two almost alongside, the ship's main-yard just
touching her reed-like masts, and a voice uttered a few words rapidly in
Greek, which Charley, although he had a smattering of the language,
could not quite understand, although the foreign sailors on board their
vessel evidently did, as they replied in the same tongue. And then the
dapper little craft's lateen sails filled again as her helm was put
down, and she flow away from the _Muscadine_, sailing on a bowline, and
heeling over to the wind so as to display half her keel as she topped
the waves, just as if the other vessel had been lying still in the
water, although she was going a good eight knots by the log in the same
direction.

"Did you see that fellow's face on board the felucca who spoke to our
men, Charley?" asked Tom anxiously.

"No," said Charley. "But I heard his voice, and that was enough for
me."

"Oh, you recognised him, then?"

"Yes. I could swear, only from his voice, that he was the same man who
spoke to us in Mohammed's coffee-shop at Beyrout. He had a most
peculiar twang in his speech, which I noticed at the time."

"It was the same chap, Charley; I saw him distinctly. I wouldn't be at
all surprised that Mohammed was right, and that he is a `piratt,' as he
called him. But if he is after us, I wonder why he didn't board us
then. That felucca was crammed full of men."

"Ah, piracy would be rather risky work in these seas, with lots of
men-of-war about; at all events, in broad daylight, as it is now. From
the distance the ship has run, we can't be very far off Cyprus, and the
pirate, if pirate he be, knows well enough that an English frigate has
been stationed there ever since we occupied the island. I've no doubt,
however, Tom, that he is after us, for I heard, as well as I could make
out, from what I know of the language, two phrases, `In a couple of
nights' time,' and `Look out for the signal,' while the Greek sailors
here said, `It's all right on board,' as if they had arranged
everything. I don't like it at all, Tom. What a murderous lot of
fellows they are, and what a fool that Tompkins is to insist on having
them all in one watch!"

"We'll tell the captain what we've heard and seen," replied Tom.

But at that moment the first mate, who had gone down into the waist of
the ship to confer with the Greeks, returned, rubbing his hands and with
a scornful smile on his face.

"A nice thing it would have been if I had gone below an