r Gale--whose watch it was at the time--
roused me up, and sent me to tell the captain that there was a strange
sail on the starboard-bow, which seemed inclined to cross our fore-foot.
The captain was soon on deck and examining the stranger with his glass.

"Well, what do you make of her, Mr Gale?" he asked. She was a low,
little vessel, with considerable beam, and a large lateen mainsail, and
a jib on a little cock-up bowsprit--something like a 'Mudian rig.

"She's a suspicious-looking craft; and if it were not that we are
well-armed, and could sink her with a broadside, I should not much like
her neighbourhood, sir," answered the second mate. As he spoke, a gun
was fired by the stranger, but not at us.

"He wants to speak us, at all events," observed Captain Helfrich. "If
he had intended us mischief he would have fired at us, I should think."

"Not quite so certain of that, sir," answered Mr Jones, the first mate.
"Those pirating fellows are up to all sorts of tricks; and if he's
honest he belies himself, for a more roguish craft I never saw. He
doesn't show any colours, at all events."

"We'll not be taken by surprise, then," answered the captain. "Arm the
people, and see the guns all ready to run out. Boy, get my pistols and
cutlass from the steward. Tell him to show himself on deck; and let the
gentlemen in the cabin know that if they get up, they may find something
to amuse them."

I dived speedily below to deliver my message. While the steward was
getting ready the captain's arms, I ran round to the berths of the
passengers. One had heard me ask for the pistols; thus the report at
once went round among them that there was fighting in prospect. In a
few minutes, therefore, several gentlemen in straw-hats, with yellow
nankeen trousers and gay dressing-gowns, appeared on deck.

"What!--is that little hooker the craft we are going to fight, captain?"
exclaimed one of them. "We shouldn't have much difficulty in trouncing
her, I should think."

"Not the slightest, sir, if we have the chance," he answered. "But her
crew would have no difficulty either in cutting all our throats, if we
once let them get on board! The chances are that she has a hundred
desperadoes or more under hatches, and as she can sail round us like a
witch, they may choose their own time for coming alongside. I tell you,
gentlemen, I would rather she were a hundred miles away than where she
is!"

These remarks of the captain v