the _Vittorio_ had firearms in abundance and pockets full of
cartridges. Consequently it was not long before Captain Horn's men were
obliged to rely upon their hatchets, their handspikes, their
belaying-pins, and their numbers.

Banker was in a very furious state of mind. He had expected to board the
_Monterey_ without opposition, and now he had been fighting long and
hard, and not a man of his crew was on board the other vessel. He had
soon discovered that there were a great many men on board the
_Monterey_, but he believed that the real reason for the so far
successful resistance was the fact that Captain Horn commanded them.

Several times he mounted the upper deck of the _Vittorio_, and with a
rifle in hand endeavored to get a chance to aim at the tall figure of
which he now and then caught sight, and who he saw was directing
everything that was going on. But every time he stood out with his rifle
a pistol ball whizzed by him, and made him jump back. Whoever fired at
him was not a good shot, but Banker did not wish to expose himself to
any kind of a shot. Once he got a chance of taking aim at the Captain
from behind the smokestack, but at that moment the Captain stepped back
hurriedly out of view, as if somebody had been pulling him by the coat,
and a ball rang against the funnel high above his own head. It was plain
he was watched, and would not expose himself.

But that devil Horn must be killed, and he swore between his grinding
teeth that he himself would do it. His men, many of them with bloody
heads, were still fighting, swearing, climbing, and firing. None of
them had been killed except those who had gained the deck of the other
vessel, but Banker did not believe that they would be able to board the
_Monterey_ until its captain had been disposed of. If he could put a
ball into that fellow, the fight would be over.

Banker now determined to lead a fresh attack instead of simply ordering
one. If he could call to his men from the deck of the _Monterey_, they
would follow him. The _Vittorio_ lay so that her bow was somewhat
forward of that of the _Monterey_, and as the rails at the bows of the
two vessels were some distance apart, there was no fighting forward. The
long boom of the fore-mast of the _Vittorio_ stretched over her upper
deck, and, crouching low, Banker cut all the lines which secured it.
Then with a quick run he seized the long spar near its outer end, and
thus swinging it out until it struck th