The man kept on gesticulating. "Can't you hear what I say?" continued Jecks in a whisper. "We're in a hurry. Say, sir, that's the chap as belongs to our boat--I mean his boat, and he's getting wilder and wilder now to see us carry it off. Say, sir, arn't it a bit--what you may call it--to take it away?" "A bit what?" "Well, sir, what do you grand folks call it when some one does what we're a-doing on?" "Unkind." "No, sir; it arn't an un-anything." "Cruel?" "No, sir. Cause you see a boat arn't a beast." "Oh, I don't know what you mean," I said impatiently. "Yes, it is an un-something; I forgot, sir. I meant undignified--that's the word." "He shall have his boat when we've done with it, and be paid for it too," I said. "English officers don't do undignified things." "But it strikes me, sir, as there won't be no boat to pay for when the pirates have done with us. If we go alongside, do you know what they'll do?" "Shoot." "No, sir; pitch ballast into us, and sink us, as sure as we're here." "Don't talk so much," I said impatiently. "Why, they've got another sail up, and are coming on faster." "Yes, sir, that's right; and they'll be alongside on us in another ten minutes. Shall I pass the word along to the lads to spit in their fists?" "What?" "I mean, sir, I s'pose it won't be cutlasses but fisties, sir, eh?" "Mr Herrick, you had better come and take the tiller," said Mr Brooke just then. "Don't attend to anything else. Your duty is to keep the boat running; we'll do what fighting there is." "Very well, sir," I said, and I felt disappointed as I took the tiller, but felt better a minute later as I felt how I could sway the racing boat by a touch. "Now, my lads, cutlasses and rifles under the thwarts. You take the oars to these men. Don't attack them, they are ignorant of our power. Only keep them off with a few blows." The men eagerly responded to the words of command, and stood and sat about in the boat, each man armed with a stout, strong ashen blade, a blow from which would have sent any one overboard at once. The chase, with our boat playing the part of hare, was exciting enough before, but it grew far more so now, for the men in the other boat were evidently determined, and two of them stood up with clumsy-looking hooks, and another with a coil of rope ready to lasso us, as it seemed to me. And as I sat there I felt how awkward it would be if the man threw a loop over my head or chest, and dragged me out of the boat. Naturally enough, the thought of this alone was enough to produce in me an intense desire to stand up, instead of crouching down there holding the tiller, and forced into a state of inaction, wherein I was forbidden to move or raise a hand in my defence.