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, while the _Union_ came foaming along on her original course, which was parallel to that of the gunboat, and about half a mile distant from it to seaward. "Aha!" thought he to himself, "so that is the manoeuvre, is it? Grau is going to get us between two fires if he can. As soon as the corvette is past us she too will swing round and attack us with her bow-guns while the _Huascar_ rakes us with her stern weapons. It looks as though the _Covadonga_ were in for a hot time!" The young Englishman's surmise soon proved correct; for directly the _Union_ had passed out of the line of fire the _Huascar_ opened with one of her turret 300-pounder guns. The first shell passed close ahead of the gunboat, but it was aimed much too high, and struck the cliffs on the _Covadonga's_ port beam, exploding with a brilliant flash of light and a roaring concussion that sent ton after ton of rock hurtling down into the sea. The corvette was now abreast of the Chilian ship, and as she drew level she let fly her whole broadside, consisting of one 100- pounder, one 70-pounder, and six 40-pounders, at the devoted gunboat. The effect was as though a hurricane of fire and steel had broken loose aboard the _Covadonga_. Three of her smaller machine-guns, together with their crews, were blown to atoms, while her bulwarks were levelled with the decks in several places. The execution on board was terrible; and Jim had an exceedingly narrow escape, for at the moment when the _Union_ fired he was just entering the little conning-tower with a communication for Captain Condell, and a 100-pounder shell struck full upon one of the _Covadonga's_ 70-pounder gun-shields, tearing a portion of it away. It then burst into a thousand fragments, one of which whizzed past Jim's head and struck the conning-tower beside him with such force that the piece of metal weighing several pounds was firmly embedded in the soft steel of which the tower was constructed, while Jim was dazed with the shock and half blinded by the flying iron dust and grains of powder. He managed to stagger inside the citadel just as the _Huascar_ let fly with one of her 40-pounder guns, the shell from which struck full upon the very spot on the deck where he had been standing ten seconds previously, ripping a huge hole in the iron sheathing with which it was covered, and then exploding right over the engine-room hatch, which luckily was protected by a bomb-proof grating. When Jim
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