"'Excuse me, I've no time for conversation.'
"The pirate's action was a signal to his men, and before our crew could offer the slightest resistance they shared the master's fate. A wicked-looking scoundrel with an ugly scar across his cheek made a savage swing at me with his sword, but before the blow could fall the pirate's cutlass was sent flying from his grasp, and he uttered a shriek of pain and seized his arm where Brand's blow had fallen.
"'I don't make war on children,' was all that the Captain said.
"Fifteen minutes later the Saucy had been ransacked and set on fire, and sick at heart I was on board the schooner, having been given to understand that my name had been entered as a pirate's apprentice, and that I was a regular member of the crew and must obey orders.
"At once the word was passed to get the vessel under way, and I found myself trailing on to the fore-topsail halyards alongside of a sad-looking lad of about my own age, who was addressed by the men as Dick, and who, I took it rightly, had been forced to join the Dragon under similar conditions to my own.
"That night we two found ourselves in the same watch, and, after answering to roll-call, we stowed ourselves away between two of the guns and exchanged confidences. Later on we talked over various plans to gain our freedom. Dick informed me that the schooner was on her way to the pirates' stronghold, where he had been once before, on the island of Tortugas, there to divide the spoils of the voyage, and to gamble and carouse for several days before starting on another expedition.
"Two days later we reached the island in a small securely locked bay on the western side. After lowering and furling the sails, a chest about two feet square was brought out on deck, and its contents, consisting of gold and silver, money and jewels, were divided among the men by Captain Brand. After that a barrel of rum was lowered into the long boat, and the crew entered her and rowed away, leaving the Captain and we two boys the only ones on board.
"Late in the evening Captain Brand ordered Dick to row him ashore, and I was left alone. About an hour later Dick sculled the boat quietly alongside out of the darkness, climbed on board, and addressed me in an excited whisper:
"'Now's our time, Sterling; the Captain has gone up to his shore house and thinks I'm waiting for him on the beach; we will cut the cable, and the wind will set us out of the bay; they can't follow us, for I've sent their boat adrift, with the plug pulled out so that it will sink!'
"While Dick ran to the wheel I jumped forward and sawed my knife through the anchor hawser, and immediately saw the schooner's head falling off against the stars under the influence of the easterly wind. In a quarter of an hour we were outside the mouth of the harbor and drifting to the westward. We knew that we never could hoist the sails and handle the vessel to sail anywhere, and that if a gale sprang up we would probably founder; but these dangers could not rob us of great happiness, for we realized that we were free from the pirates' clutches.