"Then, Pilot, you had better go below."
"With your permission, captain, I would rather stay and look on."
"But what is the use of exposing yourself here?"
"It is an idea of mine, captain. But I shall remain perfectly neutral during the engagement."
"As you like then, Pilot, as you like," said the captain, as he resumed his place on the quarter-deck.
At this moment a cannon ball whistled through the air.
"Good," said Willis; "the commodore gives the signal."
"That shot," observed Jack, "passed at no great distance from your head, Willis. You had better take a musket in self-defence. Besides, that ship is English, and you are a Scotchman."
"The ship is a Spaniard by birth," replied Willis, "and it is pretty well time it was converted into firewood, for the matter of that. But it is the flag, my boy—that is neither Spanish nor English."
"What is it, then?" inquired Fritz.