nd with every lunge and thrust and cut forced him to guard.

Now Vince shut himself in his armour of trained defence; this bounding
lion must be killed, but the death-stroke must be cunningly delivered,
and until, in his hot rage, the pirate should forget his guard Vince
must shield himself.

Never had the great Blackbeard met so keen a swordsman; he howled with
rage to see the English captain still vigorous, agile, warding every
stroke. Blackbeard was now a wild beast of the sea: he fought to kill,
for naught else, not even his own life. With a yell he threw himself
upon Captain Vince, whose sword passed quick as lightning through the
brawny masses of his left shoulder. With one quick step, the pirate
pressed closer to Vince, thus holding the imprisoned blade, which stuck
out behind his body, and with a tremendous blow of his right fist, in
which he held the heavy brazen hilt of his sword, he dashed his enemy
backward to the ground. The fall drew the blade from the shoulder of
Blackbeard, whose great right arm went up, whose sword hissed in the air
and then came down upon the prostrate Vince. Another stroke and the
English captain lay insensible and still.

With the scream of a maddened Indian, Blackbeard sprung into the air,
and when his feet touched the deck he danced. He would have hewn his
victim into pieces, he would have scattered him over the decks, but
there was no time for such recreations. Forward the battle raged with
tremendous fury, and into the midst of it dashed Blackbeard.

From the companion-way leading to the captain's cabin there now appeared
a pale young face. It was that of Dickory Charter, who had been ordered
by Blackbeard, before the two vessels came together, to shut himself in
the cabin and to keep out of the broil, swearing that if he made himself
unfit to present to Eliza he would toss his disfigured body into the
sea. Entirely unarmed and having no place in the fight, Dickory had
obeyed, but the spirit of a young man which burned within him led him
to behold the greater part of the conflict between Blackbeard and the
English captain. Being a young man, he had shut his eyes at the end of
it, but when the pirate had left he came forth quietly. The fight raged
forward, and here he was alone with the fallen figure on the deck.

As Dickory stood gazing downward in awe--in all his life he had never
seen a corpse--the man he had supposed dead opened his eyes for a moment
and gazed with dull in