ranger was not the _Union_;
but, knowing that she must be somewhere in the vicinity, they determined
to attract her attention by some means or other, should she be anywhere
within sight or hearing.

But Jim smiled grimly to himself as he saw and heard their despairing
efforts, for he had kept a man at the masthead for the express purpose
of ascertaining whether the Peruvian corvette was anywhere in the
vicinity, and the last report, received less than five minutes before,
assured him that she was nowhere to be seen.

He waited patiently, therefore, until the discordant blasts on the
sirens had ceased, and then hailed again for the skipper to heave-to,
vowing that he would fire into him if he did not do so. The young
Englishman had imagined that he saw, by the light of the rockets, a
number of men scampering about the decks, but he concluded that it was
merely the effect of terror and astonishment, and he was totally
unprepared for the gun-runner's next move. The fellow had, when he saw
that there was no hope of escape, hastily prepared his ship for action;
and the last words were hardly out of Jim's mouth when a perfect storm
of machine-gun fire broke out aboard the flying steamer, and the bullets
whistled round Douglas like hail, killing the quartermaster at the
wheel, and several other seamen who were not under shelter.

The cruiser immediately yawed wildly, and in another minute would have
crashed into the gun-runner, probably sending both craft to the bottom,
had not Jim seized the wheel, as it spun out of the dead man's fingers,
and brought the _Angamos_ back to her course just in the nick of time.
At the same moment he saw the leading steamer circle round in a wide
curve and head directly for him, evidently with the idea of helping her
consort in the fight against the Chilian.

There was no time for any more palaver, thought Jim; the fellows meant
to fight, and to disable him if they could, and he must be ready for
them. In a voice hoarse with anger at the useless slaughter of five of
his men, he gave the order to fire; and immediately the guns of the
_Angamos_ began to speak.

She was armed with several Gatling and Nordenfeldt guns, three 12-
pounder breech-loaders, six 3-pounders, and one 8-inch breech-loading
Armstrong gun, throwing a projectile weighing 170 pounds, which was
mounted forward; and, immediately upon Jim's command her whole broadside
crashed out, raking the foolhardy steamer from end to en