hat they'll
do?"

"Shoot."

"No, sir; pitch ballast into us, and sink us, as sure as we're here."

"Don't talk so much," I said impatiently. "Why, they've got another
sail up, and are coming on faster."

"Yes, sir, that's right; and they'll be alongside on us in another ten
minutes. Shall I pass the word along to the lads to spit in their
fists?"

"What?"

"I mean, sir, I s'pose it won't be cutlasses but fisties, sir, eh?"

"Mr Herrick, you had better come and take the tiller," said Mr Brooke
just then. "Don't attend to anything else. Your duty is to keep the
boat running; we'll do what fighting there is."

"Very well, sir," I said, and I felt disappointed as I took the tiller,
but felt better a minute later as I felt how I could sway the racing
boat by a touch.

"Now, my lads, cutlasses and rifles under the thwarts. You take the
oars to these men. Don't attack them, they are ignorant of our power.
Only keep them off with a few blows."

The men eagerly responded to the words of command, and stood and sat
about in the boat, each man armed with a stout, strong ashen blade, a
blow from which would have sent any one overboard at once.

The chase, with our boat playing the part of hare, was exciting enough
before, but it grew far more so now, for the men in the other boat were
evidently determined, and two of them stood up with clumsy-looking
hooks, and another with a coil of rope ready to lasso us, as it seemed
to me. And as I sat there I felt how awkward it would be if the man
threw a loop over my head or chest, and dragged me out of the boat.

Naturally enough, the thought of this alone was enough to produce in me
an intense desire to stand up, instead of crouching down there holding
the tiller, and forced into a state of inaction, wherein I was forbidden
to move or raise a hand in my defence.

"I hope they'll give a thought to me," I said to myself, as I felt that
in a very few minutes they would be alongside trying to leap on board,
and from my position I knew that I must be in the thick of the fight,
perhaps trampled upon, and pretty sure to receive some of the blows
which came flying about.

I gazed firmly forward, knowing how much depended upon my keeping the
boat's head straight, and determined, as I set my teeth, to do my duty
as well as possible, but I could not help turning my head from time to
time to look back at the pursuers, who began shouting to us, and
jabbering in their own tongue