388 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



with difficulty, they were presently overtaken by the 

 prisoner and his escort. When the foremost of them 

 caught a sight of the Englishman's face, he started 

 and hastily turned away. Hodges sprang 011 one 

 side, stared him full in the face, and was on the 

 point of rushing upon him, when one of his guards 

 roughly seized his arm and pointed forwards. 



" Stop ! " cried the midshipman ; " I know that 

 man." 



" May he," replied the orderly, drily. " Forward ! " 



" Let me go ! " exclaimed Hodges. " It is the 

 pirate." 



" Pirate 1 " repeated the soldier, who had again 

 laid hold of his prisoner. "If you cut any more 

 such capers, I'll take you to prison in a way that 

 your bones will remember for a week to come. This 

 young man says," added he to the officers, Avho just 

 then came up, " that yonder fellow is a pirate." 



" Obey your orders," was the sole reply of the 

 general ; and again the orderly pushed his prisoner 

 onwards. 



"And you 1 ?" said the militia general, turning to 

 the foreigners " who may you be 1 " 



One of the strangers, half of whose face was bound 

 up with a black silk bandage, whilst of the other 

 half, which was covered with a large plaster, only a 

 grey eye was visible, now stepped forward, and bowed 

 with an air of easy confidence. 



" I believe I have the honour to address officers of 



