The game of bull was forthwith abandoned, as being of much less interest than the advent of two strange ships on the scene--for, singularly enough, these were the first craft that they had sighted since leaving the African coast--and everybody at once made a dash below for his or her own especial pair of binoculars.

The two strange craft were coming along at a great rate, and rising above the horizon very quickly; thus, by the time that Mildmay returned to the deck with his gla.s.ses in his hand, the leading ship was almost straight ahead, and had risen sufficiently to show her chart-house above the horizon, and to enable "the skipper" to see that she carried a wheel-house on top of the fore end of it, and a short awning abaft the wheel-house.

"Yes," he muttered to himself, "she is a liner, undoubtedly; and an X.

and Z. boat at that, unless I am greatly mistaken. Two masts--the mainmast stepped a long way aft; and two funnels amidships, pretty close together--yes; she is an X. and Z.; I'll bet my hat on that. And she is steaming for all she is worth. I can see the 'white feather' blowing away from the top of her waste-pipes. Now, is she racing with that other chap; or--is she running away from him?"

He turned his binoculars upon the sternmost ship, which was also coming along at a great rate, and gradually lifting above the horizon. About half the length of her masts--two of them--was now showing; and as Mildmay focussed his lenses upon them an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of astonishment escaped his lips.

"A man-o'-war, by the Lord Harry!" he exclaimed. "Yes; there are her upper signal-yards, and her fighting-tops below them, clear enough. By the piper, this is growing interesting indeed. Now, who and what is she? and why is she chasing a British liner?--for she _is_ chasing her, beyond a doubt!"

"Well, Mildmay, what do you make of them?" inquired Sir Reginald, as he at this moment stepped out on deck.

"I make of it," answered Mildmay, "that the leading ship is an X. and Z.

liner steaming for all she is worth; and that the second ship is a man-o'-war--a second-cla.s.s cruiser, I should say--chasing her!"

"The d.i.c.kens you do!" returned Sir Reginald. "Then what does it mean?

Is it not something rather unusual?"

"It is so extremely unusual, that I am going to ask your permission to haul up a point or two, presently, that we may investigate the matter,"

answered Mildmay. "There is only one possible explanation of it; and that is that war has quite suddenly broken out between England and some other Power. And yet that can scarcely be, either; for when we left home everything was quite quiet; the political horizon was as clear as it ever is, and--dashed if I can understand it. But anyhow, Elphinstone, I suppose we are not going to jog quietly along and see a British ship bullied by a foreigner without having a word or two to say about it, are we?"

"Not much!" answered Sir Reginald, emphatically, and with a flash of the eye that delighted Mildmay. "I know nothing of these matters," he continued, "or how to proceed; but you do; so take charge, old chap, and give us your orders. We will obey them to the letter, I promise you."

"A thousand thanks," answered Mildmay. "Of course I need not tell you that to interfere in a case of this kind, with no knowledge of the facts, is a somewhat ticklish business. But, all the same, that is not going to stop me. I see, yonder, a British ship flying from a stranger; and with your kind permission I am going to lend her a hand."

He raised his gla.s.ses to his eyes again. The hull of the leading ship had by this time almost topped the horizon, and it was now possible to see something of her shape. She was a fairly big craft, measuring, according to Mildmay's estimate, about eight thousand tons; and her whole shape and appearance confirmed him in his original conviction that she was one of the X. and Z. Company's boats. She flew no flag at her masthead, it is true; but Mildmay could now see that she had hoisted a blue ensign on her ensign staff.

"Under the command of a R.N.R. man," he commented, as he saw this. "All right, old man; there is a friend within a few miles of you, whose proximity you probably don't suspect; and we will see that you don't come to any harm. Now let us have a look at t'other chap."

