"Who are you?" demanded Lonley, when he had in some measure recovered from the shock which the failure gave him.
"I am Levick, the boatswain; and this is Lieutenant Folkner, who was wounded in the shoulder in the first of it," replied the man. "He was knocked from the rail into the water when we boarded, and he held on to an oar. When the fight was over, and we had lost it, I slipped into the water, and helped the lieutenant along on his oar, till I was about used up, and then I called for help."
"Are you much hurt, Mr. Folkner?" asked Lonley of the injured officer.
"I don't know; my shoulder feels numb, and I can't use my arm," replied Folkner. "But I can use my legs, and I think that is what we had better be doing."
"I don't understand it," protested Lonley, very much dissatisfied with the result of the action, as may well be supposed. "I was sure you would carry her deck at once."
"I was as sure as you were, Lonley; but I believe they had fifty men all ready for us. They let us leap on deck without much opposition, and then they surrounded us, and took us by surprise, for I did not suppose, after what you said, that they had a dozen men," replied the wounded lieutenant.
"I did not suppose they had even a dozen men left on board," Lonley explained, with humiliation in his tones.
"I staid in the boat till I had seen all my men on deck," continued Mr. Folkner. "They surrounded our force, and tumbled them into the hold as though they had been pigs, slashing them with their cutlasses if they tried to get out. I saw the fat officer in command of the enemy; he was very active, and I leaped on deck, determined to cross weapons with him. But he hit me in the shoulder with his cutlass, and I lost my hold on the rail."
"You ought to have led your men, not followed them," said Lonley bitterly.
"That is easy enough for you to say; but I wanted to be where I could see my men," retorted the first lieutenant, of whom the second had a very mean opinion, perhaps because he got his position on account of being the captain's brother.