All sense of fear had apparently left the latter. I heard afterwards that he had received a slight wound in his left arm, and the pain had transformed him into a veritable demon. Shouting, "Let me have a rub at the brutes!" he seized an iron bar, and met the onrushing buccaneers with the utmost fury. Two men had already gone down before his ponderous weapon ere, fortunately for me, he diverted the attention of the mulatto just as he had me at his mercy.
Even as I looked the iron bar crashed past the pirate's uplifted cutlass and, descending on the half-caste's head, stretched him lifeless on the deck; but in the moment of victory a chance pistol shot laid the erstwhile coward over the body of his antagonist.
It seemed at this juncture that the buccaneers would succeed in carrying the Golden Hope, till Clemens, the Cornishman whom we had rescued from the Algerine vessel, clambered up the shattered poop ladder, and, training one of the swivel guns, which fortunately was loaded, upon the thickest of the press of our enemies, fired a heavy charge of small shot with deadly effect.
Then, headed by Captain Jeremy and the master gunner, our men made a determined rush, and, still contesting every inch of our planks, the buccaneers were forced back over the side.
A hurried glance showed that the Neptune had also succeeded in beating off her attackers, and was already resuming her fire upon the retreating boats.
Without pausing to regain their breath, our men also remanned their guns and poured a destructive broadside on the boats, of which three had been sunk when we first opened fire. Two more disappeared amidst a swirl of shot-torn water, while the sole remaining boat, moving slowly, for most of her oars had been shattered and she was more than half-full, managed by little short of a miracle to regain her parent ship.
But there was no respite for our weary crew, for the three buccaneering craft resumed their fire. It being comparatively feeble, we knew that their guns were now ill-served, and that they were only firing to aid their escape.
"Aim carefully! Wing 'em!" shouted the master gunner, as he passed along the line of guns, some, alas! silent for want of a crew. In spite of his cautions, however, our men, elated with their victory, fired rapidly and erratically; but as the buccaneers made haste to sheer off, the mainmast of one came crashing over the side, while the others' spars were in a tottering state.
We could see the discomfited crew of the former vessel attack the wreckage with axes in an attempt to free themselves from the fatal encumbrance, but ere this could be done their ship drifted on to a shoal.
The remaining vessels were more fortunate. Slowly tacking, they drew beyond range, and having picked up the survivors of their consort who, on finding their vessel aground, had abandoned her, they gained the open sea.