"Do you think all the money you spent on my education as a shootist was wasted? I believe I could hit the Rock of Gibraltar every time if I was near enough to it," laughed Felix. "I would trust you to do that." "And I might hit the fore mast above the captain's head once in a while, and it would make the thing seem a bit more real if he could hear the noise of the ball as it flew through the air, or struck the wood." "Perhaps it would; but be sure and not hit the man," added Louis as he moved forward. Before he reached the pilot-house he heard another shot from his crony's pistol. He looked into the engine-room on his way, where Felipe wished him to explain what had happened on board; but he had no time then to inform him. Francisco and Pedro were quiet enough, for their fastenings prevented them from being otherwise. "How goes it, Scott?" he asked when he came to the pilot-house. "It goes first rate forward; but what is the matter aft, for I heard you firing your revolvers?" inquired the pilot. "Nothing is the matter; but I thought it best to let Captain Velazquez know that we had fire-arms on board, and he was sensible enough to move aft as soon as he heard the report of our pistols. For some time he had been threatening to cut the tow-line, and I thought I would move him to some other place on the checker-board if I could. He has saved me the trouble of doing anything," Louis replied as he looked the prisoners over. "We have about finished the job, for we shall be alongside the Guardian-Mother in a few minutes more," continued the pilot. "I have sent Morris forward to get a heave-line ready." "I will get one ready astern," added Louis, as he went aft again. The lasso which had played so important a part in the capture of Gray was in the cabin, where the noose had been removed from the neck of the prisoner. Louis soon made a heave-line again of it, and attached it to a fast he found at the stern. "How do you find yourself, Captain Gray?" he asked of the prisoner on the divan. "I don't find myself in a very cheerful mood to go into port," replied the Scotchman. "You have knocked me out at my own game, and I feel like a whipped school-boy." "I suppose you Scotchmen read the Scriptures diligently, and you have found out that 'The way of the transgressor is hard.'" "Yes, very hard," replied the prisoner with a profane expletive. "Does your throat trouble you?" "Not much, though it is still sore, and I have a bad cut on the hand." "You ought to have considered these things before you committed an act of piracy," suggested Louis. "I have told you before that there is no piracy in it," added Gray, who evidently did not like the sound of the word, and he interpolated some very unnecessary expletives in his speech. "What are you going to do with the schooner and those you have made prisoners?" "I don't know; I intend to leave that matter to the commander of the Guardian-Mother; but you will learn all about it in due time."