nch, followed by a sharp inquiry in
the same language of, "Who goes there?"

"British," I answered, in the inquirer's own lingo. "Surrender, or we
will drive every man of you overboard!"

"The British! ah, sac-r-r-re! Yes, monsieur, oh yes, we surrender,"
gurgled the man, as I seized him by the throat and threatened him with
my cutlass, while Lindsay led the hands forward to the forecastle.
There were a few drowsily muttered ejaculations in that direction,
quickly succeeded by a volley of execrations, a scuffling of feet, the
slamming of the hatch over the fore-scuttle, and Lindsay sang out that
the schooner was ours. Even as he did so, two figures in rather scanty
clothing, rushed up on deck through the companion; and before I could
fully realise what was happening, one of them snapped his pistol at me,
while the other aimed a blow at my head with a sword. Fortunately the
bullet missed me, finding its billet in the body of the man whose throat
I still grasped, while I managed to catch the blow of the other fellow
on my own blade; and in a moment we were at it "hammer and tongs"--that
is to say, the swordsman and myself, the other fellow making a dash at
me now and then, aiming fierce blows at me with the butt-end of his
pistol, until, in self-defence, I seized my opportunity and cleft his
skull with my cutlass at the same instant that I launched out with my
left hand and sent his companion reeling to the deck with a blow planted
fairly between the eyes.

At this moment young Lindsay came rushing aft, with half a dozen of our
fellows at his heels, to know what was the matter; so, bidding a couple
of the men to securely bind the prisoners, I descended the companion
ladder, with Lindsay at my heels, to see whether there were any more
Frenchmen to be fought. There were not, however; the close, stuffy
little cabin was empty; so we went on deck again, and, leaving two men
to keep watch and ward at the after end of the ship, went forward, where
I personally superintended the operation of effectually securing the
crew, who we afterwards passed down into the hold. The cook, however,
we left free, and, being ravenously hungry, gave him orders to at once
light the galley fire and cook us the best meal the ship could afford,
all hands taking the keen edge off our appetites, meanwhile, by munching
some excellent biscuits that Lindsay discovered snugly stored away in
the pantry. Our next care was to hoist in the gig that ha