he quavered. “Alackaday! what can a few sakers and demiculverins do against them?”

“Against whom?” I cried.

“They are giving out pikes and cutlasses! Woe’s me, the sight of naked steel hath ever made me sick!”

I drew my dagger, and flashed it before him. “Does ‘t make you sick?” I asked. “You shall be sicker yet, if you do not speak to some purpose.”

The fellow shrank back, his eyeballs starting from his head.

“It’s a tall ship,” he gasped, “a very big ship! It hath ten culverins, beside fowlers and murderers, sabers, falcons, and bases!”

I took him by the collar and shook him off his feet.