"There will be but little difficulty about that," answered Mr McRitchie. "The pirates themselves will acknowledge that we have been brought on board against our will, and the account we can give of ourselves is too circumstantial not to gain credit. At all events, we must hope for the best. But see, Captain Bruno at last suspects that something is wrong." We had by this time got almost within the ordinary range of a ship's guns. Suddenly the captain sprang to the helm. "Haul aft the main and foresheets!" he sung out in a voice of thunder. "Brace up the yards! Down with the helm! Keep her as close as she'll go!" The crew flew to obey these orders. They knew full well that their lives depended on their promptness. Already the schooner had approached too near the stranger. That she was a man-of-war, she no longer left us in doubt. Before the orders issued by Captain Bruno were executed, a line of ports were thrown open, and eight long guns were run out, threatening to send us to the bottom if we showed a disposition to quarrel, and aft at her peak flew the stars and stripes of the United States. The pirates saw that they were caught through their own folly and greediness, but the captain showed himself to be a man of undaunted courage, and full of resources. "Hold on!" he sung out, before a sheet was hauled in. "We may lose our sticks if we attempt to run. I'll try if I cannot deceive these clever fellows, and put them on a wrong scent." The pirates seemed mightily pleased at the thought of playing their enemy a trick, and highly applauded the proposal of their captain. The schooner, therefore, stood steadily on, till she ran close down to the corvette. Then she hove-to, well to windward of the ship, however. A boat was lowered, and Captain Bruno, with four of the most quiet-looking of the crew, got into her, and pulled away for the ship. When we hove-to, the corvette did the same, an eighth of a mile to leeward of us. We watched the proceedings of the pirate with no little anxiety. "If that fellow succeed in deceiving the captain of that ship, I shall acknowledge that impudence will sometimes carry the day," observed Mr McRitchie. "Couldn't we contrive to make a signal to let the people of the man-of-war know that we are kept here in durance vile?" observed Jerry.