wled the fellow again, growing more insolent
with every advance.

"I'm one that'll give you the best hiding you ever had, if you'll step
up here a minute!" yelled the skipper, as cool as a man in Hyde Park.

"Oh, I guess," said the man; "you're a tarnation fine talker, ain't
you? But you'll talk less when I come aboard you, oh, I reckon!"

They came a couple of oars' lengths nearer, when Captain York made his
reply. There was a fine roll of confidence in his voice; and he almost
laughed when he cried--

"You're coming aboard, are you? And which of you shall I have the
pleasure of kicking first?"

The hulking ruffian roared with pleasant laughter at the sally.

"Oh, you're a funny cuss, ain't you, and pretty with your jaw, by
thunder! But it's me that you'll have the pleasure of speaking to, and
right quick, my mate, oh, you bet!"

"In that case," said the skipper, with his calmness well at zero; "in
that case--you, Dan! introduce yourself to the gentleman."

Dan's reply was instantaneous. He leant well over the bulwark, and his
cheery old face beamed as he bellowed--

"Ahoy, you there that it's me pleasure to be runnin' against so far
from me old country. Will you have it hot, or will you have it the
other way for a parcel of cold-livered lubbers? By the Old 'Un, how's
that for salt 'oss!"

He had up with his shot gun, and the long ruffian, who had reached
forward with his boat-hook, got the dose full in his face as it seemed
to me. At the same moment the skipper called "Fire!" and the heavy
crack of the rifles and the sharp report of the pistols rang out
together. The very launch itself seemed to reel under the volley; but
the Chinaman gave a great shout, and jumped into the sea with the agony
of his wound; while two of the others were stretched out in death as
they sat.

"Full steam ahead!" roared Captain York, as the nameless ship replied
with a shell that grazed our chart-room. "Full speed ahead!" Then,
shaking his fist to the war-ship, he almost screamed--"Bested for a
parcel of cut-throats, by the Powers!"

There was no doubt about it at all. The moment the yacht answered to
the screw the fog rolled round us like a sheet, in thick wet clouds,
steaming damp on the decks; and twenty yards ahead or astern of us you
could not see the long waves themselves. But the sensations of that
five minutes I shall never forget. Shot after shot hissed and splashed
ahead of us, behind us; now dull, heavy, yet penetr