Cuba for sugar. After a fortnight at sea we sighted San Salvador Island, belonging to the Bahama group, which island, by-the-way, was the first land that Columbus discovered on his great voyage. That afternoon we were sailing along past Crooked Island, which lies just to the southward of San Salvador, when a trim-looking schooner with very tall masts, on which were spread enormous fore-and-aft sails, stood out from under the lee of the land, and came down rapidly upon us. Knowing that we could not escape from her, the stranger openly showed his colors—the pirate's black-flag. We crowded every stitch of canvas on the poor little Saucy, but in less than an hour the pirate was so close that his shot commenced to carry away our spars and rigging.

"'Men,' said our Captain, 'there's no good in trying to escape, so let us heave to. Perhaps when he finds out that our cargo is of no value he will let us go our way.'

"Well, we shortened sail at once, and put our wheel down, waiting for the enemy to board us. Seeing that we had given up the race, the pirate kept getting in his light sails as he swept down on us, and after he had forged ahead a little he tacked ship, leaving his jib to windward, and so laid hove to. Immediately one of his boats pulled out from under the lee of the schooner, and a minute later was alongside of us.

"Preceded by a fair, handsome, lightly built man, who proved to be none other than Captain Brand, a dozen swarthy, evil-looking pirates, armed to the teeth, tumbled over the rail. Captain Smith stepped forward to address the chief, but was immediately cut down with a cutlass wielded by the latter, who haughtily remarked,

"'Excuse me, I've no time for conversation.'

"The pirate's action was a signal to his men, and before our crew could offer the slightest resistance they shared the master's fate. A wicked-looking scoundrel with an ugly scar across his cheek made a savage swing at me with his sword, but before the blow could fall the pirate's cutlass was sent flying from his grasp, and he uttered a shriek of pain and seized his arm where Brand's blow had fallen.

"'I don't make war on children,' was all that the Captain said.

"Fifteen minutes later the Saucy had been ransacked and set on fire, and sick at heart I was on board the schooner, having been given to understand that my name had been entered as a pirate's apprentice, and that I was a regular member of the crew and must obey orders.

"At once the word was passed to get the vessel under way, and I found myself trailing on to the fore-topsail halyards alongside of a sad-looking lad of about my own age, who was addressed by the men as Dick, and who, I took it rightly, had been forced to join the Dragon under similar conditions to my own.

"That night we two found ourselves in the same watch, and, after answering to roll-call, we stowed ourselves away between two of the guns and exchanged confidences. Later on we talked over various plans to gain our freedom. Dick informed me that the schooner was on her way to the pirates' stronghold, where he had been once before, on the island of Tortugas, there to divide the spoils of the voyage, and to gamble and carouse for several days before starting on another expedition.

"Two days later we reached the island in a small securely locked bay on the western side. After lowering and furling the sails, a chest about two feet square was brought out on deck, and its contents, consisting of gold and silver, money and jewels, were divided among the men by Captain Brand. After that a barrel of rum was lowered into the long boat, and the crew entered her and rowed away, leaving the Captain and we two boys the only ones on board.

"Late in the evening Captain Brand ordered Dick to row him ashore, and I was left alone. About an hour later Dick sculled the boat quietly alongside out of the darkness, climbed on board, and addressed me in an excited whisper:

"'Now's our time, Sterling; the Captain has gone up to his shore house and thinks I'm waiting for him on the beach; we will cut the cable, and the wind will set us out of the bay; they can't follow us, for I've sent their boat adrift, with the plug pulled out so that it will sink!'

"While Dick ran to the wheel I jumped forward and sawed my knife through the anchor hawser, and immediately saw the schooner's head falling off against the stars under the influence of the easterly wind. In a quarter of an hour we were outside the mouth of the harbor and drifting to the westward. We knew that we never could hoist the sails and handle the vessel to sail anywhere, and that if a gale sprang up we would probably founder; but these dangers could not rob us of great happiness, for we realized that we were free from the pirates' clutches.

"During the night we took turns at steering the schooner so as to keep her before the wind, but just before daybreak it fell a flat calm. When the sun rose Dick was the first to see a large man-of-war about a mile away on our beam, also lying becalmed. They made us out at the same time, and evidently disliking our looks they fitted out three large launches with guns in their bows, and pulled toward us. When they got within hailing distance we told our story. One of the boats then came alongside and took possession of the pirate craft. Dick and I were then sent off to the cruiser to tell our story to her Captain.

"Well, Ralph, to make a long story short, the commander of the man-of-war determined to take the pirates by surprise, if possible, so he stood off to the northeast all day to get the island under his lee, and when night fell he crowded on sail and ran for the place that we had escaped from twenty-four hours before. We made the entrance to the harbor about midnight, and while the man-of-war remained hove to, all the boats were fitted out and sent in to the bay.

"About an hour later we heard the sound of distant firing, and toward morning the boats returned with all the officers and men safe and sound, who stated that they had found the pirates stupefied with drink, and had made short work of the gang. Captain Brand, however, had not been seen, and it was supposed that he had escaped to the interior of the island.

"Now, Ralph, you have the history of your grandfather at the time he was a pirate and sailed under the black-flag with Captain Brand, the notorious robber chief."

CORPORAL FRED.[1]

A Story of the Riots.

BY CAPTAIN CHARLES KING, U.S.A.

CHAPTER IV.

Four miles away, in the heart of the great city, a throng of men and women and children surrounded the massive stone walls, and peered up at the narrow windows of a formidable-looking building, from whose lofty flag-staff the Stars and Stripes were fluttering in the fresh lake breeze—a crowd even denser than that we saw in the distant dusty yards. Here, too, among them were faces grave with anxiety. Here, too, among the women were eyes red with tears; but here all was silence and order. Suddenly from within the huge brown walls there rose the shrill summons of the bugle, sounding in quick, spirited call the well-known "assembly," and in company rooms, crowded to suffocation by wives, mothers, sisters, sweethearts, and friends of the guardsmen, the men of the —th regiment fell in for roll-call. Almost at the same moment, in other sections of the city, the same signal called two other commands to their ranks. The State was waking up at last, but waking up in earnest.

Down in the paved court below the chargers of the field and staff officers were awaiting their riders, every swish of their tails slashing the faces of boys and men wedged in an almost solid mass about them. Orders had