ard then, and teach him," roared Black; and the shot
that answered his command struck the quivering hull not twenty feet
from the windlass, and you could see the splinters carried fifty feet
in the air, while the shrieks of terror came over the sea to us, and
were piercing then.

"What's he say now?" asked the Captain, cooler than even at the
beginning of the work.

"Says as he'll make it warm for ye at New York, and if ye come aboard,
it's on yer own head, an' ye swing fer it--he'll not stop till ye
disable him."

"The thick-headed vermin," hissed Black; "give him another, amidships
this time."

The second shot made us reel and shiver as she left us; but there was
no hit, for we rolled much, and saw the shell burst on the far side of
the liner. At this, and at the failure of a second attempt, the Captain
lost patience, and gave the order--

"Full steam ahead, and clear the machine-guns."

It was almost superb, I admit now, and the excitement of it was then
upon me, to feel our great ship quiver at the touch of the bell, and
bound forward with waves of foam and spray running from her decks, and
each plate on her straining as though the mighty force of the engines
below would rend it from its fellows.

I had not before known the limit of her speed, or what she could do
when driven as she then was; and the truth amazed me, while it filled
me with a strange exultation. For we, who had dallied heretofore behind
the other, sped beyond her as an express train passes the droning
goods; and coming about, in a great circle, we descended upon her as a
goshawk upon the quarry.

The machine-guns upon our decks were already cleared; the men were
stripped, ready for the fray, as tigers for their food. Indeed, before
I quite understood the purport of the manoeuvre, we were passing the
_Bellonic_ at a distance of not more than fifty yards; and at that
moment it seemed as if all the furies of hell were let loose upon our
decks.

Screaming like wild beasts, the men turned the handles of the Maxim
guns; the balls rained upon the defenceless liner as hail upon a
sheepfold. I heard fierce curses and dull groans; I saw strong men reel
and fall their length as death took them; the breeze bore to me the
wailing of women and the sobs of children.

But we had done the foul work in the one passage, for the flag dropped
at once upon the liner, and the signal was made to us to come aboard.
We had gained a horrid triumph, if such you c