d to
wind, and keep her there!"

The first officer sprang forward, to see that the order was carried
into effect, and a minute later the Indiaman lay, with her sails
aback, at a distance of a hundred yards, on the quarter of the brig.

"Grape and canister!" the captain shouted, and broadside after
broadside swept the decks of the brig, which, hampered by her
wreckage, was lying almost motionless in the water. So terrible was
the fire, that the privateer's men threw down the axes with which they
were striving to cut away the floating spars, and ran below.

"Double shot your guns, and give her one broadside between wind and
water!" the captain ordered.

"Haul on the sheets and braces, Mr. Green, and get her on her course
again--the schooner won't trouble us, now."

That craft had indeed, at first, luffed up, to come to the assistance
of her consort; but on seeing the fall of the latter's mast, and that
she was incapable of rendering any assistance, had again altered her
course, feeling her incapacity to engage so redoubtable an opponent,
single handed. Three hearty cheers broke from all on board the Madras
as, after pouring in a broadside at a distance of fifty yards, she
left the brig behind her, and proceeded on her way.

"Then you don't care about taking prizes, captain?" one of the
passengers said, as they crowded round to congratulate him upon his
easy, and almost bloodless, victory.

"No, taking prizes is not my business; and were I to weaken my crew,
by sending some of them off in a prize, I might find myself
short-handed if we met another of these gentlemen, or fell in with bad
weather. Besides, she would not be worth sending home."

"The brig is signalling to her consort, sir," Mr. Green said, coming
up.

"Ay, ay. I expect she wants help badly enough. I saw the chips fly
close to her waterline, as we gave her that last broadside."

"They are lowering a boat," one of the passengers said.

"So they are. I expect they haven't got more than one that can swim.

"I think she is settling down," the captain said, as he looked
earnestly at the wreck astern. "See how they are crowding into that
boat, and how some of the others are cutting and slashing, to get the
wreckage clear of her."

"She is certainly a good bit lower in the water than she was," the
first officer agreed. "The schooner has come round, and won't be long
before she is alongside of her."

There was no doubt that the brig was settling down