board cutter, lads, as quick as you like. And
take your cutlasses and pistols with you. Come along, Chips, my man;
get your tools, and tumble them into the boat."

Ten minutes later we were on board the lugger, which proved to be the
_Belle Jeannette_, of Saint Malo, and a very fine craft she was, as we
saw, when we stood upon her broad, roomy deck. She mounted nine guns,
eight of them being long sixes, while the ninth was the long nine-
pounder between the fore and mainmast. I was astonished to see what
havoc our shot had wrought, the deck and bulwarks being broadly streaked
and splashed with blood, while each gun had its own little group of two
or three killed and wounded lying about it. All three of her masts had
been shot away, as already stated; and, in addition to this, her stern
transom was regularly torn to pieces, one of the jagged and splintered
holes being quite large enough for me to have passed through it had I
been so minded. Three spokes of the wheel had been shot away, and it
was a wonder to me, as I marked the path of our shot along the torn and
splintered deck, that the whole concern had not been destroyed. The
companion was badly damaged and started; and as for the cabin skylight,
there was very little of it left.

The crew--the few of them who could still stand, that is to say--had
thrown down their arms and gone forward on to the forecastle upon
hearing their skipper state that he surrendered, and there we found them
when we boarded our prize. The skipper himself--a rather fine-looking
man, some thirty-five years of age, with piercing black eyes, curly
black hair and beard, and large gold ear-rings in his ears--had, of
course, remained aft; and when I sprang over the bulwarks, in on deck,
he advanced toward me, and handing me his sheathed sword, remarked
rather bitterly:

"Accept my sword, monsieur, and with it my congratulations upon your
good fortune in having secured two such valuable prizes. The Indiaman
herself is not to be despised, but I was a fool not to let her go when I
saw that her capture was inevitable. I believe we could have escaped
you had we hauled our wind when we first made you out; but, as it is, I
have lost not only my prize but also my ship and the chest of specie
which we took the precaution of removing from the Indiaman last night.
You are certain to find it, as it is lying beneath the table in my
cabin, so I may as well make a virtue of necessity and tell you of