was a good sailer, and under some con­di­tions might have over­hauled the

. But now, King Tommy saw such a task to be hopeless and that the Buccaneers would enter the river before there was any chance of their being overtaken. The only hope lay in a shot from the yacht cannon, and as this meant danger to {110} the Queen, it was no sooner thought of than abandoned. Meanwhile the

had reached the mouth of the river, and Big Bill, in glee at his successful capture of the Queen and no less successful escape from the King, trained his brass cannon on the fast approaching yacht and fired a parting shot. Buccaneers are usually fine shots, but from a careless aim, due probably to excitement, the cannon ball went wide, never coming within yards of doing any harm. This it did do, however: it showed to the King the danger of continuing the pursuit, especially when fear of hitting the Queen made it unwise to return the fire.

By this time the