d began to practise
on the pirate vessel with their guns. The flag-ship was the first to
make a hit, which she did between wind and water with her bow-chaser.
The other vessels then got the range, and hulled the _Black Pearl_ with
nearly every shot.

Harry and Roger, once more together on the flag-ship, had already
recounted in detail all their adventures during the time that they were
separated, the one on the sand-bank and the other on the ship driven
away to leeward of the island by the storm. They were both now standing
amongst the crew of the bow-chaser gun, watching the effect of every
shot with the utmost interest; and Roger presently asked the captain of
the gun to allow him to have a shot. The man, who was much attached to
the lad by reason of many little acts of kindness received, made no
demur. The gun was reloaded, and Roger, with the firing-match in his
hand, cocked his eye along the chase of the piece, watching until the
heaving of the ship should bring the sights to bear on the hulk.
Presently the _Good Adventure_ dipped to a large wave, and Roger, who
was watching like a cat, applied the match. There came the sharp report
of the discharge, and, as the smoke swept away, the young man had the
satisfaction of seeing his shot strike the vessel right between wind and
water, just at the side of a hole where two others had penetrated. This
shot of his, of course, much enlarged the already large hole, through
which the water of the Caribbean was now pouring like a sluice; and it
was seen that the pirate vessel was on the point of foundering. Even as
they watched, the craft seemed to settle visibly deeper in the water,
and she rolled heavily two or three times. A few seconds later her
stern was seen to lift high and her bows to point downward; steeper and
steeper became the angle of her decks and then, with a slow forward
movement that quickly became a diving rush, she plunged to the bottom,
vanishing from their sight in a whirl and froth of water.

Such was the end of the _Black Pearl_! For years she had been the
terror of all the seas around the West Indies and the coasts of New
Spain. She had been a floating den of vice, murder, and every
conceivable form of infamy, and now her lawless and adventurous career
had terminated in her becoming a target for the guns of the avengers of
the evil she had wrought, while her captain and surviving crew had swung
from the yard-arm of their own vessel before she