ds," he shouted. "We shall be alongside before they have
time to load again.

"I never thought of their having guns, though," he went on, as the
men recovered from their surprise, and dashed on again with a
cheer. "By the sharp crack they must be brass. I suppose he picked
up a couple of small guns at Ostend, thinking that they might be
useful to him in these waters."

A splattering fire of musketry now broke out from the brigantine.
They had lessened their distance by half when they saw the
brigantine, without apparent cause, heel over. Farther and farther
she went until her lee rail was under water.

The firing instantly ceased, and there were loud shouts on board; then,
as she came up into the wind, the square yards were let fall, and the
crew ran up the ratlines to secure the sails. Simultaneously the
foresail came down, then her head payed off again, and she darted
away like an arrow from the boats.

These, however, had ceased rowing. Frank, as he saw the brigantine
bowing over, had shouted to Purvis to put the boat's head to the
wind, doing the same himself. A few seconds afterwards the squall
struck them with such force that some of the oars were wrenched
from the hands of the men, who were unprepared for the attack.

"Steady, men, steady!" Frank shouted. "It won't last long. Keep on
rowing, so as to hold the boat where you are, till the yacht comes
along. It won't be many minutes before she is here."

In little over a quarter of an hour she was seen approaching, and
Frank saw that, in spite of the efforts of the men at the oars, the
boats had been blown some distance to leeward. However, as soon as
the lanterns were held up the Osprey altered her course, and the
captain, taking her still further to leeward, threw her head up to
the wind until they rowed alongside her.

Frank had by this time learned that one of the men in the bow had
been killed, and that three besides himself had been wounded. Two
were wounded on board the dinghy.

"So they have got some guns," the skipper said, as they climbed on
deck. "No one hurt, I hope?"

"There is one killed, I am sorry to say, and five wounded," Frank
replied; "but none of them seriously. I have got a bullet in my
shoulder, but that is of no great consequence. So you got through
it all right?"

"Yes, sir, it looked so nasty that I got the square-sail off her
and the topsail on deck before it struck us, and as we ran the
foresail down just as it came we were