!" muttered George. "What can it mean, I wonder?
And if there _are_ enemies, by which, I suppose, they mean Frenchmen, in
our neighbourhood, those man-o'-war fellows must have eyes like owls to
be able to see them in the dark. Just step down into the cabin, if you
please, Mr Ritson, and give the mate a call; I don't half like this."

In little more than a minute Mr Bowen was on deck and listening to
George's statement of what had already passed, and of his uneasiness.
George had just finished speaking, when there was a sound as of a
falling handspike, or something of the kind, on board the stranger,
followed by a loud ejaculation of--

"_Sacr-r-r-r-re nom de_--"

The remainder of the exclamation was promptly suppressed, but it was
enough; George's suspicions were now fully aroused, and he whispered to
the two men standing by him--

"She is French, beyond a doubt; they intended to surprise us, and very
nearly they did it, too. But we will not be caught quite so easily this
time. Ritson, go forward, rouse the men, and tell them to creep aft
under the shelter of the bulwarks; let not one of them show so much as a
hair of his head above the rail; and tell them to look lively. And you,
Mr Bowen, be good enough to go below and bring up a cutlass apiece for
all hands."

CHAPTER FIVE.

"CHOPPEE FOR CHANGEE--A BLACK DOG FOR A BLUE MONKEY."

By the time that the _Aurora's_ crew were on deck, crouching behind the
bulwarks aft on the port side, armed, and instructed by George as to
what he required of them, the strange sail was within a dozen fathoms of
the _Aurora's_ port quarter.

She could now be seen with tolerable distinctness, the outline of the
hull and of the lofty canvas showing black as ebony against the dark
background of sea and sky; and any doubts which Captain Leicester might
have still entertained concerning her, were completely set at rest as he
glanced at the cut of her canvas. It was French all over.

Foot by foot the brig--for such she was--crept up to the _Aurora_, until
her bows were in a line with the barque's stern and not more than twenty
feet distant. George stood by the main-rigging, watching her, cutlass
in hand, calm and determined, his plans already formed for action in the
event of his suspicions proving correct.

In the ordinary course of things the two craft were now quite near
enough to each other for any communication, however confidential in its
nature, to be made without th