ulwark
instantly flashed into a hundred points of flame as a party of
musketeers aboard her discharged their weapons at close range. At such
an exceedingly short distance it was inevitable that a certain number of
casualties should occur, and George, with rage in his heart, saw several
figures collapse and fall upon the deck of his own ship, Dyer's among
them, while a bullet rang sharply upon his own steel headpiece, causing
him to stagger slightly.

"The villains!" he muttered savagely; "they shall pay dearly for this.
Hold your fire, men; do not discharge your ordnance until we are square
athwart his stern. Then let him have it and rake him fore and aft!"

Some five seconds later, the starboard broadside of the _Nonsuch's_
ordnance, great and small, crashed out, one piece after another in rapid
succession; and mingled with the roar of the guns there arose a dreadful
chorus of shrieks and yells from the Spaniard's crowded decks. At the
same instant the shore batteries renewed their fire, and so eager,
apparently, were the artillerymen to destroy the English ship that they
seemed to care little though their own countrymen shared her
destruction, for at least half the shot fell on board the ship that had
just sustained such a punishing broadside from the English, which still
further added to the confusion on board her. And when, a moment later,
the _Nonsuch_ hove in stays, with the evident intention of repeating the
dose with her larboard broadside, the mere threat proved quite enough,
for the big craft hurriedly put up her helm and bore away again for the
anchorage, with her scuppers streaming blood. The lesson seemed to have
sufficed for the rest also; for, one after the other, as they saw the
_Nonsuch_ heading toward them, they, too, bore up and headed back toward
the anchorage, while the artillerymen manning the batteries plumped shot
into them indiscriminately, apparently unable to distinguish between
friend and foe, so that, as they ran in again, those who had hitherto
escaped the broadsides of the Englishmen received a pretty severe
castigation from their friends ashore. At length, however, the whole
fleet got back to the anchorage, well peppered on the one hand by their
own batteries, and, on the other, receiving an occasional reminder from
the _Nonsuch_, until they were all once more at anchor, when the
Englishmen, as they passed to their own sheltered berth, stood close
inshore and poured a couple of bro