, with a piping breeze filling her sails she would soon reach the mouth of the river, when all hope of capture would be lost. Being such a cunningly built craft, and drawing so little water, under the skilful handling of the Buccaneers, the tortuous bends of the river would be navigated through shallow and twisting channels where no other ship could follow.
“If we only had a gunboat,” said the King, “I could go into the conning tower and direct the shots, so as to rake that pirate ship fore and aft, and in about a minute sink her.”
“Yes, that would no doubt be the right thing to do,” said Mr. Poodle, “provided there are no captives aboard. But—”
“Do you think they have captured Queen Helen?” said Tommy, never once realizing how he had interrupted the words of Mr. Poodle. “See! There are ladies in the
waving to us. Every man to the rescue!”
Row boats were now quickly boarded, and with stout men tugging most manfully at the oars, were made to skip over the water at no slow rate, and so reached the