"It hath been done scores of times," replied

Simon Mainsail.

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Nay, I have more than once

given a helping hand in the business. Many of their tall masts have I sent by the board, and I have made such havoc upon their decks as would have been pitiful to look upon, had they been any thing but the monstrous villains they be. Then comes the boarding; and I promise you I never lagged astern at that. I tell you, Harry, 'tis a wonderful fine thing to have sight of these galleons of theirs, every one with their three decks, sailing along as proudly as if they were the castles of some prince or another, that would not consort with vessels of meaner quality; but presently we in our craft, that seemed unto them like cockleshells to a Gallego boat, gave chace, and accosted them more familiarly than pleased their mightinesses. At them we went with every gun as could be brought to bear, sweeping them into the sea after such a sort as they knew not what to make of; and then, if perchance they allowed us to get upon their decks before they struck, up we came clambering like so many cats, caring no more for their fire than if they had nought but popguns; and then there was such cutting and slashing and pistolling; driving of them here and slaughtering of them there; now on the upper deck and now on the lower; pinning them to the bulwarks with our pikes, or sending of them headlong down the hatch

way with our pieces, till we had got the ship in our possession, and the captain had sung out for quarter."

"What would I have given to have had a share in such glorious doings !" exclaimed Harry in huge delight. "Indeed, methinks there can be nothing like the killing of Spaniards. By Gog and Magog! I am in a monstrous impatience to be at them; and if I kill not a score or two at least before any long time is past, I shall grow exceeding dull at heart."

"But you have not heard all, messmate," said the old mariner, looking well pleased at the boy's eagerness. "Having secured our prisoners, we had next to look after the cargo; and there we would find such a prize! The commonest things were solid cakes of silver piled in heaps, and ingots of the most precious gold in the like abundancy; and, in overhauling of them, mayhap we would light upon bags of costly pearls, and all manner of rare stones, each one a fortune of itself. And then every man of us was so wealthy when we returned to port, that it was the difficultest thing as could be to find out what course to go upon so that we might spend it all."

"I'faith! if I were so rich I'd soon get me a ship of my own," observed his young companion. "O' my life, Simon! there be nothing I have so much desire of as to be the captain of a goodly ship

like this; or, failing in that, that my true friend Master Francis should be captain, and I next him, that we might, with a plenty of brave fellows and lots of muskets and swords, great guns and the like, go after these same galleons, and when we have peppered them famously, and slashed the Spaniards after so excellent a fashion as you have said, enrich ourselves with their gold and silver." "Perchance that shall come to pass in good time," replied the gunner. "Under so noble a commander as is Sir Walter Raleigh, if you stand to your gun like a true man, you shall fail not in the getting of proper advancement.”

“ Nay, if I turn tail I would like to be pistolled on the instant!" cried Harry Saring earnestly. "I promise you I am none of suh sort, whereof you shall have good evidence on a f..ing occasion."

"I doubt it not, Harry-I doubt it not," exclaimed Simon Mainsail. "You bear up bravely; and to my thinking, would carry all the sail you could after an enemy-never asking of what force she may be. Though you be of small tonnage, I've seen many a bigger vessel I have had less hope of. Let your gun want nothing but the firing, and if your enemy spring her loof, let her not slip away for want of proper speed in the chase."

"If she slip away when I once have hold of her, I will give her leave," answered Harry Daring.

"But what more of these Spaniards? Methinks I could listen all day to hear of them."

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Why, they be so preposterous greedy,” replied the old mariner, "that they will allow of no ship of any other country trading in that part of the world in the which they have gained such store of riches and if they but catch any sufficiently weak for them to overpower, they will presently set a torturing of them with such cruelties as be horrible to think of."

66

:

Hang them, the villains! How I do wish to be at them!" cried the boy, seemingly in a very moving indignation.

"And to such mariners as be of England, they be dreadful inveterate against, because of their being heretics, as they call us," continued the gunner. "And nothing seemeth so pleasing to such abominable papists, as the doing of us all manner of treachery and deadly hurt. 'Slife! it was only last year, when Sir Walter sent Captain Whiddon on a voyage to the Orinoco to see how things looked for this expedition, there was a certain governor of these villain Spaniards, named De Berrio, in the Island of Trinidad, who with a great cunning and cruelty, got hold of eight of the captain's men, whom he used after an infamous fashion, and would have given Captain Whiddon no better treatment had he succeeded in making him his prisoner."

"'Tis to be hoped he will now be well paid for it," remarked Harry Daring.

"Our commander be not of that sort to pass over such a thing," replied Simon Mainsail. doubt not Sir Walter will cut off his head."

"Hath he ever a son or two?" enquired the boy earnestly.

"Indeed I know not," answered the other.

"If he have, and they be but big enough, by Gog and Magog! I will cut off their heads too, if I meet with them!" exclaimed his young companion resolutely.

"'Tis like enough we shall have fighting and plenty of it," said Simon Mainsail. "For these caitiff's will, on no account, let us make way in Guiana, if they can help themselves, because of the exceeding richness of the country; and they will bear down upon us with all their force in hopes of driving us back into the sea; but our commander careth for them no more than do I for a maggot in a mouldy biscuit, and, I doubt not, we shall have such sacking and burning as will be a delight to see."

"It

""Twill be exquisite fine fun," ied Harry Daring, overjoyed at the very thouo. be a thousand pities we shall be so

be. 9 we

r

get to them; for, in truth, I do long no g

so much as the killing of a Spaniard."