hem were ranged muskets, pistols, cutlasses, and boarding-pikes,
where masses of cordage and handspikes had been before. The hencoops
had vanished, and in their place were rows of brass carronades, while in
the centre of the deck an enormous swivel gun occupied the place, on
which the long-boat had formerly rested. Even the captain seemed to
have changed. His costume was somewhat Eastern in its character, and
his whole aspect was much more ferocious than when I first saw him.

Vague and terrible suspicions crossed my mind as I viewed these
wonderful transformations; but I had no time to indulge them, for the
men had hastened with the promptitude of men-of-war's men to their
stations, leaving Jack and me alone in the middle of the deck.

"Hallo, boys!" shouted the captain, "no idlers allowed aboard this ship.
Here, stand by this gun, and lend a hand with the ropes when you're
told to. Obey orders,--that's the only duty I've got to lay on you."

We hastened to the gun pointed out, and while I was standing there
waiting for orders, I looked over the side, and, for the first time,
became aware of the cause of these proceedings.

About two miles to leeward of us, just off our larboard bow, I saw a
large ship running under a press of canvas. She was a huge
clumsy-looking merchantman, and I heard our first mate say she was an
East-Indiaman.

"Then why chase her?" thought I, "and why these warlike preparations?"

It struck me at the time, I remember, that the captain must have guessed
my thoughts, for he glanced at me quickly, and then turning to the mate,
with a sarcastic smile, said--

"I thought you had better sight than you seem to have. In my judgment
that's a Russian merchantman, and as we happen to be at war with Russia
just now I'll take the liberty of overhauling her."

Instead of replying to this, the mate burst into a loud laugh in which,
strangely enough, he was joined by the captain and all the men who were
within hearing. I felt uneasy at this, and expressed my feelings in a
whisper to Jack, who shook his head and looked at me mysteriously, but
said nothing.

I felt that, even though we were at war with Russia, we, as a
discovery-ship, had no right whatever to interfere in the capacity of a
war-ship, and I was about to remonstrate with the captain at all
hazards, when my thoughts were suddenly changed by the order being given
to fire a shot across the stranger's bows. The gun at which I was
stati