Daggs, hewing his way to the mast, turned to face the new
attack with only two men left on foot to back him.

The fight was short and fierce. First one, then the other of the
buccaneers went down before the furious assault of Job's seamen. At
length only the pirate chief was left to battle on, terrible and
silent, his face set in a ghastly grin, like the visage of a lone wolf
fighting his last fight.

But the odds were too great. The men of the _Tiger_ pressed in
relentlessly till at last a dozen sword-points found their mark at once.
And so died Pharaoh Daggs, violently, as he had lived.

CHAPTER XXXVI

It was Jeremy who, five minutes later, held Job's head on his knees,
while the weary, bleeding sailors stood silently by with their hats off.

The bo's'n, a grizzled veteran of many sea-fights, was kneeling beside
his Captain with an ear to his side. There was hope in the man's face
when at length he looked up.

"He's breathin' yet," was his verdict, "breathin', but not much more.
There's half a score of cuts in him, different places. Here, lads, rig a
stretcher, an' let's get him back to the ship."

When the unconscious body of their big friend had been placed gently in
the boat, Bob and Jeremy turned to each other with sober faces.

"It was a costly sort of victory," said Bob. "This deck's not a pretty
sight, and there's nothing much we can do to help. Let's have a look at
the cabin."

They went below and forced open the door of the after compartment, which
had once housed the great Stede Bonnet. Instead of its old immaculate
and almost scholarly appearance, the place now had an air of desolation.
It reeked of filth, stale tobacco-smoke, and the spilled lees of
liquor. In the clutter on the cabin table lay two bulging sacks and a
small box.

"Well," said Bob, as he felt the weight of one of the bags, "here's the
rest of Brig's gold!"

But Jeremy's attention was occupied. He had picked up the box from the
table and was examining it curiously.

"See here, Bob," he cried, "this is the little chest I was carrying the
night we ran through the woods. I dropped it when that pirate tackled
me. What do you suppose is in it?"

The box was leather-covered and heavily studded with nails. Jeremy tried
the small padlock and found it rusty and weak. A hard pull on the staple
and it came away in his hand. He threw open the cover and the two boys
stood back, gasping with astonishment.

There on the lining of