nd
almost despair, as I beheld my men fall by ones and twos upon the deck,
which soon became stained and smeared with their blood whilst the pirate
craft came drifting ever nigher and nigher to us, its decks swarming
with yelling, naked wretches that in their aspect and manners resembled
demons incarnated rather than mortal men.

"Mr. Langely," said I, in a low voice, "if those oars are not broken in
five minutes' time we are all lost." For there yet remained three
thrust through the ports upon the side nighest to the _Cassandra_, and
the current was carrying the pirate craft in such a direction that if
they were able to hold their course a little while longer they would be
almost certain to drift upon us and so board us.

One minute passed, and two minutes, then there was a shiver of
splinters, and only one oar was left. Instantly the stern of the sloop
began to swing slowly around towards us, for one oar was not enough to
keep her to the current. I could see the ash wood bend with the strain
like a willow twig, then--snap!--it broke, and around came the stern
with a swing directly under our fire. The pirates sprang to the
main-sheets, but it was too late to save themselves.

When the crew of the _Cassandra_ saw the result of their fire they burst
out shouting and cheering like madmen. Down came the sloop drifting
stern on, whilst the _Cassandra_, making up for lost time, poured
broadside after broadside into her. Never did I behold such a sight in
all of my life, for every shot we gave her ploughed great lanes along
her crowded decks. To make matters worse for them, their mast was
presently shot through, falling alongside in a great tangled wreck, thus
preventing any manoeuvres which they might still have hoped to make.
They drifted by us at about forty or fifty yards' distance, shouting and
yelling, and giving us a last broadside with great courage and
determination. They presently ran aground upon a sandbar and there stuck
fast for the time, though in such shoal water that we could not come
nigher to them than we then were.

All this while the barque had been slowly making her way through the
tortuous turnings of the channel. At one point, the water being low, she
had run aground, and though she had cleared again with the rising tide,
she had been so delayed by this mischance that she had not been able to
come up in aid of her consort.

But immediately they discerned what mishap had befallen the sloop, and
tha