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He stepped down the companion way and in a moment the boys heard him shout excitedly back: "Somebody come here, quickly. The Fortuna's taking in water fast. It's up over the floor boards now and the engine is throwing it around in great shape. Our passenger's gone!"
I shall try to make a match between him and Fortuna's sister; he is a young man of the greatest talents." The marchioness thought my idea an excellent one, but soon after I heard that Coltellini was dead. The 'bargello' is a cordially-detested person all over Italy, if you except Modena, where the weak nobility make much of the 'bargello', and do justice to his excellent table.
Fenders had been put overboard by the Fortuna's crew in order to protect the paint on the launch. Jack was received by the captain, who met him with a smile and hearty handshake of welcome. The situation was soon explained by Jack, who won the captain's heart by his straightforward, manly appearance and by his directness of speech.
"Pirates?" gasped the three members of the Fortuna's crew. "That's what I'd call them," replied Frank. "You see, my chum and myself came down the Mississippi River in a gasoline launch. She was a beauty a thirty-footer. She had a trunk cabin over three-quarters of her, and an open cockpit aft. We had her fitted up in pretty good shape, too.
Rowdy tugged at the rope that confined him and growled savagely. Jack's face went white as he reached for the switch. He looked at the other boys in wonder. The Fortuna's engines came to a dead stop! "Pull off the hood over the engines," cried Jack to Harry who was quickly down the companion-way, "and see if the wires from the magneto are disconnected.
The time of punishment of the Fortuna's crew expired on the third, and Barthelemy, to prevent any attempt at flight, removed all the nautical instruments and all the men who had any knowledge of navigation to the Commodore. Nevertheless the Fortuna vanished one night when they were still four hundred miles from the African coast.
If any one utters a word against me, throw him into the sea," shouted Barthelemy, and in a moment the Fortuna's crew were disarmed by the Commodore's men. "You are taking a great risk," Glasby whispered to Barthelemy. "Oh, I fear neither man nor devil," replied the pirate defiantly. The ships sailed for Africa that very day.
Eagerly the boys plied the handle of the pump, keeping an eye upon the bilge. Harry went about lifting floor boards and peering here and there in an effort to discover the source of the great leak. "Ha!" he shouted from the after cabin. "Here's the trouble! Come here, you fellows, and bear a hand. Get something to plug this hole in the Fortuna's side. This is sheer murder!"
Tom was perched on top of the Fortuna's pilot house with a rifle in his hands, the muzzle pointed straight at the mate. When the coward saw that he was indeed covered by a weapon in the hands of a determined person, his grasp on his own means of offense loosened, permitting the revolver to drop to the deck.
We will plunder these ships, dig the golden sand from under the sleeping kings, and bury them in it, wrench the precious weapons from the negroes' hands and give them cheaper ones of iron in their hearts." This pleased the pirates who made up the Commodore's crew, and they responded with murmurs of approval, but the Fortuna's men remained silent, with sullen, defiant faces.
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