almost entirely unsupported on the
larboard side. Water was entering the ship in quite appreciable
quantities through the opened seams, and the men were therefore at once
sent to the pumps to keep the leak from gaining, while the carpenter and
Dick went below to see what could be done toward stopping it.

Meanwhile Marshall, assisted by his co-adventurers Dyer and Harvey,
proceeded to overhaul the prize systematically, with the view of
determining her value. The first fact ascertained was that the ship was
named the _Santa Clara_; the second, that she hailed from Cadiz, in Old
Spain; and the third, that she was homeward-bound from Cartagena, from
which port she was twenty-two days out. Her cargo, although valuable
enough in its way, was not of such a character as to tempt the English
to go to the labour of transferring any portion of it to their own
vessel. But, apart from the cargo proper, she was taking home ten
chests of silver ingots, two chests of bar gold, and a casket of pearls,
all of which were quickly transhipped to the _Adventure_, the crew of
which thus found themselves the possessors of a fairly rich booty, while
still upon the very threshold, as it were, of those seas wherein they
hoped to make their fortune. But this was not all; for, in the process
of rummaging the captain's cabin, Marshall found certain letters which
he unhesitatingly opened and read, and among these was a communication
from the governor of Cartagena advising the home authorities of the
impending dispatch of a rich plate ship for Cadiz. The probable date of
dispatch was given as three months after the departure of the _Santa
Clara_, or about ten weeks from the date of that vessel's capture by the
English. That letter Marshall thrust into his pocket, together with
certain other documents which he thought might possibly prove of value;
then, summoning the unhappy Spanish captain to his presence, he informed
him that the English having now helped themselves to all that they
required, he was at liberty to proceed upon his voyage; and this
Marshall recommended him to do with all diligence and alacrity, lest
peradventure he should fall into the hands of certain other British
buccaneers, at the existence of whom the Englishman darkly hinted,
hoping thus to nip in the bud any plan which the Spaniard might have
formed for a return to Cartagena with a report of the presence of
English corsairs in the Caribbean Sea. The two ships then parte