and from behind bulwarks there rose, yelling and howling
and roaring, the picked men of two pirate crews, quick, furious, and
strong as tigers, the hate of man in their eyes and the love of blood in
their hearts. Like a wave of massacre they threw themselves against the
drilled masses of the Badger's crew, and with yells and oaths and curses
and cries the battle raged.

With a sudden dash the captain of the man-of-war plunged through the
ranks of the combatants and stood upon the middle of the deck; his quick
eyes shot here and there; wherever he might be, he sought the captain of
the pirate ship. In an instant a huge man bounded aft and made one long
step towards him. Vast in chest and shoulder, and with mighty limbs,
fiery-eyed, hairy, horribly fantastic, Blackbeard stood, with great head
lowered for the charge.

"A sugar-planter?" was the swift thought of Vince.

"Are you the captain of this ship?" he shouted.

"I am!" cried the other, and with a curse like bursting thunder the
pirate came on and his blade crossed that of Captain Vince.

Forward and amidships surged the general fight: men plunged, swords
fell, blood flowed, feet slipped upon the deck, and roars of blasphemy
and pain rose above the noise of battle. But farther aft the two
captains, in a space by themselves, cut, thrust, and trampled, whirling
around each other, dashing from this side and that, ever with keen eyes
firmly fixed, ever with strong arms whirling down and upward; now one
man felt the keen cut of steel and now the other. The blood ran upon
rich uniform or stained rough cloth and leather. It was a fight as if
between a lioness and a tigress, their dead cubs near-by.

As most men in the navy knew, Captain Vince was a most dangerous
swordsman. In duel or in warfare, no man yet had been able to stand
before him. With skilled arm and eye and with every muscle of his body
trained, his sword sought a vital spot in his opponent. There was no
thought now in the mind of Vince about disarming the pirate and taking
him prisoner; this terrible wild beast, this hairy monster must be
killed or he himself must die. Through the whirl and clash and hot
breath of battle he had been amazed that Kate Bonnet's father should be
a man like this.

The pirate, his eyes now shrunken into his head, where they glowed like
coals, his breath steaming like a volcano, and his tremendous muscles
supple and quick as those of a cat, met his antagonist at every point,
a