he greatest difficulty in holding him down; till
Fullarton slipped a noose round one of his ankles and then, jumping
on the bed, hauled upon it with all his strength--the admiral
giving his assistance.

"Get off him, he is safe!" he shouted; but the others had the
greatest difficulty in shaking themselves free from the man--who
had, fortunately, laid his pistol on the bed, before he crawled
under it to get at the box.

Jim Sankey was the first to shake himself free from him and, seeing
what Fullarton was doing, he jumped on to the bed and gave him his
assistance and, in half a minute, the ruffian's leg was lashed to
the bedpost, at a height of five feet from the ground.

Just as this was done there was a rush of feet outside; and three
men, one holding a cutlass and the other two armed with pokers, ran
into the room. It was fortunate they did so, for the man whom Bob
had first felled was just rising to his feet; but he was at once
struck down again, by a heavy blow over the head with the cutlass.
By this time the admiral had torn off the bandage across his mouth.

"Another of them ran downstairs, Jackson. Give chase. We can deal
with these fellows."

The three men rushed off.

"Well, I don't know who you are," the admiral went on, turning to
the boys, "but you turned up at the nick of time; and I am deeply
indebted to you, not only for saving my money--although I should
not have liked to lose that--but for having captured these pirates.

"That villain has not hurt you much, I hope?" for both Bob and Jim
Sankey were bleeding freely, from the face, from the heavy blows
the robber had dealt them.

"No, sir, we are not hurt to speak of," Bob said. "We belong to
Tulloch's school."

"To the school!" the admiral exclaimed. "What on earth are you
doing here, at four o'clock in the morning?

"But never mind that now. What is it, Jackson, has he got away?"

"No, sir; he was lying in a heap, at the bottom of the stairs.
There was a lanyard fastened across."

"We tied a string across, sir, as we came up," Bob explained.

"Well done, lads!

"Are there any more of them, Jackson?"

"Don't see any signs of any more, admiral. There are the two plate
chests in the passage, as if they had been brought out from the
butler's strong room, in readiness to take away."

"Where is the butler? He must have heard the pistol shots!" the
admiral exclaimed angrily.

"He is not in his room, admiral. We looked in to bring him wit