“Now I think we can go,” the captain said, and ordered the whole of the oars to be manned.

They were speedily got out, and the Bonito made her way out through the mouth of the harbour.  The pirates, in their lighter boats, rowed round and round her, shooting clouds of arrows, but not venturing to come to close quarters, after the fate which had befallen the four largest vessels of their fleet.

As soon as they were clear of the islet the sails were hoisted.  The wind had fallen much during the night, and had worked round to the east, and under sails and oars the Bonito left the island, none of the pirates venturing to follow in pursuit.  The oars were soon laid in, and the men, with mallets and chisels, set to work to caulk the seams through which the water was making its way.  The casualties were now inquired into, and it was found that six men had been shot dead, and that nine-and-twenty had received wounds more or less severe from the arrows of the pirates.

Francis had been twice wounded while superintending the placing of the bales.  One arrow had gone through his right leg, another had struck him in the side and glanced off a rib.

“This won’t do, Messer Francisco,” the captain said as he assisted Giuseppi to bandage the wounds.  “Signor Polani placed you on board to learn something of seamanship and commerce, not to make yourself a target for the arrows of pirates.  However, we have to thank you for the saving of the Bonito, for assuredly she would have been stove in, had not the happy thought of hanging those bales overboard struck you.  It would be of no use against war galleys, whose beaks are often below the waterline, but against craft like these pirates it acts splendidly, and there is no doubt that you saved the ship from destruction, and us from death, for after the burning of the two first vessels that attacked us, you may be sure they would have shown but little mercy.  I can’t think how you came to think of it.”

“Why, I have read in books, captain, of defenders of walls hanging over trusses of straw, to break the blows of battering rams and machines of the besiegers.  Directly you said they were going to ram us it struck me we might do the same, and then I thought that bales of cloth, similar to those you got up on deck to trade with the islanders would be just the thing.”

“It was a close shave,” the captain said.  “I was leaning over, and saw the whole side of the ship bend beneath the blow, and expected to hear the ribs crack beneath me.  Fortunately the Bonito was stronger built than her assailants, and their bows crumpled in before her side gave; but my heart was in my mouth for a time, I can tell you.”

“So was mine, captain.  I hardly felt these two arrows strike me.  They must have been shot from one of the other boats.  Then I could not help laughing to see the way in which the men at the oars tumbled backwards at the moment when their vessel struck us.  It was as if an invisible giant had swept them all off their seats together.”