WHEN Long Jim said the shooting of the cannon would alarm the whole town he told but the truth. It did more than that however, for it warned King Tommy and Mr. Poodle that it was the lake and not the castle to which their company must ride, thus saving them much valuable time. What a clatter the horses did make galloping through the town; out of one street and into another they went, all the while willingly straining in every muscle to attain the utmost speed of which they were capable, seemingly realizing the great anxiety of their riders. King Tommy rode at the head of the column, his sword in his fist, his head thrown back and his hair blowing in the {108} breeze, while he shouted words of encouragement to his followers, bidding them keep stout hearts and strong arms for the defence of the city, and the rescue of their Queen.

When presently the little company came to the lake, the good horses bore them almost into the water before their mad gallop could be checked; and then only by pulling the fiery steeds back on their haunches were the brave riders saved from getting a good ducking.

It was the work of only a moment to dismount. What to do next the King did not quite know, for already those on the pirate craft were casting off their grappling irons, and as soon as the Black Rover could get free from the Royal Yacht, with a piping breeze filling her sails she would soon reach the mouth of the river, when all hope of capture would be lost. Being such a cunningly built craft, and drawing so little water, under the skilful handling of the Buccaneers, the tortuous bends of the river would be navigated through shallow and twisting channels where no other ship could follow.

“If we only had a gunboat,” said the King, “I could go into the conning tower and direct the shots, so as to rake that pirate ship fore and aft, and in about a minute sink her.”

“Yes, that would no doubt be the right thing to do,” said Mr. Poodle, “provided there are no captives aboard. But—”

“Do you think they have captured Queen Helen?” said Tommy, never once realizing how he had interrupted the words of Mr. Poodle. “See! There are ladies in the Royal Yacht waving to us. Every man to the rescue!”

Row boats were now quickly boarded, and with stout men tug­ging most man­ful­ly at the oars, were made to skip over the wa­ter at no slow rate, and so reached the Royal {109} Yacht before the Black Rover had sailed over half the dis­tance to the river. It could now be seen with one glance that the Queen had been cap­tured, and even this was not required, as the ladies were excitedly cal­ling the news the moment the boats came within hail­ing distance.

King Tommy and Mr. Poodle were the first to reach the abandoned yacht, and without waiting for the others, they sprang quickly to the sail and the helm, and soon had the boat headed for the river and chasing the pirates’ craft.

The Royal Yacht was a good sailer, and under some con­di­tions might have over­hauled the Black Rover. But now, King Tommy saw such a task to be hopeless and that the Buccaneers would enter the river before there was any chance of their being overtaken. The only hope lay in a shot from the yacht cannon, and as this meant danger to {110} the Queen, it was no sooner thought of than abandoned. Meanwhile the Black Rover had reached the mouth of the river, and Big Bill, in glee at his successful capture of the Queen and no less successful escape from the King, trained his brass cannon on the fast approaching yacht and fired a parting shot. Buccaneers are usually fine shots, but from a careless aim, due probably to excitement, the cannon ball went wide, never coming within yards of doing any harm. This it did do, however: it showed to the King the danger of continuing the pursuit, especially when fear of hitting the Queen made it unwise to return the fire.

By this time the Black Rover had reached the first bend in the river. Once past that there would be no hope of rescuing the Queen. The Buccaneers were again training their cannon on the approaching yacht, this time with a more determined aim, and Tommy, as he stood manfully at the helm, felt for the first time that he had been beaten, and for the safety of the ladies aboard the yacht he should keep out of range of the next shot. Quickly throwing over the helm, he allowed the yacht to head up into the teeth of the wind, and gave up the chase. Hardly had the yacht changed her course before there was a flash and a boom from the deck of the Black Rover, and a big shot plowed through the water only a few feet astern, drenching King Tommy with a sheet of spray. But for this quick maneuver, the Royal Yacht would un­doubt­ed­ly have been hit be­low the water line and sunk.

When the Buccaneers now saw that the chase had been abandoned they waved their hats and shouted in wildest glee, and the next minute, reaching the bend in the river, were lost to sight behind the overhanging trees.