But this was not to be the case.  Nearer and nearer came the pirate craft until at last the children could see, painted in black letters on her side, her name, The Merry Mouser.  A group of pirates was gathered at the rail, staring at the rowboat through their glasses.  There was no mistake about these fellows being pirates—­that was easy enough to see from their queer bright-colored clothes and the number of weapons they carried, even if the ugly black flag had not been floating over their heads.  At the bow stood he who was evidently the Pirate Chief.  He was dressed in some kind of tight gray and white striped suit with a red sash tied round his waist stuck full of shiny-barreled pistols and long bright-bladed knives.  A red turban decorated his head and under it his brows met in the fiercest kind of frown.  His arms were folded on his breast.  As Rudolf looked at this fellow, he began to have the queerest feeling that somewhere—­ somehow—­under very different conditions—­he had seen the Pirate Chief before!

Just at that instant he heard the sound of a struggle behind him, and turning round he saw that Peter had become terribly excited.  “Mittens!  Mittens!” he screamed, and breaking loose from Ann’s hold, he stood up and leaned so far over the side of the boat that he lost his balance and fell into the water.  Ann screamed, the False Hare—­I am ashamed to say—­merely yawned and kept his paws in his pockets.  Rudolf had kicked off his shoes and was ready to jump in after Peter, when he saw that quick as a flash, on an order from their Chief, the pirates had lowered a long rope with something bobbing at the end of it.  Peter when he came to the surface, seized this rope and was rapidly hauled on board the pirate ship.

Ann came near falling overboard herself in her excitement.  “Oh, Ruddy, Ruddy!” she begged, “let’s surrender right away quick.  We can’t leave poor darling Peter to be carried off by those terrible cats.”

“Cats?” said Rudolf, staring stupidly at the pirates.  “Why so they are cats, Ann!  Somehow I hadn’t noticed that before.  But, look, they are sending a boat to us now.”

In a small boat which had been towed behind the catboat, a couple of pirates—­big, rough-looking fellows—­were sculling rapidly toward the children.  Cats indeed they were, but such cats as Ann and Rudolf had never seen before, so big and black and bold were they, their teeth so sharp and white, their eyes so round and yellow!  One had a red sash and one a green, and each carried knives and pistols enough to set up a shop.

“Surrender!” they cried in a businesslike kind of way as they laid hold of the bow of the rowboat, “or have your throats cut—­just as you like, you know.”

Of course the children didn’t like, and then, as Ann said, they had to remember Peter.  Much against his will, Rudolf was now forced to surrender his beloved sword.  The False Hare handed over all his belongings—­his jewelry, his suit case, and his little umbrella—­without the slightest hesitation, humming a tune as he did so, but his voice cracked, and Ann and Rudolf noticed that the tip of his nose had turned quite pale.  The prisoners were quickly transferred to the other boat, and the pirate with the green sash took the oars.  Just as all was ready for the start the cat in red cried: