"Yes, sir."
"Then train the two forward guns on them, and let them see that we mean fighting."
A cheer broke from the sailors clustered round the guns as Turnbull gave the order.
"Now, ladies," Nat said, "you can stop to see the effect of our first shot, and then I must ask you to go down on to the lower deck. Sam will show you the way and take some cushions down for you; you will be out of danger there."
As he spoke, the two guns which were already loaded were fired, and the men gave a cheer as two white patches appeared on the side of the brigantine.
"Please hurry down, ladies," Nat said, checking the entreaty which he saw they were going to make. "It won't be long before they answer us."
"Give them another round, lads!" he said, as they reluctantly obeyed his orders. "Get them in if you can before he is ready."
Busy as they were, the pirates had not observed the schooner until her guns were fired. With shouts of alarm they ran back to their own ship, but these were succeeded by exclamations of anger and surprise when they saw how small was the craft that had thus intruded into the affair. By the captain's orders twenty of the crew, under his first mate, returned to the deck of the prize; a portion of the men ran to the guns, others threw off the grapnels fastening them to the prize. Before they were ready to fire, two more shots from the schooner crashed into the brigantine, one passing through the bulwarks, killing three men and wounding several others with the splinters. The other struck her within a few inches of the water-line.
The schooner at once bore up, discharging the guns on the starboard side as she came round, and laying her course as close to the wind as she could be jammed, showed her stern to the pirate. Two of his guns forward were fired, others could not be brought to bear. The Arrow was now almost retracing her course, for the wind was west-nor'-west, and she could just follow the line of coast.
"Here they come after us!" Turnbull said, rubbing his hands, "as savage as bees whose hive has been disturbed."