a. But now she had only half a dozen guns all told, and even had she
possessed the full armament there were not men enough to work them, for
her complement of forty men was only half what it had been when she
sailed under the Company's flag.

Desmond confided his puzzlement to Bulger. The seaman laughed.

"Why, bless 'ee, we en't a-goin' to run into no danger. Trust Cap'n
Barker for that. You en't supercargo, to be sure; but who do you think
them guns and round shots in the hold be for? Why, the Pirate himself.
And he'll pay a good price for 'em, too."

"Do you mean to say that English merchants supply Angria with weapons to
fight against their own countrymen?"

"Well, blest if you en't a innocent. In course they do. The guns en't
always fust-class metal, to be sure; but what's the odds? The interlopers
ha' got to live."

"I don't call that right. It's not patriotic."

"Patry what?"

"Patriotic--a right way of thinking of one's own country. An Englishman
isn't worth the name who helps England's enemies."

Bulger looked at him in amazement. The idea of patriotism was evidently
new to him.

"I'll have to put that there notion in my pipe and smoke it," he said.
"I'd fight any mounseer, or Dutchman, or Portuguee as soon as look at
him, 'tis on'y natural; but if a mounseer likes to give me twopence for a
thing that's worth a penny--why, I'll say thank 'ee and axe
him--leastways if there's any matey by as knows the lingo--to buy
another."

Shortly after dawn next morning the lookout reported four vessels to
windward. From their appearance Captain Barker at once concluded that two
were Company's ships, with an escort of a couple of grabs. As he was
still scanning them he was joined by Diggle, with whom he entered into
conversation.

"They're making for Bombay, I reckon," said the captain.

"I take it we don't wish to come to close quarters with them, Barker?"

"By thunder, no! But if we hold our present course we're bound to pass
within hailing distance. Better put 'em off the scent."

He altered the vessel's course a point or two with the object of passing
to windward of the strangers, as if steering for the Portuguese port of
Goa.

"They are running up their colors," remarked Diggle, half an hour later.

"British, as I thought. We'll hoist Portuguese."

A minute or two later a puff of smoke was observed to sally from the
larger of the two grabs, followed in a few seconds by the boom of a gun.