ery pity, rowed in from the darkness and
took him off. The jokes and gibes of the awakened crew sounded
anything but sweet in our ears, and even the two Italians climbed up
on the rail and laughed down at us long and maliciously.

"That's all right," Charley said in a low voice, which I only could
hear. "I'm mighty glad it's not us that's laughing first. We'll save
our laugh to the end, eh, lad?"

He clapped a hand on my shoulder as he finished, but it seemed to me
that there was more determination than hope in his voice.

It would have been possible for us to secure the aid of United States
marshals and board the English ship, backed by government authority.
But the instructions of the Fish Commission were to the effect that
the patrolmen should avoid complications, and this one, did we call on
the higher powers, might well end in a pretty international tangle.

The second week of the siege drew to its close, and there was no sign
of change in the situation. On the morning of the fourteenth day the
change came, and it came in a guise as unexpected and startling to us
as it was to the men we were striving to capture.

Charley and I, after our customary night vigil by the side of the
_Lancashire Queen_, rowed into the Solano Wharf.

"Hello!" cried Charley, in surprise. "In the name of reason and common
sense, what is that? Of all unmannerly craft did you ever see the
like?"

Well might he exclaim, for there, tied up to the dock, lay the
strangest-looking launch I had ever seen. Not that it could be called
a launch, either, but it seemed to resemble a launch more than any
other kind of boat. It was seventy feet long, but so narrow was it,
and so bare of superstructure, that it appeared much smaller than it
really was. It was built wholly of steel, and was painted black. Three
smokestacks, a good distance apart and raking well aft, arose in
single file amidships; while the bow, long and lean and sharp as a
knife, plainly advertised that the boat was made for speed. Passing
under the stern, we read _Streak_, painted in small white letters.

Charley and I were consumed with curiosity. In a few minutes we were
on board and talking with an engineer who was watching the sunrise
from the deck. He was quite willing to satisfy our curiosity, and in a
few minutes we learned that the _Streak_ had come in after dark from
San Francisco; that this was what might be called the trial trip; and
that she was the property of Silas