y were stark veterans, too, every man seamed
with ancient sabre-cuts, whereas my crew had many of them hardly
attained the maturity which is the gift of ten long summers--and the
whole thing was so sudden that I had no time to invent a reinforcement
of riper years. It was not surprising, therefore, that my dauntless
boarding-party, axe in hand and cutlass between teeth, fought their way
to the pirates' deck only to be repulsed again and yet again, and that
our planks were soon slippery with our own ungrudged and inexhaustible
blood. At this critical point in the conflict, the bo'sun, grasping me
by the arm, drew my attention to a magnificent British man-of-war,
just hove to in the offing, while the signalman, his glass at his eye,
reported that she was inquiring whether we wanted any assistance or
preferred to go through with the little job ourselves.

This veiled attempt to share our laurels with us, courteously as it was
worded, put me on my mettle. Wiping the blood out of my eyes, I ordered
the signalman to reply instantly, with the half-dozen or so of flags
that he had at his disposal, that much as we appreciated the valour
of the regular service, and the delicacy of spirit that animated
its commanders, still this was an orthodox case of the young
gentleman-adventurer versus the unshaved pirate, and Her Majesty's
Marine had nothing to do but to form the usual admiring and applauding
background. Then, rallying round me the remnant of my faithful crew, I
selected a fresh cutlass (I had worn out three already) and plunged once
more into the pleasing carnage.

The result was not long doubtful. Indeed, I could not allow it to be, as
I was already getting somewhat bored with the pirate business, and was
wanting to get on to something more southern and sensuous. All serious
resistance came to an end as soon as I had reached the quarter-deck and
cut down the pirate chief--a fine black-bearded fellow in his way,
but hardly up to date in his parry-and-thrust business. Those whom our
cutlasses had spared were marched out along their own plank, in the
approved old fashion; and in time the scuppers relieved the decks of
the blood that made traffic temporarily impossible. And all the time the
British-man-of-war admired and applauded in the offing.

As soon as we had got through with the necessary throat-cutting and
swabbing-up all hands set to work to discover treasure; and soon the
deck shone bravely with ingots and Mexican do