nd the hunter steadied it to a parallel course some twenty feet from the
side of the _Ghost_.

"Now, get that sail down and come alongside!" Wolf Larsen ordered.

He never let go his rifle, even passing down the tackles with one hand.
When they were fast, bow and stern, and the two uninjured men prepared to
come aboard, the hunter picked up his rifle as if to place it in a secure
position.

"Drop it!" Wolf Larsen cried, and the hunter dropped it as though it were
hot and had burned him.

Once aboard, the two prisoners hoisted in the boat and under Wolf
Larsen's direction carried the wounded boat-steerer down into the
forecastle.

"If our five boats do as well as you and I have done, we'll have a pretty
full crew," Wolf Larsen said to me.

"The man you shot--he is--I hope?" Maud Brewster quavered.

"In the shoulder," he answered. "Nothing serious, Mr. Van Weyden will
pull him around as good as ever in three or four weeks."

"But he won't pull those chaps around, from the look of it," he added,
pointing at the _Macedonia's_ third boat, for which I had been steering
and which was now nearly abreast of us. "That's Horner's and Smoke's
work. I told them we wanted live men, not carcasses. But the joy of
shooting to hit is a most compelling thing, when once you've learned how
to shoot. Ever experienced it, Mr. Van Weyden?"

I shook my head and regarded their work. It had indeed been bloody, for
they had drawn off and joined our other three boats in the attack on the
remaining two of the enemy. The deserted boat was in the trough of the
sea, rolling drunkenly across each comber, its loose spritsail out at
right angles to it and fluttering and flapping in the wind. The hunter
and boat-puller were both lying awkwardly in the bottom, but the
boat-steerer lay across the gunwale, half in and half out, his arms
trailing in the water and his head rolling from side to side.

"Don't look, Miss Brewster, please don't look," I had begged of her, and
I was glad that she had minded me and been spared the sight.

"Head right into the bunch, Mr. Van Weyden," was Wolf Larsen's command.

As we drew nearer, the firing ceased, and we saw that the fight was over.
The remaining two boats had been captured by our five, and the seven were
grouped together, waiting to be picked up.

"Look at that!" I cried involuntarily, pointing to the north-east.

The blot of smoke which indicated the _Macedonia's_ position had
reappeared.