them from climbing up by the
chains.

"Never mind," cried Jack, "let us try the quarters." He pulled up to
one quarter, Adair to the other, and before the slavers knew where they
were going, the boats had hooked on, the seamen, led by their two
gallant young officers, were springing over the low quarters of the
schooner. Adair, however, got a severe lick on the shoulder, which
would have sent him back into the boat had not one of his men given him
a shove up; while Jack got an ugly gash on his arm from a cutlass, and
would have had his head laid bare, had not Dick Needham's trusty weapon
interposed to save him. All this time the slaver's crew were firing
away down into the boats. One of the cutter's men was shot, and fell
over. A messmate, Brown, attempted to lift him up, but he sank down
like a piece of lead.

"It's all over with him," cried Brown, springing over the bulwarks, and
resolved to avenge him. It was too true. He had been shot through the
heart. A like fate befell one of the gig's crew. Still, with
diminished numbers, the British fought on, but the odds were fearfully
against them. They had, however, gained a footing on the slaver's deck,
and as they had cutlasses and pistols in their hands, which they well
knew how to use, they felt themselves to be on equal terms with six
times their number of the sort of mongrel wretches who made up the
slaver's crew. The latter at the same time seemed in no way daunted,
and fought on with the greatest desperation. Hitherto neither Jack nor
Adair had made out who were the officers of the wretches opposed to
them, for the smoke hung so thickly over the deck, crowded as it was
with people of every hue and every variety of costume, that it was
difficult to distinguish one from the other. At last Jack caught sight
of a little man, urging on his companions. The voice too he had heard
before. A puff of wind cleared away the smoke: Jack recognised his old
enemy, Don Diogo. The Don knew him also. "Ah, ah, have you come to be
killed?" sang out the little man, with a horrid grin. "Cut him down,
cut down the little spy, my men. He was one of those who destroyed our
barracoons and deprived us of our property. The sea-breeze will soon be
up to us, and we may laugh at the frigate. Revenge, revenge!"
Instigated by these shouts from their fierce chief, the slaver's crew,
uttering loud imprecations, made a desperate rush against the English,
and Jack, in spite of t