"I was thinking of that, sir. Now, as she sees we can sail circles around her with a good breeze, she won't hold the same course, and can give us a mighty slip during the night. We're almost in----" he hesitated, and again ventured: "We're almost in close enough to send a shot across her bows, sir, if you wish to bring her about!" Tommy, overhearing, let out a yell of joy. The old skipper's suggestion electrified us all, particularly myself, for it promised that he would see this affair through at any and all costs--and I had been apprehensive regarding the attitude of Gates, lest his love for me, or for the _Whim_, cause him to balk short of the danger line. So, hastily imploring Monsieur to hug him again, I dashed below for one of the rifles. This arm was a neat high-power sporting model, but I thought it might persuade our kidnaper to look around. Coming up, however, I found that another plan had been adopted. Gates and Tommy were busily unlacing the canvas cover from our brass cannon. While it was only used for signaling, it could make a stunning racket. Bilkins was holding a box of blank shells, each containing somewhere near twenty drams of black powder. As I approached, Tommy was excitedly arguing with Gates who, this time, seemed to demur. "It's not of the _Orchid_ I'm thinking, sir," he turned appealingly to me, "but ourselves! Miss Nancy--as Mr. Thomas calls this young howitzer, here,--won't stand much fooling. She warn't built for it, and if we go pressing her too hard she'll bust a stay--which is the same, sir, as sending harf of us to the sick-bay!" "What I want to do," Tommy explained, "is load her up with sinkers and truck like that, and touch her off right! Just a blank won't tell those devils anything, but if we pepper 'em with a hat full of old junk they'll haul-to in a jiffy!" "Surest thing in the world," I cried. "Suppose she does bust a stay, Gates! We can huddle in the cockpit and fire her with a long lanyard--then let her bust!" "That's easy, sir," he still remonstrated, "but suppose Miss Sylvia's looking out a porthole and stops one of the sinkers!" The thought of it made me shiver. Tommy, however, his enthusiasm undampened, acquiesced at once, saying: "Righto, Gates! Blank it is! Cartridge, Bilkins! I'm ready--say when!" "Wait! Let's get a bit closer, sir," Gates urged. Several minutes passed. We were only four hundred yards from the _Orchid_ now and cutting down the space. She stood off our starboard quarter and, although a great deal more obscure in the gathering dusk, her cabin lights came on changing the portholes to a line of golden disks. Then another solitary light appeared, being carried aft by a sailor who fastened it to the taffrail. It was the stern lantern being swung out for the night, and I could not help smiling at this delightful display of audacity, deliberately to put up that tell-tale beacon, right in our faces, as it were.