nd ready to give his boats a warm reception if they attempt
to molest us." We enjoyed our usual pleasant evening meal, and
afterwards had music, reading, and lively conversation till bed-time.
The mate, meanwhile, kept watch, while I occasionally slipped up on deck
to see if there was any prospect of a breeze springing up.

"Not an air in all the heavens," answered old Tom. "It is better than
having a westerly gale to drive us back towards the islands. Maybe we
shall get a breeze before the morning, and slip along merrily on our
course."

"I hope so," I said. "The captain wishes you to keep a bright look-out
to the eastward, in case our buccaneering friends may be coming to pay
us a visit."

"Trust me for that," said Tom. "I have not forgotten them, and the last
words the captain spoke to that fellow Myers will make him more than
ever eager to prevent our getting to Sydney. I don't mean to say that
he will take us, or that he has a chance of taking us, but he is very
likely to try it."

After the ladies had retired to their cabins, Harry came on deck.

"I have told them not to be alarmed if they hear us firing, for I am
determined should the pirates make their appearance to stand on no terms
with them, but, if I can, to send their boats to the bottom before they
get up alongside."

"A very right way, too, of treating them, sir," observed Tom. "If we
can sink their boats it might be the saving of the lives of many of the
poor islanders, for, depend on it, when they have got all the pearl
shells they can, they will be carrying off as many of the people as the
brigantine can hold. I have seen something of the way those sort of
fellows behave, and Sam Pest has been telling me more about it."

The watch on deck were all awake, and the men below had been warned that
they must be ready to spring up at a moment's notice; the guns were
loaded, and our other weapons were placed handy, ready for use.

As old Tom observed, "If they do not come, there's no harm done; and if
they do, why they'll pretty soon find out that they've had their pull
for nothing."

As Tom had been awake the whole of the first watch, Harry told him to go
below, observing that he and I would keep a look-out.

"No, thank you, sir," answered Tom; "I will get my sleep by-and-by; I'd
like to be ready in case the pirates should follow us."

"You, Ned, had better then go below, as you cannot do without sleep, and
you can be called if you are wa