“That we will, sir,” was the hearty rejoinder of the men.

Frank took the tiller, and they rowed straight away from the Osprey for a hundred yards, when Frank steered towards the right bank, where there were no torches, and where all was quiet.  The brigantine could be seen plainly, standing up against the glare of the torches on the other side.  They rowed three or four hundred yards beyond her, then taking a turn approached her on the side opposite to that facing the Osprey.  Three native boats like their own were lying beside her, and there was a crowd of men on her deck.

Frank brought her round alongside of these boats.  He had already ordered that firearms were not to be used in the first place.

“I don’t want to kill any of these blacks,” he said.  “They have nothing to do with the affair, and they believe us to be pirates.  I expect that we shall get on board unnoticed.  Then with a cheer go at them with the flat of your cutlasses.  You can use the edge on the whites if they resist.  But I expect that the blacks will all jump overboard in a panic, and that then the whites, seeing that they are outnumbered, will surrender.”

No one, indeed, noticed them.  There was a great hubbub and confusion, and the captain was endeavouring to get them into something like order; when suddenly there was a loud cheer, and Frank’s party fell upon them.  Yells of terror rose as the sailors, Dominique, and his blacks sprang among them, striking heavily with the flat of their cutlasses, and the sailors using their fists freely.  Frank had brought with him a heavy belaying pin, and used it with great effect.

The blacks in the panic fell over each other, and rushing to the side jumped overboard, some into their boats, and some into the water.  The white sailors, carried away by the stampede, and separated from each other, were unable to act.  The captain, drawing a brace of pistols from his belt, fired one shot, but before he could fire another Frank hurled the iron belaying pin at him.  It struck him in the face, and he fell insensible.  The Belgian sailors, seeing themselves altogether outnumbered, and without a leader, threw down their arms.

“Tie their hands and feet,” Frank ordered, “and bundle them into one of the native boats.”

Two of these had pushed off and lay fifty yards away, and the sea was dotted with the heads of swimmers making towards them.  The Belgian sailors were placed in the other boat.

“Put their captain in, too,” Frank said.  “He will come round presently.

“Now four of you jump into our boat and cast her off.

“Captain, will you look about for the oil, and pour it over all the beds, but don’t set them on fire until I give the order.

“Now, lads, two of you run below, and get the cushions off the starboard sofa.

“Purvis, get the skylight open on the port side, and wheel the two guns round, and point them down into the cabin.  I will train them myself on the same spot just at the back of that seat.  They might come off and extinguish the fire, though I don’t think they will; but we will make sure by blowing a hole through her side under the water line.”