terrible ledges and reefs as any to be
found in the Caribbean Sea.

"Her captain was evidently bent upon playing a desperate game, but, if
he thought he would not find another ready to lay down the same stake,
he was greatly mistaken! It was about sunset when we made the keys, and
there we went--the schooner leading us about a mile--at a rate which
would have made both vessels leap clear over the first ledge they
struck, and perhaps have thrown summersaults of us into the bargain. I
asked the captain, who had never left my side on the poop, if we should
keep on.

"'Yes, sir,' he replied, 'so long as we have a gun and a plank to float
it!'

"And, by Saint Paul! we kept on. And there was not a soul on board the
'Scourge,' from the drummer-boy up, who did not agree with the captain.
How those villains on board the pirate relished this decision we could
only surmise; but, at all risks, he held his course with a nerve that
might have made the devil himself shudder.

"By this time the sun was well down, and a brilliant moon was riding
high in the heavens; but, as bright as it was, the fellow who commanded
that schooner required an eye as keen as an albatross and a hand as
steady as an iron bar to guide his craft in the direction he was
going--too late for either of us to think of hauling off.

"He must, too, have had a thorough knowledge of the reefs and keys, and
trusted, perhaps, if he got clear himself, that the corvette, drawing
eighteen feet water and ignorant of the channel, might touch something
which would throw the game in his hands. Our men had the ropes stretched
along the decks and the battery clear on both sides, so as to be ready
to wear, or tack, or fire, as our pilot ahead might require.

"The reefs were to leeward of the string of low keys, which made the
water comparatively smooth, though the wind still swept strongly over us
and sang through the rigging; and it was here the 'Centipede' entered,
going like wild pigeons the pair of us. The outer reef had a fair, deep
passage, and so had the next; but the inner one presented but one narrow
gateway, scarcely wide enough for a ship to scrape through, with the
whole reef one uninterrupted fringe of black pointed rocks and roaring
white breakers, which toppled over, and boiled and eddied like a
thousand whirlpools into the smoother water inshore.

"As the 'Centipede's' stern gave a sharp pitching jerk when she entered
this boiling gorge, we saw, in the moo