kets climbed aboard with a derisive
cheer. So near was the power-boat that Skeel, Ferez, and Soane were
easily distinguishable there in the brilliant sunshine, on deck.

"Anyway," burst out Renoux, "they'll not dare lie there at anchor and
wait for dark, now."

Even as he spoke the anchor came up.

Very deliberately the small boat was hoisted to the davits; the big
craft began to move, swinging her nose north by west, the spray
breaking under the bows. She was already under way, already headed for
the open sea.

And then, without any warning whatever, out of the northeast, almost
sheering the jutting point which had concealed her, rushed a Canadian
patrol boat, her forward deck a geyser of spouting foam.

A red lance of flame leaped from her forward gun; the sharp crack
shattered the summer stillness; the shell went skittering away over
the water, across the bows of the power-boat; a string of signals
broke from the cruiser's mast.

Then an amazing thing happened; the power-boat's after deck suddenly
swarmed with Green Jackets; there came a flash and a report, and a
shell burst over the Canadian patrol cruiser, cutting her halliards to
ribbons.

"Well--by--God!" gasped Renoux. Barres and Westmore stood petrified;
but the three Frenchmen, with one accord, and standing up very
straight, uncovered in the presence of these men who were about to
die.

Suddenly the power-boat broke out a flag at her masthead--a bright
green flag bearing a golden harp.

Again the small gun flashed from her after-deck; another gun spoke
with a splitting report from the starboard bow; both the shells
exploded close to the patrol cruiser, showering her superstructure
with steel fragments.

And, as the concussions subsided, and the landward echoes of the shots
died away, far and clear from the power-boat's decks, across the
water, came the defiant chorus:

"I saw the Shannon's purple tide
Roll by the Irish town,
As I stood in the breach by Donal's side
When England's flag went down!--"

They were singing "Green Jackets," these doomed men. Barres could hear
them cheering, too, for a moment only--then every gun aboard the
flimsy little craft spat flame at the big Canadian, and the bursting
shells splashed the water all around her with their pigmy fragments.

Now, from the cruiser, a single gun bellowed. Instantly a red glare
wrapped the launch; there was a heavy report, a fountain of rushing
smoke and debris.

Again