est, to a tearful melancholy, from which they were rapt
away into a sodden and stertorous slumber.

At the third snore Tinker turned to Elsie, who sat by him looking
rather scared by the changing humours of the agricultural mariners, and
said with a sardonic and ferocious smile, "The ship is ours."

At once they divested themselves of the hats of civilisation, and tied
round their heads the red handkerchiefs proper to their profession;
then he gave her the wheel, and going to the cabin, came back with a
black flag neatly embroidered in white with a skull and crossbones,
Dorothy's work, and sternly bade an imaginary quartermaster run up the
Jolly Roger. Then, as quartermaster, he ran up that emblem of his
dreadful trade himself; became captain once more, and, with folded arms
and corrugated brow surveyed it gloomily. Then he went down to the
engine-room, put the yacht on half-speed, and, as well as he could,
stoked the fires.

For the next three hours the _Petrel_ forgot all the innocent
traditions of her youth as a pleasure boat, and traversed the Gulf of
Arcachon a shameless, ravening pirate, while Captain Hildebrand, the
Scourge of the Spanish Main, issued curt, sanguinary orders to an
imaginary but as blood-dyed a gang of villains as ever scuttled an
Indiaman. The Jolly Roger and three or four blank shots from the
little signal gun drove three panic-stricken fishing boats from their
fishing-ground as fast as oars and sails could carry them, to spread
abroad a legend of piracy in the Gulf which would last a generation.

It was nearly sunset before Captain Hildebrand returned to the serious
consideration of his business as Cupid's ally. Then he set the
_Petrel_ going dead slow, ran her gently on to a sandbank, and let fall
the anchor, which was hanging from her bows. This done, again a
pirate, he looked at the recumbent and still stertorous Alphonse and
Adolphe with cold, cruel eyes, and said, "It's time these lubbers
walked the plank."

[Illustration: It's time these lubbers walked the plank.]

"Ay, ay, sir!" said Elsie cheerfully; and then she added, in a doubtful
voice, "But won't the poor men get drowned?"

"Not in four feet of water," said Captain Hildebrand; and he set
briskly about the preparations for the fell deed. With Elsie's help he
brought a plank to the gangway; and then, either taking him by an arm,
they dragged the grunting Adolphe slowly down the deck, and arranged
him on the plank. With