"Helm a starboard!"
"Starboard 'tis!"
"Steady now!"
"Let them have it!" he shouted, in a clear voice that rung like a trumpet.
Terrible cries of men taken by surprise, of men wounded and in pain, followed close the deep-mouthed roar of the guns: the volumes of smoke, that shot half way towards the pirate, then rolled swiftly back upon the yacht, and were blown to leeward, leaving a full view of the enemy. His foremast was hanging over the side; a glaring gash along the hull showed where a shot had told between wind and water; and a breach in the forward bulwarks, near the catheads, and the groans of the wounded, indicated the passage of a raking shot through the mass on deck; instead, also, of presenting her starboard bow to the range of the broadside as at first, she had yawed wide of her course, and was shivering helplessly in the wind.
"Neatly done! We have thrown them into confusion. If we can only keep her at this distance, we can riddle her like the top of a pepper-box, and have the pleasure afterward of seeing her go down to Davy's locker, bodily, before our faces. See your enemy buried handsomely, after you have done for him, is my maxim, my lord. There it comes," he shouted, suddenly. "Fall to the deck, all!"
He had hardly spoken, when, amid a loud yell from the pirates, who had recovered from the surprise of their rough salutation where, apparently, they had calculated on slight resistance, a heavy broadside was discharged: the balls came singing through the air, knocking against the sides of the yacht, and splintering and crashing the upper works, tearing the decks, wounding the spars, and creating terrible ruin and confusion, while shrieks of the wounded rose appalling from every part of the ill-fated vessel. The captain glanced hastily at the poor fellows that lay bleeding on the decks, then looked up anxiously at his masts, and leaned over the bulwarks and run his eye along the side of his vessel to see what injury she had sustained in the hull—for, in his eye, the wounds of the ship were of infinitely more importance than the wounds of the men.
"No damage to her timbers; but two poor fellows dead as they ever will be," he said to the earl, who stood beside him. "Five—six—seven wounded. Handle that man carefully, you lubbers, or you will do his business for him before you can get him to the doctor. See that the wounded are taken at once, and with care, to the cockpit, Mr. Edwards. Lively, there, at the battery; charge to the muzzle! Now watch the weather-roll. Fire!"
Again the sides of the yacht belched forth fire and smoke, shaking the little vessel through every oaken joint.