e_, one of those pests of
the high seas which it is the duty of any honest man to destroy, if he
have the opportunity. And that," he concluded grimly, "is what I intend
to do. Keep up your fire, sir, and aim so as to strike her between wind
and water if possible. I'll sink her before I've done with her."

Ritson accordingly returned forward, and, communicating the captain's
determination to the crew, they resumed work at the gun, with the stern
set faces of men who recognised that they had a very terrible and
disagreeable duty to perform, from the responsibility of which they
dared not shrink.

As soon as the schooner's crew discovered that their surrender had not
been accepted, they reopened fire as well as they could from their own
guns, and a man was seen to jump into the main-rigging and run aloft
with something rolled up under his arm, which proved in another minute
to be the black flag. Ascending as high as the lower masthead, he
coolly climbed up on the cross-trees, and, standing there, deftly and
rapidly lashed it to the masthead, after which he deliberately descended
the rigging again, defiantly shaking his fist at the _Aurora_ as he did
so.

About ten minutes after the occurrence of this incident there followed
another of an infinitely more thrilling and startling character. The
_Aurora_ had worn round, and was once more passing the schooner; and
Ritson was in the act of glancing along the sights of the gun,
preparatory to giving the order to fire, when, without the slightest
warning or premonition of the dreadful tragedy about to take place, a
dazzling flash of light was seen on board the schooner, her spars, her
deck, and all that was upon it went soaring in fragments high into the
air, her sides were rent open, and in a tremendous cloud of smoke, and
with a deafening report, the devoted craft disappeared.

The barque's whole frame jarred, her canvas flapped violently, and she
careened perceptibly under the terrific concussion; a dead silence
seemed suddenly to have fallen upon the scene of strife, and then came
the _splash, splash_ of the falling fragments into the water around,
accompanied by the heavy thud of others descending upon the barque's
deck; the water seethed and leaped madly for a few seconds on the spot
where the schooner had a minute before been floating, then subsided once
more into the long, steady, regular run and heave of the sea, and all
was over.

Whether the explosion was the