ry conclusions with us; and if they really mean business we've a
very tidy little job afore us."

"Ay," I assented; "that schooner will prove a very tough nut to crack,
Henderson; she carries more than twice our weight of metal, even if I am
mistaken in supposing that I saw a long gun on her forecastle; and she
appears to be very strongly manned. Our only chance will be to engage
her at close quarters, lay her aboard, and carry her by boarding."

"D'ye think they'll be such fools as to let us do that, sir?"
caustically demanded the gunner, chewing hard upon his quid, in his
evident perplexity.

"N-o," I returned dubiously; "I don't suppose they will--if they can
help it. But that is our only chance, all the same, and we must bend
all our energies to accomplish it. And there is no particular reason
why we should not, so far as I can see, unless of course we are
unfortunate enough to have a spar or two knocked away. Good shooting is
what is going to decide this fight, Henderson; and we must hope that
ours will be better than theirs."

"Ay," agreed the gunner, "there's no harm in hopin' that; but--" He
shook his head, and spat vigorously over the side by way of expressing
the doubts that were worrying him.

As it turned out, his doubts and apprehensions were by no means without
foundation, for when our antagonist arrived within range of her long
32--I was not mistaken as to that matter--she hauled her wind, and
opened fire upon us with it, making very excellent practice, too;
although it was not until she had fired six shots at us that any of them
actually came near enough to do us any damage, and then the shot only
passed through our foresail, making a neat hole in the canvas, but doing
no further mischief. Her previous attempts, however, had come close
enough to us to prove that she had at least one excellent gunner on
board her, for every one of the shot fell within two or three fathoms of
us at the utmost; and when a man shoots so well at long range he is
bound to score a few hits, sooner or later. And this was precisely what
Henderson and I most feared; for so long as the pirates chose to play
the game of long bowls they might blaze away at us at their leisure, and
in perfect safety, their 32-pound shot flying over and over us at a
distance far beyond the range of our 9-pounders.

What we now had to do was to shorten the distance between ourselves and
our antagonist as quickly as possible, and bring her wi