For a moment my companion gazed at me with a most bewitching expression of perplexity in her glorious eyes; then her face lighted up with a smile of amusement, and she broke into a musical laugh.
“What!” she exclaimed. “Do you not yet understand? I only wanted to say to you what I have just said—or, rather I wanted to get you away from that Irishman before your impetuous temper had time to precipitate a disaster.”
“I see,” said I, “Well—”
I was interrupted by a sound of hailing that seemed to proceed, not from our own forecastle but from some spot a little way ahead of us; and I at once concluded that its source must be the strange barque, the existence of which I had entirely forgotten in the interest of the discussion between myself and Miss Onslow. I listened for a reply from O’Gorman, but there was none; and presently the hailing was repeated—this time from a much nearer point—and immediately followed by an excited shouting and jabbering, in which I believed I could distinguish a word or two of French. I sprang to my feet, and was about to rush up on deck, when Miss Onslow checked the movement by laying her hand upon my arm, and saying:
“Please oblige me by staying here. If you were to go on deck, that wretch would only insult you again; so why lay yourself open to such treatment, since you can do absolutely nothing? You must school yourself to allow those men to have their own way, since neither persuasion nor force are of any avail with them.”
“True,” answered I. “But it is instinctive for a sailor—and especially an officer—to rush on deck when he hears such an outcry as that,”—as the shouting and jabbering became momentarily nearer and more excited.
At that instant O’Gorman’s voice shouted an order to “Stand by!” immediately followed by a command to the helmsman to “Hard a-starboard!” and presently there occurred a gentle shock—showing that the brig had collided with something apparently on the rounding of her starboard bow—accompanied by a most outrageous clamour, in which “S–a–c–r–és” and other French expletives plentifully abounded.
“Now, take a turn anywhere you can, and as often as you can,” shouted O’Gorman, “and then follow me. And if they offer any resistance, knock ’em down, or heave ’em overboard.”
“Why, good Heavens! they have run the barque aboard, and are taking her!” I exclaimed, astonished and shocked beyond expression, as it dawned upon me that the wretches were committing a further act of piracy. And I made as though to spring to my feet. In an instant Miss Onslow had seized my hand in hers, gripping me so firmly that I could not break away from her without exercising a certain measure of violence.
“And if they are?” said she, “can you do anything to prevent it?”