At last the black flag was hoisted on a spar at the stern, and then lowered again. When they saw this the crew of L’Agile stopped firing, and sent up cheer after cheer.
“Now we must be careful, sir,” Dimchurch said; “those scoundrels are quite capable of pretending to surrender, and then, when we board her, blowing their ship and us into the air.”
“You are right, Dimchurch. They might very well do that, for they must know well enough that they can expect no mercy.”
Bringing the cutter to within a hundred yards of the schooner, Will shouted:
“Have you a boat that can swim?” and receiving a reply in the negative, shouted back: “Very well, then, I will drop one to you.”
He then placed the cutter exactly to windward of the schooner, and, lowering one of the boats, to which a rope was attached, let it drift down to the prize.
“Now,” he shouted, “fasten a hawser to that boat; the largest you have.”
There was evidently some discussion among the few men gathered on the deck of the pirate, and, seeing that they hesitated, Will shouted:
“Do as you are ordered, or I will open fire again.”
This decided the pirates, and in a short time the end of a hawser was tied to one of the thwarts of the boat. The boat was then hauled back to L’Agile, and when the cable was got on board it was knotted to their own strongest hawser.