hoping thus to avoid the
threatened attack, we immediately got under weigh, and dropped down the
river. The night, however, becoming cloudy and dark, and the wind being
contrary, we were once more obliged to bring up.

"If the pirates come to look for us, they will find us gone," observed
Captain Davis, as we sat at supper round the cabin-table.

"But if they intended to attack us, depend upon it they were on the
watch," observed A'Dale, "and know where we are as well as they did
before."

I agreed with A'Dale that we ought to keep a strict watch, as we had
intended. Captain Davis, I observed, as sailors are too apt to do, made
light of the danger of which we had warned him.

"They will think twice before they attack the _Diamond_, depend on that,
young masters," he answered to our remarks.

As A'Dale and I had been up since daybreak, and actively engaged all the
time, both of us felt very sleepy. Yet we were far too anxious
willingly to go to sleep. Without taking off our clothes, therefore, we
threw ourselves down in our bedplaces in the after-cabin, hoping that we
should be awakened by the slightest noise. We kept our swords by our
sides, ready for instant action. The captain, however, laughed at us
for our anxiety.

"Don't be alarmed, my young masters," he observed, in a somewhat
taunting tone; "if we are attacked, we shall be able to give a good
account of the villains, without having to call you up, so you might
have taken off your clothes and gone to sleep comfortably."

He made some other remarks, much in the same strain; but as he continued
speaking, his words sounded less and less distinct to my ears, and
before he had concluded I was fast asleep.

It seemed to me but a minute after I had shut my eyes that I was aroused
by a fearful uproar. Shouts and shrieks and cries of all sorts, the
report of fire-arms and the clashing of steel. I started up, hitting my
head, as I did so, against the beam above me, and sprang out of my
narrow bed. I called loudly to A'Dale. He was so fast asleep that the
first shout did not completely arouse him. The second, however, made
him spring to his feet.

"What has happened?" he asked.

"The pirates have come, there is little doubt of that," I answered; "we
must go and drive them back."

As I said this, sword in hand, I sprang up the companion-ladder, and he
followed me. As we reached the deck, I saw a number of dark forms
clustering in the rigging, whilst