Mr. Langely cried out, "My God, captain, I am shot!" His
right hand fell at his side, and in an instant I beheld his shirt
stained with blood that gushed out from the wound in his shoulder.

The ship beginning to fall off, I ran forward and took the wheel myself,
for in a minute more, if we held our course, we would be under the
pirate's stern, and in a position to rake them with our starboard
broadside. I heard a dozen bullets strike into the wood-work around me;
one struck the wheel, so that I felt as if my hand and my wrist were
paralyzed by the jar. The next instant I felt a terrible blow upon my
head; a hot red stream gushed over my face and into my eyes, and for a
moment my brain reeled. Some one caught hold of me, but just as darkness
settled upon me I felt the ship shake beneath me and heard the roar of
our broadside. We were under the pirate's stern at last.

* * * * *

I could not have lain insensible for many minutes, for when I opened my
eyes and saw the surgeon and my second mate bending over me, it was
still with the roar of cannon in my ears.

"How is this, Mr. White?" cried I; "are we not then past the pirate?"

"Sir," said my second mate, in a very serious voice, "we are run
aground."

"And the pirate?" cried I.

"She is also aground," said he, "and we rake her with every shot."

I got to my feet, in spite of the surgeon's protest, putting him
impatiently aside.

It was as Mr. White said; the pirate was aground about two or three
hundred yards away from us, fast stuck upon the bar, stern towards us.
She must have received more than one shot betwixt wind and water, for
she was heeled over to one side, and I could see a stream of bloody
water pouring continually from her scupper-holes.

But I also saw that we were stuck hard and fast, and that though our
position was better than theirs, every shot that we fired drove us with
the recoil more firmly aground. I at once gave orders that all firing
except with muskets should be stopped; so there we lay aground for more
than half an hour, answering the pirate's fire with our flintlocks.

Although this was dreadful for us to bear at the time, in the end it
proved to be our salvation; for when the tide raised we floated clear
fully ten minutes before the pirates, and so escaped immediate
destruction.

In the mean time, whilst we lay there the sloop had floated clear, and
the pirates having cut away the wreck of the mai