white horrified face of Osterbridge Hawsey,
who "could not _stand_ the sight of blood--so _common_!" The face
withdrew, and Chris could imagine the dandy playing cards or reading
as best he could in the din until the battle should be over.

[Illustration]

The pirates, many wounded and all taken aback at the unforeseen
presence of guns on board the _Mirabelle_, were tough fighters
notwithstanding, and moved the _Vulture_ in ever nearer until the two
ships, with fallen masts and entangled rigging, were locked on the
brazen sea in deathly struggle.

Brave as the seamen of the _Mirabelle_ proved themselves to be, the
pirates were seasoned in pitiless combat. The guns of both ships
roared and coughed and the battle raged through the noon into the
afternoon. Finally, Chris could bear no more. The crew of his ship
were weakening, even as were those of the _Vulture_, and shuddering
though he was at the thought of the sharks in the sea, Chris knew he
had to use every method in his power if any on board were to survive.

[Illustration]

Keeping his own form he jumped into the blood-tinged water, his magic
knife open and ready in his hand.

CHAPTER 33

The smoke of the guns of both ships so hung upon the air that Chris
counted on its heavy curtain to screen him from his enemies. He swam
to the far side of the attacking vessel and there forced his magic
knife for the second time against the side of the _Vulture_.

He was treading water, holding to a rope that dangled over the side of
the ship when, with no interior tremor of warning, a cut that he
almost thought had penetrated to the bone lashed across his shoulders
narrowly missing his left ear. Without stopping to think Chris took
half a breath and submerged as deeply as he could go, hearing above
him, even through the sounds of the battle and the wavering water, the
"fleck!" of Claggett Chew's metal-tipped whip as it hit the water
where he had been only a second before. Chris would have dived under
the great barnacled hull of the _Vulture_ then and there, to come up
on the other side, but good swimmer though he was, he was unsure that
he could hold even a full breath for so long a dive. Added to this, he
had had no time to do more than gasp a momentary breath of air, and
even as he rose to the surface with bursting lungs, he saw the figure
of a man leap into the water from the side of the _Vulture_.

Before the bubbles of the man's descent had had time to di