e loaded. In that way we shall always have
sixteen muskets ready for them. I have no fear of the result, and even if
they close with us our cutlasses will be more than a match for their
knives. Here they come! Get ready, the first section, and don't fire till
I tell you."

The enemy, fully sixty strong, came on with fierce cries, knowing that the
garrison were on guard, although they could not see them in the shadow of
the storehouses. When they got within fifty yards Will gave the order to
fire, and the first eight muskets flashed out. The second eight fired
almost immediately after, and the third eight, waiting only till the first
section had reloaded, followed suit. Nearly every shot told, and the shock
was so great that it caused the advancing enemy to hesitate for a moment.
This gave the second and third sections time to reload, so that, when the
pirates again advanced, three more deadly volleys were poured into them in
quick succession. The effect of these was instantaneous. Fully
five-and-thirty had been brought to the ground by the six volleys; the
remainder halted, swayed for a moment, then turned and fled at full speed,
pursued, however, before they reached the wood, by another general
discharge.

Will was well pleased with the tremendously heavy punishment he had
inflicted.

"Out of the sixty men who attacked us," he said to Harman the next
morning, "I calculate that forty belonged to the schooner. I don't suppose
they were worse than the other twenty; but we had ourselves seen some of
the crimes they had committed. We have accounted for forty in all, so of
those who escaped from the schooner probably some five- or six-and-twenty
have been killed. After such a thrashing they are not likely to make
another attempt."

He was right. The work now went on undisturbed, and at the end of a
fortnight the schooner was laden. All the hatches had been closed and made
water-tight; and so full was she that her deck was only two feet and a
half above the water, although her guns had been thrown overboard or
landed.

"Now I think we are all ready to sail," Harman said.

"Ready to sail! We have a fortnight's hard work before us," said Will.
"You don't suppose I am going to leave all these hogsheads of sugar,
puncheons of rum, and bales of goods to be burnt or destroyed by those
scoundrels."

"How can you prevent it?"

"Very easily. There are plenty of materials on the spot to form four
batteries, one on each side