ned and the salmon boat
ploughed on.

A groan went up from the row of sailors above, which quickly changed
to a cheer as one of the Italians whipped out a long sheath-knife and
cut the rope. But we had drawn them out of safety, and Charley, from
his place in the stern-sheets, reached over and clutched the stern of
the skiff. The whole thing happened in a second of time, for the first
Italian was cutting the rope and Charley was clutching the skiff, when
the second Italian dealt him a rap over the head with an oar. Charley
released his hold and collapsed, stunned, into the bottom of the
salmon boat, and the Italians bent to their oars and escaped back
under the ship's stern.

The Greek took both tiller and sheet and continued the chase around
the _Lancashire Queen_, while I attended to Charley, on whose head a
nasty lump was rapidly rising. Our sailor audience was wild with
delight, and to a man encouraged the fleeing Italians. Charley sat up,
with one hand on his head, and gazed about him sheepishly.

"It will never do to let them escape now," he said, at the same time
drawing his revolver.

On our next circuit, he threatened the Italians with the weapon; but
they rowed on stolidly, keeping splendid stroke and utterly
disregarding him.

"If you don't stop, I'll shoot," Charley said menacingly.

[Illustration: "I suddenly arose and threw the grappling iron."]

But this had no effect, nor were they to be frightened into
surrendering even when he fired several shots dangerously close to
them. It was too much to expect him to shoot unarmed men, and this
they knew as well as we did; so they continued to pull doggedly round
and round the ship.

"We'll run them down, then!" Charley exclaimed. "We'll wear them out
and wind them!"

So the chase continued. Twenty times more we ran them around the
_Lancashire Queen_, and at last we could see that even their iron
muscles were giving out. They were nearly exhausted, and it was only a
matter of a few more circuits, when the game took on a new feature. On
the row to windward they always gained on us, so that they were
half-way down the ship's side on the row to leeward when we were
passing the bow. But this last time, as we passed the bow, we saw them
escaping up the ship's gangway, which had been suddenly lowered. It
was an organized move on the part of the sailors, evidently
countenanced by the captain; for by the time we arrived where the
gangway had been, it was being