fighting," answered the captain, with a
smile, as he cleaned the glasses of his telescope and swept the horizon
carefully; "we had a round or two of the guns, and a few bullets
whistled about our ears for a little--that was all."

"Was any one wounded--k-killed?" asked Miss Pritty, opening her eyes
with an anxious look; "and oh!" she added, with a sudden expression of
horror, as she drew up her feet and glanced downwards, "perhaps the
decks are--no," she continued sinking back again with a sigh, "they are
_not_ bloody!"

At that moment the man at the mast-head reported three prows, just
visible on the horizon ahead.

"I suppose we must go below again," said Aileen, sadly, after the
captain returned from the bridge, to which he had gone to examine the
prows in question.

"Not yet, Miss Hazlit. It will probably be an hour ere we come up with
them. You'd better enjoy the morning air while you may. I'll warn you
in good time."

Aileen therefore remained on deck for some time with her father, but
poor Miss Pritty, on the first intimation that more pirates were in
sight, got up hastily, staggered with a face expressive of the utmost
horror into the cabin, flung herself into the captain's berth, thrust
her head under the pillow, piled the clothes over that, and lay there--
quaking!

She quaked for full half an hour before anything happened. Then she
felt a hand trying to remove her superincumbent head-gear. This induced
her to hold on tight and shriek, but, recognising Aileen's voice, she
presently put her face out.

"Don't be so terrified, dear," said Aileen, scarce able to repress a
smile.

"I _can't_ help it," answered her friend, whimpering; "are the--the
pirates--"

"They are not far off now. But don't give way to needless alarm, dear.
Our captain sent me below because he is going to fight them, and you
know he is sure to win, for he is a brave man. He says he'll run them
all down in a few minutes."

"Oh!" groaned Miss Pritty, and with that, pulling her head in like a
snail, she resumed quaking.

Poor Aileen, although talking thus bravely to her friend, was by no
means easy in her own mind, for apart from the fact that they were about
to engage three pirate-junks, manned by hundreds of desperate men, she
could not repress her shrinking horror at the bare idea of men talking
coolly about shedding human blood. To one of her imaginative nature,
too, it was no small trial to have to sit alone and inac