ing, the other boats following suit;
and the word was passed for the gig--in which I had been bringing up the
rear--to pass ahead. We did so, and in another minute were alongside
the leading boat.

"We can't be far off them now, Ralph," said Paddy in a loud whisper, "so
just go aisy ahead, me darlint, and see what you can find out. And
don't be a month of Sundays about it, aither, you spalpeen, for we'll
soon be havin' the daylight upon us; indade it looks to me as if the sky
is lightin' up to the east'ard already, so we've no time to spare."

"Never fear," said I, "I'll not be a moment longer than I can help.
Give way, gigs, and pass the word for the bow oar to lay in and keep a
bright lookout ahead."

We swept silently away, the stroke oar having orders to keep his eye on
the boats as long as it was possible to see them; and he was just
reporting to me in a whisper that he had lost sight of them when the bow
man gave the word "oars," and said he could see something broad on our
port bow. The boat's head was sheered to port, and at the same moment I
caught sight of the brigantine's spars showing up black and indistinct
against the dark sky. She was not above fifty yards away from us, and I
had just given the word to paddle quietly ahead when a voice hailed us
in Spanish, ordering us to keep off or they would fire. Before we could
reply, _crash_ came a volley of musketry at us, tearing up the water all
round the boat, and one poor fellow dropped his oar and fell forward off
his seat.

"Give way, men!" I shouted. "Dash at her and get alongside before they
have time to load again. The other boats will be here to support us in
a moment."

The men required no second bidding, but, bending to their oars until the
stout ash bent like fishing-rods and the water flashed from the blades
in luminous foam, they sent the boat like an arrow in under the main
chains, dropping their oars and seizing their cutlasses as we sheered
alongside, and springing like grey-hounds slipped from the leash at the
craft's low bulwarks.

But we had been reckoning without our hosts. Instead of finding the
crew all below comfortably asleep in their hammocks, there they were at
quarters, with guns loaded and run out, boarding-nettings triced up, and
in fact everything ready to repel an attack, and it was only our
extremely cautious approach which had saved us from a broadside or two
of grape. Our people cut and slashed at the netting in