"Ahoy there! Ahoy!"
"What are you hailing?" a strange voice cried, and he who had first broken the silence replied:
"There's a craft of some kind alongside, sir!"
Then it was as if a swarm of bees had been let loose. The enemy's ship was alive with moving, buzzing beings, some of whom cried out this or that order, and others called down maledictions on the head of the man who had needlessly aroused them.
"There's nothin' here, sir. Sam was dreamin'," I heard the voice of a sailor cry, and almost at the same instant came the rattling of fire-arms as they were being handled, sounding so near aboard that it seemed as if a portion of the enemy had leaped upon our decks.
"Make ready! Fire!" sounded the command, sharp and quick.
Then came a sheet of flame which lighted up surrounding objects until we could distinctly see the deck of the bomb-vessel, and the eager men thronging her deck.
This illumination was but as the lightning's flash, and then we could hear the angry hum of the bullets as they swarmed above our heads.
We had been seen, and I believed that a broadside would follow in short order, yet at the same time I realized that our good fortune had followed us when it sent the pungy afoul of a bomb-vessel, instead of a craft which had her guns ready trained for service.