Suddenly he rose to his feet.
"Have you heard of pirates, Colorado ?" he asked, abruptly.
John nodded, wondering.
"Of Malay pirates ?" the Skipper continued, with animation.

"They are wild fellows, those! They come, they see a person, they carry him off, to keep at their fancy, till a ransom is paid, or till he grow old and die, or till they kill him the next day, who knows?
But not all are bad fellows, and there are some of them who are kind to captives, who take them on board their ships, play with them, show to them strange things, shells and fish and corals, all things.

Have you ever played at pirate, Colorado ?" "Yes, sometimes," the boy admitted, wondering still more at the brightness in his friend's look, and his air of sudden determination.
"I never played Malay, only Portugee; I thought they weren't so cruel, but I don't know.

I had a ship down by the wharf, and I made a good many pirate voyages round the wharf, and sometimes quite a piece down river, when I could get the time.

But then, after a while, I thought it was nicer to be a rescuing ship, and get folks away from the pirates, you know, so I've done that lately, and I've rescued as many as twenty vessels, I should think." "That was fine!" said the Skipper, nodding sagely.