irresistible impulse, I
sprang to my feet and shouted:

"Hold water all! we will go alongside the ship first, and see what is
the state of things there. The schooner is safe; she cannot escape; but
while we are aboard her who can tell what may be happening aboard the
ship? Round with the boats, men, and pull alongside the Englishman!"

With one accord the boats swept round and headed for the _Berwick
Castle_, and a couple of minutes later we were alongside and swarming up
her lofty sides. I was in the act of swinging in over her rail, in the
wake of her main rigging, when a terrific concussion shook the vessel
from stem to stern, a loud _boom_, like the explosion of a pent volcano,
rent the air, and, looking in the direction of the sound, we saw a vast
sheet of flame and smoke suddenly burst from the schooner; her masts,
guns, and a vast quantity of debris--among which we recognised some
thirty or forty human bodies--went hurtling high into the air; her sides
opened out, showing her ribs here and there black against the white
flame; and then the torn and dismembered hull sank in the midst of the
seething waters of the Cove, followed by the plunging debris as it came
down again after its flight into the air. My instinct had warned me
aright; the man I had seen was, beyond all doubt, Garcia himself; and he
had fired the vessel's magazine in the hope of blowing us all into the
air with him as we boarded!

"By the Living Jingo, sir, that was a lucky thought of yours to order us
to board this ship first!" gasped the boatswain, with white and
quivering lips, as he clung to the rail. "Where would we all ha' been
if we'd gone on and boarded that schooner, as we at first intended to?"

As soon as our somewhat shaken nerves would permit we proceeded to
search the _Berwick Castle_, in the hope of finding some at least of her
crew, but there was no trace of them beyond the seamen's chests in the
forecastle and the clothing of the master and officers in their
respective cabins, all of which showed signs of having been made free
with by the captors; the crew had vanished, to the last man, having
doubtless been offered, in accordance with the pirates' usual policy,
the alternative of service under the black flag, or--death. And
apparently, to their eternal honour, they had chosen the latter.

My story is done, for there is no need to weary the reader with prosaic
details regarding the arrangements which I made for the remov