ign, thereupon everybody seemed to be galvanised into
instant, breathless activity again. Now, however, the former processes
were reversed; the men who were already half-way aloft, intent upon
furling the canvas, started to return to the deck, others sprang to the
sheets and halliards and began to sheet home and hoist away as if for
their lives, and, in short, it was evident that the pirates contemplated
getting under way again and attempting to escape out to sea.

It was at this moment that the boatswain, who still had his glass
focussed on the schooner, cried out:

"They're goin' to cut her cable, Mr Delamere! Look, sir, and you'll
see a chap hurrying for'ard with an axe in his hand."

"Is that so?" I exclaimed. "Then bring Number 1 gun to bear on the
schooner's forecastle and sweep it clear. Quick, before they can cut
her adrift! It will never do to have her drifting all over the Cove."

I was interrupted by the crashing report of Number 1, which, with the
others, had already been most carefully trained upon the schooner; and
as the smoke blew away we saw the vessel's port bulwark, all about the
cathead, thickly dotted with white marks where the shot had struck,
while the forecastle, which had been crowded with men a moment before,
was now clear; not so much as a single head showed above the rail.

"Give them the other three guns, as quick as you please; and keep up
your fire, with grape only, until you receive further orders," I cried.
And almost as the words left my lips the other three guns bellowed their
terrible message, in response to which the men on the _Tiburon's_ deck
seemed to shrink and disappear. But although a good many of them went
down, enough were still left to enable them to man their port broadside
of seven 12-pounders, as well as their long 32; and with astounding
rapidity they brought the whole of these guns to bear upon the spot from
which the jets of flame and smoke issued, marking the position of our
guns, while they defiantly ran up the black flag to their main truck.

Now the action raged fast and furious, both sides loading and firing as
rapidly as they could, although I continually exhorted our own gunners
to give themselves plenty of time to take careful aim. The enemy
quickly got our range to a nicety, and their shot came screaming about
our ears and plumping into our earthen rampart in an almost continuous
shower, blinding us with the dust and dirt that they threw up, and
o