The Ostend captain was there when I came aboard, and I fancied, though I then knew not why, that he and Captain Kirby looked at one another in a very strange and peculiar manner when I entered the cabin. Besides that, I noticed little or no preparation for action had been made.
"We'll stand by you," says Captain Kirby; "in course we'll stand by you, though you must know it is each one for himself, and devil take the hindmost, at such times as these."
I was mightily amazed and taken aback at this speech. "And why do you talk so about standing by me, Captain Kirby?" said I. "Is it not, then, that we stand by one another? Is my craft in greater peril than yours, or am I to be given up as a sacrifice to these wicked and bloody wretches?"
I thought he seemed vastly disturbed at this speech. "In course," says he, "we'll stand by one another. All the same, each must look out for himself."
I regarded Captain Kirby for a while without speaking, and he seemed more than ever troubled at my gaze.
"Sir! sir!" I cried, "I must tell you that I do not understand this matter. Do you not mean to make a fight of it?"
At this he flew into a mighty fume. "How!" says he; "do you mean to question my courage? Do you call me a coward?"
"No, sir," says I, "I call you nothing; only I did not understand your speech. Sure, sir, you cannot but remember that I have three helpless women aboard my ship, and that it behooves you as a man and an Englishman to stand by me in this time of peril."
So saying, I left the cabin and the ship, but with the weight of trouble that lay upon my mind anything but lightened, for I could not understand why, we all being in this peril together, neither he nor the Ostend captain had spoken a single word concerning our defence.
However, I yet retained the hope that the pirates would not venture into our harbor, seeing that we were three to two, and lying in a chosen position whence we might hope to defend ourselves for a long time, and to their undoing.