nd me looked! We had thought we were on
the lookout for this very thing; and yet it seemed to us now a
complete surprise. We were stunned.

_Bang!_ A heavy cannon; and the water flew up in a long white streak
far past "The Curlew" as the big shot went driving by. The ship was
within a mile and a half of her, and we here on the islet
three-fourths of a mile away! Yet there stood "The Curlew" motionless
on the waves; and there stood Capt. Mazard, waving his hat for us, his
glass glittering in his other hand.

"To the boat!" yelled Weymouth, leaping down the rocks. "He wouldn't
go without us!"

"Stop!" shouted Raed. "It's no use! Don't you see how the ship's
closing in?"

Then, catching off his cap, he waved it slowly toward the east. We saw
the captain's glass go up to his eye. Again Raed motioned him to go.

_Bang!_ A higher shot. It strikes a quarter of a mile ahead of the
schooner, and goes skipping on. But the captain is still looking off
to us, as if loath to desert us. A third time Raed waves his cap. He
turns. Round go the booms. "The Curlew" starts off with a bound. The
flag streams out wildly in the strong north-west wind.

_Bang!_ That ball hits the sea a long way ahead of its mark. Even in
these brief seconds the great shadowy ship has come perceptibly
nearer. How she bowls along! We can see the white mass of foam at the
bows as she rides up the swells.

A queer, lost feeling had come over me. In an instant it all seemed to
have gone on at a far-past date. Looking back to that time now, I see,
as in a picture, our forlorn little party standing there on the black,
weathered ledges, gazing off,--Weymouth half a dozen rods down the
rocks, where he had stopped when Raed called to him; Donovan a few
rods to the right, shading his eyes with his hand; Raed with his arms
folded tightly; Kit staring hard at the ship; Wade dancing about,
swearing a little, with the tears coming into his eyes; myself leaning
weakly on a musket, limp as a shoe-string; and poor old Guard whining
dismally, with an occasional howl,--all gazing off at the
rapidly-moving vessels.

"It was no use," Raed said, his voice seeming to break the spell. "We
couldn't have got off to the schooner. See how swiftly the ship comes
on! If the captain had waited for us to pull off, or even started up
and let us go off diagonally, the ship would have come so near, that
there would have been no escaping her guns. I don't know as there is
now. If any