordinary sailors and not accustomed to such savage work as
this, might consider the contest too unequal, and so lose heart. If that
should be the case, the affair would be finished.

But there was still one means of defence on which he thought he might
rely to drive off the scoundrels. The _Monterey_ had been a cotton ship,
and she was provided with hose by which steam could be thrown upon her
cargo in case of fire, and Captain Hagar had undertaken to try to get
this into condition to use upon the scoundrels who were endeavoring to
board the vessel. By this time two heavy lines of hose had been rigged
and attached to the boiler, and the other ends brought out on deck--one
forward and the other amidships.

[Illustration: BANKER COULD NOT HOLD BACK]

Captain Hagar was a quiet man, and in no way a fighter, but now he
seemed imbued with a reckless courage; and without thinking of the
danger of exposing himself to pistol or to rifle, he laid the nozzle of
his hose over the rail and directed it down upon the deck below. As
soon as the hot steam began to pour upon the astonished pirates there
were yells and execrations, and when another scalding jet came in upon
them over the forward bulwarks of the _Monterey_, the confusion became
greater on the pirate ship.

It was at this moment, as Edna, her face pale and her bright eyes fixed
upon the upper deck of the _Vittorio_, stood with a revolver in her hand
at the window of her cabin, which was on deck, that her Swedish maid,
trembling so much that she could scarcely stand, approached her and gave
her notice that she must quit her service. Edna did not hear what she
said. "Are you there?" she cried. "Look out--tell me if you can see
Captain Horn!"

The frightened girl, scarcely knowing what she did, rushed from the
cabin to look for Captain Horn, not so much because her mistress wanted
information of him as because she thought to throw herself upon his
protection. She believed that the Captain could do anything for anybody,
and she ran madly along the deck on the other side from that on