s in order to
assist with the repairing of a gun, the mechanism of which had become
jammed, and the gallant commander immediately sprang to his bridge-
telegraph, and rang for all the steam his boilers could give him. But
the engineers were already getting every possible ounce of work out of
the crazy machinery, and the sloop's speed could not be increased! For
two dreadful minutes the combatants paused, as if by mutual consent,
while the _Huascar_ rushed onward, like some fearful sea-monster, at its
prey.

But Captain Grau stopped his engines just a few seconds too soon, and
the _Esmeralda_ was within an ace of scraping clear. She was nearly
past--only a few yards more and she would be in safety--but her wretched
engines chose just that precise moment to break down, and the sloop at
once lost her way. The next second the Peruvian monitor struck her with
a concussion that threw every man to the deck; but the blow was
fortunately a glancing one, and the _Huascar_ rubbed harmlessly along
the sides of the sloop, coming to a standstill alongside her in
consequence of the entanglement of some raised port-shutters.

Now was the Chilian's last opportunity to snatch success out of the jaws
of failure, and Captain Prat immediately seized it.

Waving his sword above his head, he shouted: "Boarders, away! Follow me
all who are able!" And he sprang over the side of his ship on to the
decks of the _Huascar_.

Douglas was the second man aboard the Peruvian monitor, and he raced
along her deck, followed by only twelve men, in the wake of his gallant
commander. The Peruvians were not prepared for the attack, as they had
quite expected to sink the little sloop with the first blow of the
_Huascar's_ ram; but they quickly recovered from their surprise and
swarmed out of the turret, and up from below, charging furiously upon
the boarders, with drawn cutlasses and revolvers. Scarcely a man, it
appeared, had been touched aboard the Peruvian, owing to the great
thickness of her armour-plating, and her crew, being practically intact,
brought an overwhelming force to bear upon the handful of invaders, who
were instantly surrounded by their enemies.

There were but fourteen of them, all told, against quite a hundred of
the _Huascar's_ people, but they fought like the heroes they were, and
repeatedly charged home with their cutlasses, into the thick of the foe.
Prat, still at the head of his men, laid about him with his red-stained