“I’m allowin’ we lads have considerable to learn about war, an’ perhaps we shall yet have all the chance we want of bein’ shot at. Yesterday mornin’ it seemed certain to me that a battle was comin’ off within an hour or two, an’ up to this time, except for a couple of skirmishes, nothin’ has been done. Our turn will come later.” “Yes, when there’s no opportunity to win any honor,” I said bitterly, and then threw myself down in the bunk refusing to speak another word. Half an hour later, perhaps, Abraham and Sam followed my example, and, seeing that we had composed ourselves for sleep, Abel Grant and Seth went on deck, there to keep what I believed to be a useless watch. Because of the dissatisfaction in my mind concerning the release of the Tories and our being made to play so poor a part when we should have been in the field as soldiers, slumber did not come readily to my eyelids, and it must have been well to midnight before I finally lost myself in Dreamland, only to be aroused a moment later, as it seemed to me, by a noise as if of a terrible struggle on deck, wherein men were striving for the mastery, or for life. CHAPTER XI. THE ATTACK. The noise of the conflict on deck, for conflict it surely was, had aroused Abraham at about the same moment I was brought to a realization that there was trouble afoot, and he stood staring stupidly around, not having shaken off the unconsciousness of slumber when I ran against him in my haste. “What is it?” Sam asked, suddenly rising in his bunk, and I replied while grouping around in the darkness for something which would serve as a weapon: “There’s trouble on deck, an’ no time to be lost here talkin’ about it.” The first object with which my hand came in contact was the unloaded musket that had been laid on top of the stores so it might not come to harm, and with this held by the muzzle, in order to use it as a club, I ran out of the cuddy, finding it difficult for an instant to understand what was going on. It seemed to me as if the deck and cockpit of the sloop were thronged with people, all of whom appeared to be fighting desperately, and, at the same time, as nearly in silence as was possible. I could distinguish no face; make out no familiar form for several seconds, and as I stood there with the musket half-upraised, Sam pushed past me into the very thick of the gathering. Quicker witted than I, the lad had understood in an instant what should be done, and went as if led by instinct to the spot where he was most needed. I saw him pick up from the deck as he ran what appeared to be a capstan-bar belonging to some large vessel, and swinging this about his head even as I stood there gazing about stupidly, he brought it down upon the skull of a fellow who, with a naked knife between his teeth, was at that instant coming over the rail to add to the press of numbers which had already seemingly taken possession of our vessel.