Suddenly both frigates opened fire, and the great cannon-balls ripped up the sea all round us.
"They'll sink us, sure," said one of the smugglers with a grin.
The men all laughed, and I laughed too; we were all so very much interested in what was going to happen. The guns fired steadily one after the other in a long rolling roar. The men laughed at each shot.
"They couldn't hit the sea," they said derisively. "The navy gunners are no use at all."
"No," said Marah, "they're not. But if they keep their course another half-minute they'll be on the sunk reef, and a lot of 'em'll be drowned. I wonder will the old Laocoon take a hint."
"Give 'em the pennant," said Gateo.
"Ay, give it 'em," said half-a-dozen others. "Don't let 'em wreck."
Marah opened the flag-locker, and took out a blue pennant (it had a white ball in the middle of it), which he hoisted to his main truck. "Let her go off," he cried to the helmsman.
For just a moment we lay broadside on to the frigate, a fair target for her guns, so that she could see the pennant blowing out clear.
"You see, Jim?" asked Marah. "That pennant means 'You are standing in to danger.' Now we will luff again."