in good time to join the convoy if all be--"

"A sail broad on the weather bow!" broke in the lookout forward, with
startling abruptness.

Both George and the mate instantly directed their gaze in the direction
indicated by the lookout; and presently a shapeless something like a
blacker patch against the black background of the darkness loomed into
view, about one point before the beam, showing by this rapid change in
the respective positions of the two ships how near was the stranger.

"Why!" exclaimed Leicester, "he is coming right down for us; he will be
into us. Port, port hard; up with your helm smartly, my lad," to the
man at the wheel. "Ship ahoy! Port your helm; can you not see us?"

"Ay, ay; oh, yesh," was the response from the other vessel; and as it
came floating down upon the wind the stranger took a broad sheer to
port, showing herself to be a large lugger, and shot very neatly
alongside the _Aurora_, the grappling-irons being cleverly hove into the
barque's fore and main-rigging, as the two vessels touched.

At the same moment some five-and-twenty Frenchmen, armed with cutlass
and pistol, scrambled alertly in over the _Aurora's_ bulwarks, the
leader singling out George, notwithstanding the darkness, and
exclaiming, as he promptly presented a pistol at his head--

"Vat cheep dis is, eh?"

"The _Aurora_, of London," was the answer, "Tres bien! My cheep, the
_Belle Marie_, est un corsaire Francais, un--vat you call--privateere,
et vous etes mes prisonniers. It is ze fortune of war, messieurs; my
turn to-night--yours to-morrow, perhaps--ha, ha! Now, my dear sares, as
there not moosh time is, permettez moi," and he flung open the
companion-doors, motioning significantly to George and the mate to go
below.

Poor George glanced swiftly round the deck, only to see that it was in
complete possession of the Frenchmen, one of whom was already at the
wheel. So, turning to Mr Bowen, and murmuring, "There is no help for
it, I suppose," he signed to the mate to lead the way, and then
followed, dejectedly, the doors being smartly slammed-to after them, and
the next moment they heard the sound of some heavy body being dragged up
to and banged against the companion entrance, thus precluding the
possibility of their stealing on deck again, and effecting a counter
surprise.

The whole thing had been done so rapidly that it was not until he found
the ship being once more hove about, with her head pointing towa