ers swarmed over the fence like monkeys, Squire and Gray fired
again, and yet again; three men fell, one forwards into the enclosure,
two back on the outside. But of these, one was evidently more frightened
than hurt, for he was on his feet again in a crack, and instantly
disappeared among the trees.

Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made good their footing
inside our defences; while from the shelter of the woods seven or eight
men, each evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot, though
useless, fire on the log-house.

The four who had boarded made straight before them for the building,
shouting as they ran, and the men among the trees shouted back to
encourage them. Several shots were fired; but, such was the hurry of the
marksmen, that not one appeared to have taken effect. In a moment, the
four pirates had swarmed up the mound and were upon us.

The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at the middle loophole.

"At 'em, all hands--all hands!" he roared, in a voice of thunder.

At the same moment another pirate grasped Hunter's musket by the muzzle,
wrenched it from his hands, plucked it through the loophole, and, with
one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor. Meanwhile
a third, running unharmed all round the house, appeared suddenly in the
doorway, and fell with his cutlass on the doctor.

Our position was utterly reversed. A moment since we were firing, under
cover, at an exposed enemy; now it was we who lay uncovered, and could
not return a blow.

The log-house was full of smoke, to which we owed our comparative safety.
Cries and confusion, the flashes and reports of pistol-shots, and one
loud groan, rang in my ears.

"Out, lads, out, and fight 'em in the open! Cutlasses!" cried the
captain.

I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and some one, at the same time
snatching another, gave me a cut across the knuckles which I hardly felt.
I dashed out of the door into the clear sunlight. Some one was close
behind, I knew not whom. Right in front, the doctor was pursuing his
assailant down the hill, and, just as my eyes fell upon him, beat down
his guard, and sent him sprawling on his back, with a great slash across
the face.

"Round the house, lads! round the house!" cried the captain; and even in
the hurly-burly I perceived a change in his voice.

Mechanically I obeyed, turned eastwards, and, with my cutlass raised, ran
round the corner of the house. Next