Amtorian ships employ only the most primitive means of intercommunication. There is a crude and cumbersome hand signalling system in which flags are employed; then there is a standardized system of trumpet calls which covers a fairly wide range of conventional messages, but the most satisfactory medium and the one most used is the human voice. Since our quarry had displayed the pennant of the ongyan, we had held a course parallel to hers and a little distance astern. On her main deck a company of armed men was congregated. She mounted four guns, which had been elevated into firing position. She was ready, but I think that as yet she suspected nothing wrong in our intentions. Now I gave orders that caused the _Sofal_ to close in upon the other ship, and as the distance between them lessened I saw indications of increasing excitement on the decks of our intended victim. “What are you about?” shouted an officer from her tower deck. “Stand off there! There is an ongyan aboard us.” As no reply was made him, and as the _Sofal_ continued to draw nearer, his excitement waxed. He gesticulated rapidly as he conversed with a fat man standing at his side; then he screamed, “Stand off! or some one will suffer for this”; but the _Sofal_ only moved steadily closer. “Stand off, or I’ll fire!” shouted the captain. For answer I caused all our starboard guns to be elevated into firing position. I knew he would not dare fire now, for a single broadside from the _Sofal_ would have sunk him in less than a minute, a contingency which I wished to avoid as much as he. “What do you want of us?” he demanded. “We want to board you,” I replied, “without bloodshed if possible.” “This is revolution! This is treason!” shouted the fat man at the captain’s side. “I order you to stand off and leave us alone. I am the ongyan, Moosko,” and then to the soldiers on the main deck he screamed, “Repel them! Kill any man who sets foot upon that deck!” XIII CATASTROPHE At the same moment that the ongyan, Moosko, ordered his soldiers to repel any attempt to board his ship, her captain ordered full speed ahead and threw her helm to starboard. She veered away from us and leaped ahead in an effort to escape. Of course I could have sunk her, but her loot would have been of no value to me at the bottom of the sea; instead I directed the trumpeter at my side to sound full speed ahead to the officer in the tower, and the chase was on.