egan to move the _Blenny_ let fly both her
broadsides at the same moment, several of the shot striking the junks,
and ripping open their sides.

This in no way daunted them. They seemed resolved on the destruction of
the brig. The sculls were still more vigorously plied, and they
advanced rapidly, till they had got her well within range of their guns.
And now from every side they opened on her, while, she replied in the
most spirited way, firing her guns as rapidly as they could be hauled
in, loaded, and run out again. The shot from the pirate's junks told,
however, with very considerable effect on her, and the midshipmen had
too much reason to fear that many of their friends must have lost the
number of their mess. The pirates all seemed to aim at the hull of the
brig. They expected, apparently, that the calm would continue, and all
they wanted was to kill as many of the Englishmen as they could before
they attempted to board her.

"I say, I guess your friends aboard there will be getting the worst of
it if this sort of fun lasts much longer," observed the Yankee captain
to Murray.

"I am afraid so, indeed," answered Alick, with a deep sigh and a sinking
of the heart; "I wish we were aboard to help them."

"I guess, now, we should have a better chance of helping them by being
aboard here," answered the captain. Alick thought so likewise. He and
Jack were glad that they were not compelled to fight against their
countrymen.

The larger number of the junks had placed themselves ahead and astern of
the brig, and kept pouring in a raking fire on her. To avoid this as
much as she could, she got out her sweeps; but they continued to change
their positions as often as she got her head round, so that the English
had not a moment's respite. The pirates shouted with delight as they
saw the success of their plan. They, of course, thought it would be a
great thing to cut off an outer Barbarian man-of-war, and anticipated no
small amount of valuable plunder as their reward. They, however, were
all this time not escaping scot-free, for the brig's shot went through
and through the hulls of their junks, and several of them were reduced
to a sinking condition; while the musketry of the marines told with no
little effect on their decks. Still they had the advantage of an
immense superiority in numbers, and although they might lose twice as
many men as the crew of the brig numbered, they might still come off
victorious.