ple of suspicious--looking craft sweeping off
towards us. That they were pirates we had no doubt. At that time those
sort of gentry used to cut the throats of every man on board if there
was the slightest resistance.

"Our skipper, Captain Dillon, was a determined fellow, and had proved
himself a good seaman during the passage.

"`Lads,' he sang out, `do you wish to be taken and hove overboard to
feed the sharks, or will you try to save the ship if those scoundrels
come up to us? I'll promise you we'll beat them if they venture
aboard.'

"We all answered that we were ready to stick by him, for I believe there
was not one of us that did not think we should be dead men before the
day was an hour older. The mates promised also to fight to the last.

"`Be smart then, my lads, get up some of the cargo from the hold.' We
soon had a dozen butter casks hoisted up, knocked in their ends, and
payed the decks, and sides, and ropes, and every part of the ship over
with the butter. We chucked our shoes below, and got the cutlasses,
boarding pikes, and pistols ready. In a few minutes the deck was so
slippery, that a man, unless without his shoes, could not stand upon it.
We were all ready, with our cutlasses at our sides and the pikes handy,
to give the scoundrels a warm reception. Meantime the _Jane and Mary_
did her best, as far as the breeze would help her, to keep moving
through the water.

"The pirates crept up, and kept firing away at us, one on one quarter
and one on the other.

"We answered them with the few guns we carried, though each of them had
nearly twice as many as we had, while their decks were crowded with men.
Presently they ranged up alongside, and both boarded together, a score
or more villainous-looking rascals leaping down on our decks, expecting
to gain an easy victory; but they never made a greater mistake in their
lives, and it was the last most of them had the chance of making. The
moment their feet touched our deck, over they fell flat on their faces,
while we with our cutlasses, rushing in among them, killed every
mother's son of their number. Others following, shouting, shrieking,
and swearing, met the same fate; when the rest of the pirates, seeing
what was happening, though not knowing the cause, but fancying, I
suppose, that we had bewitched them, sheered off, and the breeze
freshening we stood away, leaving the two feluccas far astern. Forty
men lay dead on our decks, and not one of