hich the water was making its way. The casualties were now
inquired into, and it was found that six men had been shot dead, and
that nine-and-twenty had received wounds more or less severe from the
arrows of the pirates.

Francis had been twice wounded while superintending the placing of the
bales. One arrow had gone through his right leg, another had struck him
in the side and glanced off a rib.

"This won't do, Messer Francisco," the captain said as he assisted
Giuseppi to bandage the wounds. "Signor Polani placed you on board to
learn something of seamanship and commerce, not to make yourself a
target for the arrows of pirates. However, we have to thank you for the
saving of the Bonito, for assuredly she would have been stove in, had
not the happy thought of hanging those bales overboard struck you. It
would be of no use against war galleys, whose beaks are often below the
waterline, but against craft like these pirates it acts splendidly, and
there is no doubt that you saved the ship from destruction, and us from
death, for after the burning of the two first vessels that attacked us,
you may be sure they would have shown but little mercy. I can't think
how you came to think of it."

"Why, I have read in books, captain, of defenders of walls hanging over
trusses of straw, to break the blows of battering rams and machines of
the besiegers. Directly you said they were going to ram us it struck me
we might do the same, and then I thought that bales of cloth, similar
to those you got up on deck to trade with the islanders would be just
the thing."

"It was a close shave," the captain said. "I was leaning over, and saw
the whole side of the ship bend beneath the blow, and expected to hear
the ribs crack beneath me. Fortunately the Bonito was stronger built
than her assailants, and their bows crumpled in before her side gave;
but my heart was in my mouth for a time, I can tell you."

"So was mine, captain. I hardly felt these two arrows strike me. They
must have been shot from one of the other boats. Then I could not help
laughing to see the way in which the men at the oars tumbled backwards
at the moment when their vessel struck us. It was as if an invisible
giant had swept them all off their seats together."

The wind continued favourable until they arrived at Candia, where the
captain reported, to the commander of a Venetian war galley lying in
the port, the attack that had been made upon him; and the galley at
o