“Hurrah for old Killick! hurrah for England’s sailors!” cried the midshipmen, as wildly excited as Colin himself; and Corinne pressed her hands together, and looked from one to the other, crying: 

“Oh tell me! what did he do?”

“I’ll tell you!” cried Colin.  “You have heard them speak of the Traverse, and what a difficult place it is to navigate?”

“Yes:  Monsieur de Montcalm was saying that no vessel ever ventured up or down without a pilot; but he said that a rumour had reached him that some pilots had been taken prisoners, and that the English ships would get up with their help.”

“With or without!” cried Peter, tossing his cap into the air.  “As though English sailors could not move without Frenchmen to help them!”

“Some of them took pilots aboard; indeed they were sent to them, and had no choice.  But I must not get confused, and confuse you, Corinne.  I’ll just tell you what we did ourselves.

“We heard a great talk going on on board one of the transport boats called the Goodwill, which was almost in the van of the fleet, I suppose because the old sailing master, Killick, was so good a seaman; and so they had sent a pilot out to her, and he was jabbering away at a great rate—­”

“Just like all the Frenchies!” cut in Paul; “calling out that he would never have acted pilot to an English ship except under compulsion, and declaring that it was a dismal tale the survivors would take to their own country—­that Canada should be the grave of the whole army, and the St. Lawrence should bury beneath its waves nine-tenths of the British ships, and that the walls of Quebec should be lined with English scalps!”

“The wretch!” cried Corinne.  “I wonder the sailors did not throw him overboard to find his own grave!”

“I verily believe they would have done so, had it not been for strict orders from the Admiral that the pilots were to be well treated,” answered Arthur.  “Our English Admirals and officers are all like that:  they will never have any advantage taken of helpless prisoners.”

“I know, I know!” answered Corinne quickly; “that is where they teach the French such a lesson.  But go on—­tell me more.  What about old Killick? and where were you all the while?”

“Holding on to the side of the transport, where we could see and hear everything, and telling the sailors who were near about Quebec and what was going on there.  But soon we were too much interested in what was going on aboard to think of anything else.

“Old Killick roared out after a bit, ’Has that confounded French pilot done bragging yet?’ And when somebody said he was ready to show them the passage of the Traverse, he bawled out: 

“’What! d’ye think I’m going to take orders from a dog of a Frenchman, and aboard my own vessel, too?  Get you to the helm, Jim, and mind you take no orders from anybody but me.  If that Frenchman tries to speak, just rap him on the head with a rope’s end to keep him quiet!’