heavy body, and then a figure came jumping over the rail, with two or
three more directly following. The lieutenant was in the midst of the
gun powder smoke, when suddenly Blackbeard was before him. The pirate
captain had stripped himself naked to the waist. His shaggy black hair
was falling over his eyes, and he looked like a demon fresh from the
pit, with his frantic face. Almost with the blindness of instinct the
lieutenant thrust out his pistol, firing it as he did so. The pirate
staggered back: he was down--no; he was up again. He had a pistol in
each hand; but there was a stream of blood running down his naked
ribs. Suddenly, the mouth of a pistol was pointing straight at the
lieutenant's head. He ducked instinctively, striking upward with his
cutlass as he did so. There was a stunning, deafening report almost in
his ear. He struck again blindly with his cutlass. He saw the flash of a
sword and flung up his guard almost instinctively, meeting the crash
of the descending blade. Somebody shot from behind him, and at the same
moment he saw some one else strike the pirate. Blackbeard staggered
again, and this time there was a great gash upon his neck. Then one of
Maynard's own men tumbled headlong upon him. He fell with the man, but
almost instantly he had scrambled to his feet again, and as he did so he
saw that the pirate sloop had drifted a little away from them, and that
their grappling irons had evidently parted. His hand was smarting as
though struck with the lash of a whip. He looked around him; the pirate
captain was nowhere to be seen--yes, there he was, lying by the rail. He
raised himself upon his elbow, and the lieutenant saw that he was trying
to point a pistol at him, with an arm that wavered and swayed blindly,
the pistol nearly falling from his fingers. Suddenly his other elbow
gave way and he fell down upon his face. He tried to raise himself--he
fell down again. There was a report and a cloud of smoke, and when it
cleared away Blackbeard had staggered up again. He was a terrible figure
his head nodding down upon his breast. Somebody shot again, and then the
swaying figure toppled and fell. It lay still for a moment--then rolled
over--then lay still again.

There was a loud splash of men jumping overboard, and then, almost
instantly, the cry of "Quarter! quarter!" The lieutenant ran to the
edge of the vessel. It was as he had thought: the grappling irons of the
pirate sloop had parted, and it had drif