e, as the captain of each gun brought his piece to bear, was
poured into the schooner from the guns on the port side. As the
privateer heeled over, her deck could be plainly seen, and the shot of
the Indiaman, all directed at one point, tore up a hole around the
foot of the mainmast. In an instant the spar tottered and, with a
crash, fell alongside. At the same moment, three of the passengers
took a steady aim over the bulwark at the helmsman of the other
privateer and, simultaneously with the reports of their pieces, the
man was seen to fall. Another sprang forward to take his place, but
again the rifles spoke out, and he fell beside his comrade.

Freed from the strain which had counteracted the pressure of her
mainsail, the schooner flew up into the wind. The Indiaman held on her
course for another length, and then her helm was put up, and she swept
down across the bows of the privateer. Then the men leaped to their
feet, the soldiers lined the bulwarks, and as she passed along a few
yards only distant from her foe, each gun poured a storm of grape
along her crowded deck, while the troops and passengers kept up a
continuous fire of musketry.

"That will do," the captain said, quietly. "Now we may keep her on her
course. They have had more than enough of it."

There was no doubt of that, for the effect of the iron storm had been
terrible, and the decks of the schooner were strewn with dead and
dying. For a time after the merchantman had borne upon her course, the
sails of the schooner flapped wildly in the wind, and then the
foremast went suddenly over the side.

"I should think you could take them both, Captain Thompson," one of
the passengers said.

"They are as good as taken," the captain answered, "and would be
forced to haul down their flags, if I were to wear round and continue
the fight. But they would be worse than useless to me. I should not
know what to do with their crews, and should have to cripple myself by
putting very strong prize crews upon them, and so run the risk of
losing my own ship and cargo.

"No, my business is to trade and not to fight. If any one meddle with
me, I am ready to take my own part; but the Company would not thank
me, if I were to risk the safety of this ship and her valuable cargo
for the sake of sending home a couple of prizes, which might be
recaptured as they crossed the bay, and would not fetch any great sum
if they got safely in port."

An examination showed that the