d the gloom of night.

"Fire!" again shouted our captain.

The shrieks and groans were redoubled, and the boats again disappeared
in the darkness. We remained at our quarters expecting their return.
They did not come. A light breeze from the southward and westward at
length sprung up, and we were able to shape our course towards the Rock
of Gibraltar, and when the morning broke no sail was in sight.

CHAPTER NINE.

A SHIP WITHOUT A CREW.

We touched at Gibraltar, that the captain might obtain information as to
the ports he was to call at. Smyrna, we found, was to be our ultimate
destination. He gave notice of the attack made on us by the pirate, and
a brig of war was sent to look out for her. I shall have a good deal
more to say about our turbaned friends by-and-by. Gibraltar I thought a
wonderful place, with the face of its high rock, which stands out into
the sea, cut full of galleries, and ports with heavy guns grinning from
them in every direction. Of course, the seamen very often do not know
at what port the ship is to touch, or whereabouts they are. Such was my
case: I had never seen a chart of the Mediterranean. The first definite
notion I got of it was from Peter, who afterwards drew one for me with a
piece of chalk on the lid of his chest. I only knew that we were
steering towards the east, and that we were likely to see several
strange places and many strange people.

Some time after leaving Gibraltar, I had just come on deck one night to
keep my watch, when out of the dark ocean, as it seemed, I saw a bright
light burst forth and blaze up into the sky. I thought some ship must
have blown up; but the light continued, and grew stronger and stronger,
and reached higher and higher. The fire seemed to spout out, and then
to fall in a shower on every side, something like the branches of a
weeping ash, or some wide-spreading tree. The ship was standing towards
it, and I thought we should certainly be burned.

"Oh, Peter, Peter," I exclaimed, "what is the matter? Surely the world
has caught fire, and we shall all be destroyed!"

"No fear of that just yet, lad," he answered, laughing. "That's only a
burning island, which is called Stromboli. There are some mountains in
these parts, as I have heard say, which send out such a quantity of hot
stones, and ashes, and boiling earth, that whole towns, and villages,
and fields are overwhelmed and buried. In those countries you may buy
for a penny