g,
with a white skull and cross-bones in the dark field. It fluttered for a
moment out straight and clear, and then twisted itself around the thin
mast, never more to be released by hands or halliards! That was the last
glimpse those pirates ever caught of the murderous symbol they had so
often fought and sailed under; and it was the last sun that a good many
aching eyes ever looked upon who were sailing there in that half league
of blue water. The moon, however, was riding bright and beaming, as
clear as a bell, overhead, and that was all the light we cared for. The
'Centipede,' no doubt, would have preferred no moon at all, with a
cloudy sky and a bit of a rain squall, to pursue the intricate
navigation before her; but Heaven arranged the atmospheric scenery
otherwise.

"'By the deep eight!' sang out the leadsman in the port chains. 'The
mark five!' came from the opposite side. 'Another cast, lads--quick!'
'And a half four!' 'Six fathoms, sir!'

"'We must have stirred up the sand, Cleveland,' said the captain; but
even as he spoke the man in the starboard chains cried, 'Three fathoms,
sir!' and while each instant we expected the ship to bring up all
standing, and the masts to go by the board, the other leadsman sung out,
joyfully, 'No bottom with the line, sir!'

"Well, we were safely through that bed of coral, doing, no doubt, some
trifling damage to the tender shoots and branches, as we flew through a
narrow channel, with the waves breaking and moaning on the sandy shores
over the keys, out into deep water again.

"Four or five miles beyond stood out a bluff rock, looking in the
moonlight like a dozing lion with his paws crossed before him, ready to
bound upon any who should approach his lair in the dense jungle of pines
and tangled thickets which stood up like a bristling mane on the ridge
behind.

"The 'Centipede' was now but a short half-mile ahead of us, her deck
alive with men, and manifestly ready for some desperate devilment. On
her after rail, too, stood that man, tall and erect, his feet steadied
by the cavil of the main boom, a spy-glass to his eye, and looking at
the rocky lion now close aboard him, still with a cigar in his mouth;
and we thought we could even see the thin puffs of smoke curling around
his face. Suddenly, too, we saw the spy-glass whirled around his head,
and at the instant the vessel fell dead off before the wind, the great
main-sail flew over with a stunning crash and clatter of b