he men were ready to turn to again; and
as the schooner had long ago been cleared for action, the galley fire
was now extinguished, and the crew went to the guns in readiness for the
coming struggle. At the same time our helm was eased up a trifle, and
we began to edge down upon our antagonist.

Just about this time the brig caught the first of the breeze, and at
once crowded sail in chase. It was therefore time for us to set about
our work in earnest, if we did not desire to have her to reckon with as
well as the lugger. Nevertheless, we still withheld our fire; the
skipper being determined not to begin until he could make short work of
it.

"Mr Bowen," said he to me, when we were within about half a mile of the
lugger, "I want to take that fellow with as little damage as possible to
his spars and rigging, because if they happen to be much cut up we may
find ourselves so seriously hampered as to have some difficulty in
getting away from the other two. Be good enough, therefore, to go round
the deck, and direct the men to aim with the utmost care at the ports,
so that our shot may sweep her decks and drive her men from their guns,
after which it will be an easy matter to run alongside and carry her
with a rush. I expect her people are already so tired with their long
spell at the sweeps that they will not have much stomach for a hand-to-
hand fight. Ha! there she opens fire! So it is time to show our
colours."

And he proceeded to bend on and hoist the ensign with his own hands,
while I turned away to carry out his instructions.

The single shot that the lugger had fired flew fair between our masts,
cutting our lee topsail brace. The damage, however, was repaired in
less than five minutes by a hand who sprang aloft and neatly spliced and
re-rove the brace. Meanwhile our lads had carefully levelled and
pointed their guns, and now only awaited the word to fire. This soon
came from the skipper, whereupon the five guns in our larboard broadside
rang out together, five neat holes in the lugger's bulwarks testifying
to the accuracy with which they had been aimed. The lugger almost
instantly replied with her starboard broadside, and again the shot went
humming over us, but this time without doing any damage. They probably
had no very keen desire to engage us single-handed, but were anxious to
cripple us and so give time for the brig to close to their support; but
in their anxiety to do this they had pointed the