The transatlantic liner's decks were crowded with passengers, who were regarding the cruiser with the greatest interest, for the Independencia had hoisted the white ensign, and with their faith in the entente cordiale, the Frenchmen never for one moment harboured any suspicion.
Suddenly a four-pounder boomed out, and a shell hissed betwixt the huge funnels of L'Égalité. Like a crowd of startled rabbits, the passengers rushed pell-mell for the companion ladders. Had war suddenly broken out between Great Britain and France? They were not long left in doubt. As soon as the liner came to a standstill, two boats were lowered from the cruiser. Into them tumbled fifty men, all armed to the teeth.
"Ciel!" gasped the astounded French captain. "They are not John Bull's bluejackets. They are pirates."
His worst suspicions were confirmed when the white ensign was struck and a red flag hoisted in its place, while slowly the 'midships barbette on the starboard side, actuated by manual power, was turned till its pair of 12 in. guns were trained upon the luckless liner.
The French captain did not know that the huge weapons were without breech-blocks, but the frowning muzzles were far more terrifying to him than the quick-firers. Unresistingly he allowed the boats to come alongside, and the lawless mob to swarm over the liner's lofty sides.
The pirates went about their work in a systematic manner. Four of them went straight to the wireless-room, and interrupting an urgent call for aid, drove out the operators, and put the delicate mechanism out of action. Others, making the captain prisoner, and driving the rest of the officers into the smoking-room, compelled the former to send for the ship's papers. The whole of the specie and bullion was transferred to the boats, together with the wealthiest and most influential of the passengers. This done the terrified first and second-class passengers were made to hand over their money and jewellery, the steerage being left unmolested.
Very little resistance was shown by the passengers. An American millionaire who had made a pile in Nevada, promptly whipped out a six-shooter, vowing he'd send the cowardly Dagoes to blazes. He was quick and deadly with his pistol, and four of the pirates pitched forward on the floor of the saloon; but one man against a score was too long odds, and the tough old backwoodsman fell riddled with bullets.
Having taken all the bullion and specie, together with the hostages, to the Independencia, the pirates proceeded to cripple the engines, leaving the liner helpless in the Atlantic. But they had not done with their prize, for directly the two boats returned to the cruiser Juan Cervillo ordered L'Égalité to hoist out her own boats, fill them with provisions and stores, and bring them alongside the Independencia. Under a threat that the liner would be sunk if the demand were not complied with, the captain of L'Égalité hastened to carry out Cervillo's order.
Two hours later, with her store-rooms filled to their utmost capacity, and nearly a million and a quarter pounds' worth of additional booty in her strong-room, the Independencia bade an ironical farewell to the helpless liner.
From their place of confinement Fielding and his companions had watched the work of plunder and wanton destruction. They had seen the easy way by which the cruiser had replenished her stores, and the continuation of the policy of bringing off hostages to the ship in order to prevent any punitive vessel from firing at the modern buccaneer.