ot for long.
They would spread out in search. And now I had found this hopeless ship,
it seemed impossible that anybody else could miss her.

"You may be boarded any moment by more than a dozen boats. I warn you
solemnly. Will you let me come?"

A low whistle was heard on board. They were impressed, "Why should he
tell us this?" an undertone inquired.

"Why the devil shouldn't he? It's no great news, is it? Some scoundrelly
trick. This man's up to any dodge. Why, the '_Jane_' was taken in broad
day by two boats that pretended they were going to sell vegetables."

"Look out, or by heavens you'll be taken by surprise. There's a lot of
them," I said as impressively as I could.

"Look out, look out. There's a lot of them," someone yelled in a sort of
panic.

"Oh, that's your game," Sebright's voice said to me. "Frighten us, eh?
Never you mind what this skunk says, men. Stand fast. We shall take a
lot of killing." He was answered by a sort of pugnacious uproar, a clash
of cutlasses and laughter, as if at some joke.

"That's right, boys; mind and send them away with clean faces, you
gunners. Jack, you keep a good lookout for that poor distressed
Englishman. What's that? a noise in the fog? Stand by. Now then,
cook!..."

"All ready to dish up, sir," a voice answered him.

It was like a sort of madness. Were they thinking of eating? Even at
that the English talk made my heart expand--the homeliness of it. I
seemed to know all their voices, as if I had talked to each man before.
It brought back memories, like the voices of friends.

But there was the strange irrelevancy, levity, the enmity--the
irrational, baffling nature of the anguishing conversation, as if with
the unapproachable men we meet in nightmares.

We in the dinghy, as well as those on board, were listening anxiously. A
profound silence reigned for a time.

"I don't care for myself," I tried once more, speaking distinctly. "But
a lady in the boat here is in great danger, too. Won't you do something
for a woman?"

I perceived, from the sort of stir on board, that this caused some
sensation.

"Or is the whole ship's company afraid to let one little boat come
alongside?" I added, after waiting for an answer.

A throat was cleared on board mildly, "Hem... you see, we don't know who
you are."

"I've told you who I am. The lady is Spanish."

"Just so. But there are Englishmen and Englishmen in these days. Some of
them keep very bad company ashore, an