The two pirates turned to each other for consultation, irresolute, but

evidently impressed by the fact that their prize did not purpose to

hoist sail and make a run for it.

"What ho! mates?" demanded the captain, in as gruff a voice as he

could compass: "Ye've heard his speech, and he has struck his flag."

"Suppose the villain plays us false," rejoined the "mates" or rather,

the mate, in a voice so high or quavering that for a moment it was

difficult for me to repress a smile; although these three years past I

rarely had smiled at all.

The captain turned to one side, so that now I could see both him and

his crew. The leader was as fine a specimen of boy as you could have

asked, sturdy of bare legs, brown of face, red of hair, ragged and

tumbled of garb. His crew was active though slightly less robust, a

fair-haired, light-skinned chap, blue-eyed, and somewhat better clad

than his companion. There was something winning about his face. At a

glance I knew his soul. He was a dreamer, an idealist, an artist, in

the bud. My heart leaped out to him instinctively in a great impulse

of sympathy and understanding. Indeed, suddenly, I felt the blood

tingle through my hair. I looked upon life as I had not these three

years. The imagination of Youth, the glamour of Adventure, lay here

before me; things I cruelly had missed these last few years, it seemed

to me.

"How, now, shipmates?" I remarked mildly. "Wouldst doubt the faith of

one who himself hath flown the Jolly Rover? Cease your fears and come

aboard--that is to say, come ashore."

"Git out, Jimmy," I heard the captain say in a low voice, after a

moment of indecision. "Keep him covered till I tie her up."

Jimmy, the fair-haired pirate, hauled in on the alders and flung a

grappling iron aboard my bank, which presently he ascended. As he

stood free from the screening fringe of bushes, I saw that he was

slender, and not very tall, one not wholly suited by nature to his

stern calling. His once white jacket now was soiled, and one leg of

his knickers was loose, from his scramble up the bank. He was belted

beyond all earl-like need; wore indeed two belts, which supported two

long hunting knives and a Malay kris, such as we now get from the

Philippines; as well as a revolver large beyond all proportion to his

own size. A second revolver of like dimensions now trembled in his

hand, and even though its direction toward me was no more than

general, I resumed the goose-flesh underneath my waistcoat, for no man

could tell what might happen. In none of my works with dangerous big

game have I felt a similar uneasiness; no, nor even in the little

affair in China where the Boxers held us up, did I ever really

consider the issue more in doubt. It pleased me, however, to make no

movement of offense or defense; and luckily the revolver was not

discharged.




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