The second craft was still hull-down; but her masts, funnels, tops of her ventilators, and the head of her ensign staff were all visible; and Mildmay noticed that she was showing no colours. This fact rendered the whole affair more puzzling than ever; for there could be no possible doubt that she was chasing the liner, and for a man-o'-war openly and undisguisedly to chase another ship, and not show her colours, was unprecedented, and most certainly not in accordance with any recognised rule of warfare.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party had come on deck, and were all intently watching the two ships through their binoculars as they animatedly discussed the puzzling situation.

"When do you intend to haul up, 'skipper'?" asked Sir Reginald.

"Not yet," answered Mildmay. "Perhaps in about ten minutes' time-- unless anything occurs of a character that would make it desirable to do so earlier. I want to see a little more of the game first."

"Then there you have it!" exclaimed Lethbridge, as a flash, followed by a puff of brilliant white smoke, issued from the bows of the pursuing ship.

A jet of foam leaped up from the surface of the sea, about half a mile astern of the liner, and dissolved like steam in the dazzling sunshine.

Then the boom of the gun came floating down to the ears of the watchers.

"A four-inch, by the sound of it," remarked Mildmay. "And shotted, too.

Clearly, the fellow is in earnest, whoever he may be. Now, what the d.i.c.kens is the explanation of this enigma? And what is the nationality of the craft?"

"Can't you tell by the build of her?" demanded Lethbridge. "I have always understood that you sailors had but to look at a ship to tell her nationality at once; at least that is the impression that one gathers from the general run of sea novels."

"Yes," answered Mildmay. "But that refers to the old days of wooden ships. There was a distinctiveness in the model of the wooden ship that was an almost infallible index to her nationality. But nowadays ships-- and particularly war-ships--are built so much alike in shape that, except in a few rather extreme cases, it is practically impossible to identify them. That fellow, yonder, for instance, might be British, Dutch, German, Austrian, Italian, or j.a.panese, for all that one can tell by merely looking at him. Ah, there goes another gun!"

The shot this time struck somewhat nearer, throwing up three successive jets of water, the last of which appeared to be unpleasantly close to the stern of the chase.

"The fellow is overhauling her," exclaimed Mildmay. "Now, Elphinstone, with your permission, I will shift our helm and alter our course forty-five degrees to the nor'ard."

And, so saying, he entered the pilot-house; and a moment later the watchers saw the two distant craft swing back along the horizon until the leading ship bore two points on the _Flying Fish's_ starboard bow.

"If you have no objection, Sir Reginald, I should like a torpedo-sh.e.l.l put into our bow tube," observed Mildmay, as he emerged from the pilot-house.

"Certainly," answered Sir Reginald; "I will go below and put one in at once."

"Better let me do it," interposed the professor. "I know more about the working of them than you do; and, moreover, I am not so profoundly interested in this affair as you all seem to be. Besides, I shall not be gone longer than five minutes at the utmost."

And, Sir Reginald offering no objection, the worthy man turned away and vanished through the pilot-house door.

The leading ship was by this time within about five miles of the _Flying Fish_, and steering a course that would take her square across the bows of the latter; the two--or, indeed, the three--ships were therefore nearing each other fast, and the men fell to debating the question whether or not the _Flying Fish_ had yet been seen by either of the strangers. The craft was in her usual surface-running trim; that is to say, considerably more than half of her polished hull was submerged, leaving little to be seen except her small superstructure and her pilot-house, both of which were painted a delicate blue-grey colour that would be scarcely visible against the horizon astern. The chances, therefore, were strongly in favour of her invisibility. On the other hand, there was just a possibility that some keen eye aboard the liner, anxiously scanning the horizon in quest of help, might have sighted her; in which case a glimpse of the white ensign might be comforting.

Mildmay therefore went to the flag-locker and drew forth the white ensign which, in virtue of his being a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, Sir Reginald was ent.i.tled to fly, and ran it up to the truck of the ensign staff.

