laim in a tolerably steady voice:

"Load again, men, smartly! there is another boat out there somewhere,
and she must be prevented from coming alongside at all costs. Light
another port-fire forward, there!" as the man in the fore-rigging
dropped the fag-end of the first into the water alongside and the
blackness of darkness once more enshrouded us as with a pall.

There was, apparently, to be no more fighting just then, however; the
crew of the remaining boat had evidently seen enough to completely damp
their ardour, for the time being at least, for before the operation of
reloading the guns had been completed, the splash and roll of oars in
their rowlocks could be heard in fast diminishing cadence, conveying to
our experienced ears the fact that our enemies were beating a
precipitate retreat.

But the horrors of the night were not yet quite over, for, whilst we
were busily preparing to hoist in the guns from the raft alongside and
to get the ballast back into its proper place in the hold, a loud,
confused, splashing sound was suddenly heard away on our starboard beam,
and, on looking in that direction to ascertain what this new disturbance
might portend, we saw that the water was literally alive with hundreds
of sharks, distinctly visible by the phosphorescent glow which shone
from their bodies, which were tearing and snapping at the floating
corpses of the pirates, rending them limb from limb, and rushing off in
all directions with the dismembered fragments as the monsters succeeded
in securing them.

Such a sight was not calculated to inspire the men with any relish for
the somewhat perilous task of going down upon the submerged raft and
into the deeply-laden boats to sling the guns and ballast; but the work
had to be done, and the boatswain and the gunner volunteering to go down
first, we soon had the work well under weigh, finishing it
satisfactorily off and bringing a toilsome night of labour to an end
about two o'clock the next morning.

By daybreak all hands were once more astir, notwithstanding the arduous
character of their previous day's and night's work; the anchor was
weighed; and under short canvas, with Courtenay once more on the
topgallant-yard to con us, and a leads-man in the fore-chains on each
side of the ship, we cautiously felt our way to the northward and
westward until, about seven bells, we managed to reach the anchorage
which the feluccas had vacated on the previous day. A hurried break