She stopped his mouth with her hand.
"As if I'd be anywhere else than just here!"
I turned my head, not wishing to be prying into their affairs, and a quarter-mile astern I saw a jet of flame and heard the smacking report of one of the Walrus' chase-guns.
Moira said something more that I did not hear, and he interrupted her.
"Get ye below, my maid until we——"
There was a harsh, whistling sound in the air, and the hairs on one side of my head rose up, and on the heels of this came the thud of a shot as it struck timber.
"Close, egad!" commented my great-uncle.
O'Donnell swayed strangely and drooped over his daughter's shoulder.
"Padre!" The dazed grief in her voice was tragical. "Why won't ye stand? Are ye hit? Oh, blessed Virgin, there's no sense left in him! Bob, Master Peter, help me! He's so—so—heavy."
Peter and I jumped to aid her, and Murray was not far behind us. We lowered O'Donnell's tall body to the deck, and I ran for a lanthorn. When I returned with it my great-uncle had assumed command of the situation.