A group of pirates was
gathered at the rail, staring at the rowboat through their glasses.
There was no mistake about these fellows being pirates--that was easy
enough to see from their queer bright-colored clothes and the number
of weapons they carried, even if the ugly black flag had not been
floating over their heads. At the bow stood he who was evidently the
Pirate Chief. He was dressed in some kind of tight gray and white
striped suit with a red sash tied round his waist stuck full of
shiny-barreled pistols and long bright-bladed knives. A red turban
decorated his head and under it his brows met in the fiercest kind of
frown. His arms were folded on his breast. As Rudolf looked at this
fellow, he began to have the queerest feeling that somewhere--
somehow--under very different conditions--he had seen the Pirate
Chief before!
Just at that instant he heard the sound of a struggle behind him, and
turning round he saw that Peter had become terribly excited. "Mittens!
Mittens!" he screamed, and breaking loose from Ann's hold, he stood up
and leaned so far over the side of the boat that he lost his balance
and fell into the water. Ann screamed, the False Hare--I am ashamed to
say--merely yawned and kept his paws in his pockets. Rudolf had kicked
off his shoes and was ready to jump in after Peter, when he saw that
quick as a flash, on an order from their Chief, the pirates had
lowered a long rope with something bobbing at the end of it.
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