Before the warning could be given a quick-firer was discharged from the cruiser, and with a vicious spurt of flame a shell passed between the steam yacht and the disabled whaler she had in tow, and Juan Cervillo commanded the astonished captain of the steam yacht to heave-to instantly.
The tricked vessel was the Serena, a 300-ton pleasure craft owned by a wealthy Canadian named Rignold. She had fallen in with a whaler Hetty of Boston that had broken her shafting in a gale, and had sustained considerable damage to her spars and rigging, and the owner of the Serena offered to tow the Hetty into St. John's, Newfoundland. The offer had been gratefully accepted; and now both vessels were under the guns of the pirate cruiser Independencia.
Rignold and his captain, officers, and crew were completely astounded. During their cruise in the Arctic they had had no opportunities of receiving the general warning of the presence of the formidable pirate in the North Atlantic. The Serena's skipper, a man of courage and resource, did not lose his head. Imagining that the cruiser was a Government vessel of fishery protection duties, and had compelled his vessel to heave-to for the purpose of making an examination, he promptly ordered the engines to be reversed, at the same time shouting to the Hetty's mate to mind her helm. The whaler, carrying considerable way, over-ran the yacht till brought up by the hawser, eventually swinging round between the Serena and her captor.
"What ship that?" shouted Cervillo,
"Great snakes, that is not a British hail!" ejaculated the Serena's captain; then in reply he bawled, "Steam yacht Serena, of Quebec, with the whaler Hetty in tow. Why are we ordered to heave-to?"
Before Cervillo could reply Fielding shouted in stentorian tones through the port:—
"Clear off at full speed. This vessel is a pirate. Save yourself while there's time."
Had he been given a free hand the yacht skipper would not have hesitated to run the gauntlet of the cruiser's guns, trusting in the darkness to avoid a shot that would send the vessel to the bottom. But there were other considerations. Mr. Rignold, the owner, had a large party of guests on bard, and on that account he was anxious not to be under fire. Moreover, he was too staunch a man to abandon the disabled whaler. He would stand by and take his chance with the Hetty.
"You have to heave-to—that good enough?" bawled the Spanish captain.
"Ay, ay!" was the reply. "But you'll be real sorry for this piece of work."