missed the brig, when he saw her looming up on his right. In three
or four minutes he was alongside.

"The brig there!" he hailed. "Drop me a rope overboard."

There was a stir overhead, at once.

"Where are you, Bob?" Captain Lockett asked, leaning over the side.

"Just below you, sir."

A rope was dropped. Bob grasped it, and was hauled up.

"Thank God you are back again!" the captain said. "I have been
blaming myself, ever since you started; though, as all was quiet,
we felt pretty sure they hadn't made you out. Well, have you any
news? Did you get on board?"

"You will get no prize money this time, captain. The Spaniard is a
ship of war, mounting twenty-four guns; none of them smaller than
eighteens, and ten of them thirty-twos."

"Impossible, Bob! We could not have been so mistaken. Joe and I
were both certain that they were fourteens."

"Yes, sir; but those things you saw were dummies. The guns,
themselves, are almost all drawn in. All the thirty-twos are, and
most of the eighteens. She has been specially disguised, at Malaga,
in hopes of tempting a craft like yours to attack her and, what is
more, she has a shrewd suspicion of what you are;" and he related
the whole of the conversation he had heard, and described the
preparations for repulsing a boat attack and, in turn, carrying the
brig in the ship's boats.

Captain Lockett was thunderstruck.

"The Spanish officer who commands her must be a smart fellow," he
said, "and we have had a narrow escape of running our head into a
noose--thanks to you, Bob; for Joe and I had quite made up our
minds to attack her, in the middle watch.

"Well, the only thing for us to do is to get away from here, as
soon as we can. If she finds we don't attack her, tonight, she is
sure to send a boat to us, in the morning; and then, if we have an
engagement, we could hardly hope to get off without losing some of
our spars--even if we were not sunk--with such heavy metal as she
carries. We should have the other two craft down on us, too, and
our chances of getting away would be worth nothing.

"Well, I suppose, Joe, our best plan will be to tow her away?"

"I should think so, sir. When they hear us at it, they may send
their boats out after us, but we can beat them off; and I should
hardly think that they would try it, for they will be sure that, if
we are a privateer, we have been playing the same game as they
have, and hiding our guns, and will guess that we carry a