Whether it had been seen or not was difficult to say, for nothing in particular followed upon its exhibition, unless the discharge of another gun from the pursuing ship might be taken as a reply. And this time the shot went home to its mark; for as the observers turned their gla.s.ses upon the chase, her mainmast was seen to totter and fall by the board, cut short off by the deck. Luckily the spar did not go over the side, but lay, fore-and-aft, inboard; otherwise the rigging might have fouled the propeller and brought the ship to a standstill. As it was, she continued her flight as though nothing had happened.

"This matter has gone quite far enough," exclaimed Mildmay, sharply, as he saw the liner's mast fall. "Come inside, all of you, if you please.

We may be under fire in another minute or two. Perhaps the ladies had better go below until this affair is settled--if you will be so kind,"

he added, with a bow to Lady Olivia as she pa.s.sed in through the pilot-house door, outside which he was standing.

When all the rest had entered, he followed, closing the door behind him, and at once ascended to the working chamber of the pilot-house, whither Sir Reginald and Lethbridge had preceded him. His first act was to increase the speed of the _Flying Fish_ to thirty knots; and as he moved the lever forward, admitting a larger flow of vapour to the engine-cylinders, Lethbridge, who was standing at one of the windows, with his binoculars to his eyes, turned and said--

"What do you think of that, Mildmay?"

"What do I think of what?" retorted Mildmay, stepping to his side.

"That!" answered Lethbridge, pointing to the pursuing ship and handing over his gla.s.ses for the other to use. "The unknown has just hoisted to her masthead a black flag with a white skull and cross-bones in its centre. Is not that--?"

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mildmay. "You surely do not mean it. Let me have a look."

He raised the gla.s.ses to his eyes for a moment and stared through them as though he felt that he could scarcely credit the evidence of his own senses. Then, as he thrust the gla.s.ses back into his friend's hand, he exclaimed--

"The 'Jolly Roger,' as I am a living sinner! Well, that 'takes the cake,' and no mistake! Yes; the fellow is undoubtedly a genuine, up-to-date, twentieth-century pirate. If it had not been for that last shot I might have been inclined to believe the whole affair an elaborate joke in the very worst taste; but a man does not shoot another fellow's mast away as a joke. No; that chap means business--and so do _I_! Ah, another shot! and--yes, here it comes--he is firing at us! Not at all badly aimed, either."

As he spoke the loud rushing sound of the shot broke upon their ears; and a moment later it struck the sea about three yards astern of the _Flying Fish_, sending a column of white, steam-like foam and spray shooting some twenty feet into the air. Almost instantly another shot followed, which, judging from the sound, must have pa.s.sed close over the pilot-house roof; to be followed, a few seconds later, by a third, which struck the water within a fathom of the ship's sharp nose, which was just level with the water's surface, and, owing to the speed of the ship, was sending up a fine, perpendicular jet of gla.s.sy water some ten feet high.

"Confound the fellow's impudence!" exclaimed Sir Reginald. "Does the rascal think that he is going to make a prize of _us_? A fine rich prize we should make, too, did he but know it!"

"It is not that," explained Mildmay. "It is the white ensign that he doesn't like the look of. He probably takes us for some new-fangled sort of British gun-boat, bent upon interfering with his little game; and he wants to disable us. He is one of those pestilently persistent fellows who won't take a hint and sheer off; he is as full of obstinacy as was the mammoth that chased me over yonder,"--with a jerk of his thumb toward the north--"on our first trip, and must be treated as we treated that mammoth. For if we don't kill him, he will kill us--if he can. You see? Here comes another shot!"

It was a very close shave that time, the missile pa.s.sing so close athwart the front of the pilot-house that its wind actually came, in a sudden, violent gust, in through the pilot-house window.

"We must put a stop to this at once, or the fellow will do us a mischief," exclaimed Mildmay. "Kindly take the helm for a moment, Sir Reginald, if you please."

Sir Reginald at once stepped to the tiller and laid his hand on it.

"Where am I to steer for?" he asked.