re hailed down by the schooner's crew, upon
hand, foot, and now and then upon some unlucky head.

Chips the carpenter, who was nothing without making some improvement
upon the acts of his fellows, made a dash at the officer leading the
attacking boat on the starboard side, delivering a thrust with the bar
he carried, which passed right through the large mesh of the net,
catching the Spaniard in the chest and sending him backwards into the
boat.

"That's what I calls a Canterbury poke, dear boys," he cried. "Let 'em
have it, my lads. The beggars look like so many flies in a spider's
web; and we are the spiders."

The shouting, yelling, and struggling did not last five minutes. Man
after man succeeded the fallen, and then it was all over, the boats
floating back with the current until they were checked by those in
command, who ordered the oars out and the men to row. But it was some
little time before the confusion on board each could be mastered, and
the disabled portions of the crew drawn aside.

"Well done, my lads!" cried the skipper. "Couldn't be better!"

"Here," shouted the mate, "a couple of you up aloft and tighten that net
up to the stay. Two more of you get a bit of signal-line and lace up
those holes."

"Ay, ay, sir!" came readily enough, and the men rushed to their duty.

"Think that they have had enough of it?" said Fitz huskily.

"Not they," replied Poole. "We shall hear directly what they have got
to say."

He had scarcely spoken before there was a fierce hail from one of the
boats, whose commander shouted in Spanish to the skipper to surrender;
and upon receiving a defiant reply in his own tongue, the officer
roared--

"Surrender, you scum, or I'll order my men to fire; and as soon as you
are my prisoners I'll hang you all, like the dogs you are."

"Back with you to your ship, you idiot, before you get worse off," cried
the captain sternly. "Dogs can bite, and when English dogs do, they
hold on."

"Surrender!" roared the officer again, "or I fire."

"At the first shot from your boat," cried the skipper, "I'll give the
order too; and my men from shelter can pick off yours much faster than
yours from the open boat."

"Insolent dog!" roared the officer, and raising a revolver he fired at
the skipper, the bullet whistling just above his head.

In an instant Poole's revolver was out, and without aiming he fired too
in the direction of the boat. He fired again and again over the
att