he helmsman again with some
whispered instructions, and sprang back into the fight that had not
slackened because of the chances of shipwreck. But the sense of
doubled danger soon told its tale. The Spanish allies, strangers to
the river, lost their heads, unnerved by the blackness of the night and
the apparently ungoverned course along the tide. Raleigh and his
victorious men were running along the bank and cheering the admiral.
The captain of the _Luath_ took a desperate chance. He blew a call on
a whistle that hung on his neck. It was a signal to the helmsman, who
turned the nose of the ship across stream to the eastern shore.
Diagonally the vessel steered to destruction; she just cleared the
sand-ridge in the centre of the river, and then went crash into the
bank.

"Save yourselves," cried the skipper, and those of his men who could
jumped into the waters and struggled to land. "I fight to the last,"
cried the gallant Irishman, when those who cared to run for life had
had their chance; and the braver ones amongst his men came in a ring
about him, and fought on until struck down. Drake offered them
quarter, but they proudly refused it. "No rope for my neck!" cried the
captain; and his men cheered his resolve, and died fighting beside him.

Chapter XIV.

WHAT HAPPENED IN WESTBURY STEEPLE.

The battle was over, and there remained but the counting of the cost.
The admiral had lost a third of his force, who lay dead on the deck, or
on the shifting sands beneath the yellow tide. There was hardly a man
that had not received a wound. Johnnie Morgan had gone down under the
last wild-cat spring of the Irish captain.

"We must have a light," cried Drake; "this vessel is a firebrand. Some
of you fetch up combustibles from below."

The ship was stuck fast into the bank, the tide pounding her viciously
as she lay. In a short while a fire was roaring on the Arlingham bank,
and by its glare the deck was cleared of its ghastly burden, and the
wounded attended to. Hallooing across the river, Drake ordered those
on the other side to secure boats from somewhere, and come across
stream to render him assistance. Messengers went off to the
neighbouring farms to bring carts and mattresses and stuff for
bandaging; for the tale of wounded, friend and foe, was a long one.
Willing hands and legs went to work, but it was bright morning ere much
assistance arrived. Johnnie Morgan was not seriously wounded. A
sword-c