aft headin' dead for us!" yelled the look-out at this moment.

"Good heavens!" I ejaculated, "then Kennedy's extraordinary premonition
was right after all;" and, unceremoniously quitting the little group
under the break of the poop, I rushed forward, shouting:

"All hands to general quarters! Throw open the ports. Off with the gun
covers; slew the guns, and point them out through the ports. Pass the
word for the gunner, and send him aft to me." Then I turned and went
aft again, once more encountering the saloon party, now made complete by
the appearance of Miss Anthea, clad, like her mother, in a very becoming
dressing-gown.

"Madam," said I, addressing Mrs Vansittart, "there is no time for
explanation at this moment, for, unless I am very greatly mistaken, we
are about to be attacked by a fleet of pirate craft. But I most
earnestly beseech you to retire below, taking your son and daughter with
you out of harm's way. If my suspicions are well-founded, none of you
can be of the slightest assistance on deck, while at any moment we may
have shot flying about our ears, and--"

"Yes," the skipper agreed, "you are quite right. Mr Leigh is perfectly
right, Julius, therefore I order you to go to your cabin at once. And
you too, Anthea. Mr Monroe, if Julius will not go quietly, I authorise
you to use such force as may be necessary to compel him to go. And when
you have seen him safe in his cabin, lock him in, and bring me the key.
Now, sir,"--very haughtily to me--"be good enough to accompany me to the
poop, and let us see what justification there is for all this sudden
alarm and confusion."

It was very evident that the lady was tremendously indignant with me.
And at this, when I came to think of it, I was not greatly surprised,
for it certainly was a tremendous liberty for a second officer to
consent to, much less order, the locking of a skipper and owner in her
own cabin. I therefore followed her, very much crestfallen, up the poop
ladder, and at once looked away out over the port quarter in search of
the supposed pirate fleet.

It was at this time so very dark that for several seconds I could see
nothing. The moon had set, and the bank of cloud already referred to
had overspread more than half the sky; moreover, a mist had come
creeping up from the eastward, not dense enough to merit the name of
fog, yet sufficiently thick to dim the light of the stars still shining
in the western half of the heavens, whil