d don't come out until I tell you to. Remember, stay in
the cabin," and almost before she realized what had happened Anne found
herself in the sloop's cabin, and the little door shut. A moment later
she heard the bang! bang! of a gun, and felt the boat swing heavily to
one side.

CHAPTER XVIII

A GREAT ADVENTURE

Anne's first impulse was to open the cabin door, but she had learned one
lesson by her runaway journey--to obey and wait. It was very hard for
the little girl to keep quiet, for she could hear her father's voice,
and that of Captain Starkweather, and loud commands in strange voices,
and the sloop seemed to be moving this way and that as if it had lost
its pilot.

"We are captured by that English boat; I know we are," Anne whispered to
herself.

And that was really what had happened. The English schooner had sent a
shot through Captain Starkweather's fine new mainsail, followed by a
command to lay to, and before Mr. Nelson had had time to fasten the door
of the cabin, the schooner was abreast of the sloop and in a few moments
the Province Town boat was taken in tow by the English schooner, and Mr.
Nelson and Captain Starkweather found themselves prisoners.

"Leave 'em on deck, but make sure they can't move hands or feet," Anne
heard a rough voice command, and there was the sound of scuffling feet,
and gradually the noise ceased; and all that Anne could hear was a faint
murmur of voices, and the ripple of the water against the side of the
boat. These sounds gradually ceased, and the frightened child realized
that the wind had died away, and that the boats were becalmed. She
peered out of the little cabin window and saw that the English boat was
very near. The tide sent the sloop close to the schooner, and now Anne
could hear voices very plainly.

"Pull in that tow line, and make fast to the sloop," she heard the same
gruff voice command, and in a few moments the sloop lay beside the
schooner.

"I could get on board just as easy," Anne thought, and wondered if her
father would tell the English that his little daughter was in the
sloop's cabin.

Poor John Nelson, lying on the schooner's deck, tied hand and foot,
feared every moment that his conquerors would discover that there was
another passenger on board the boat. "They would not harm my little
maid," he assured himself, "but there is food and water in the sloop's
cabin, and Anne is best off there."

Both he and Captain Starkweather hoped t