e command of Skyrme, and called it the Fox-Hound.

From the French prisoners he learned that the two most formidable
English war-ships, the Weymouth and Hirondelle had left the coast and
would not return for several months, so they sailed boldly into the
harbor.

The Onslow, the finest vessel of the Anglo-African Company was lying at
anchor in the port.

Her captain and officers were on shore, where the governor was giving a
ball in their honor. From the windows of his residence they could see
the pirates assail their ship and, ere they could hasten back to it, the
crew had surrendered.

The captain of the Onslow, Fennimore Gee, rowed alone to the pirate ship
and, pistol in hand, demanded that Barthelemy should restore his ship
and fight with him like an honest man, instead of attacking by stealth.

The novel proposition of returning a captured ship to its owner and then
fighting for its possession so pleased Barthelemy that he declared his
willingness to accept it.

His own men also accepted the challenge, but the Onslow's crew refused
to fight against Barthelemy, and begged him to take them into his band.

Captain Gee despairingly fired his pistols among the rascally throng,
and appealed to Barthelemy, if he had a drop of honorable blood in his
body, not to stain his fame as a buccaneer by receiving into his band
the worthless fellows who, in the hour of peril, had deserted their
captain.

"I'll tell you, my worthy captain," said Robert gayly to his opponent,
tossing in the little boat on the waves below. "You are so brave a man
that I could not reconcile my conscience to leaving you without a ship.
Come, I'll give you, in exchange for the Onslow, my own vessel, the
Commodore here. I can vouch for its being a good sailer and valuable,
though I got it very cheap. But from sheer philanthropy, I can't give up
your crew, you would decimate it; the soldiers, however, you shall have,
I don't care what becomes of the land rats."

So before the eyes of the whole harbor, he exchanged ships with the
English captain, and after having the old name Onslow effaced and Royal
Fortune painted over it in large gilt letters, he set sail with both
his vessels for Calabar.

By way of pastime, part of the pirates, under Skyrme's command, made
short expeditions on the Fox-Hound to search for any ships that might be
crossing their path.

One day the Fox-Hound returned to the Royal Fortune, with all sail set,
and reported having