d air. They could see men moving on her decks, and the
watchman stationed in the foremast fighting-top. She was not more than
half a mile away when suddenly came the manceuvre to go about.

Sakr-el-Bahr leapt instantly to his great height and waved a long green
scarf. From one of the galleys behind the screen of rocks a trumpet rang
out in immediate answer to that signal; it was followed by the shrill
whistles of the bo'suns, and that again by the splash and creak of oars,
as the two larger galleys swept out from their ambush. The long armoured
poops were a-swarm with turbaned corsairs, their weapons gleaming in
the sunshine; a dozen at least were astride of the crosstree of each
mainmast, all armed with bows and arrows, and the ratlines on each side
of the galleys were black with men who swarmed there like locusts ready
to envelop and smother their prey.

The suddenness of the attack flung the Spaniard into confusion. There
was a frantic stir aboard her, trumpet blasts and shootings and wild
scurryings of men hither and thither to the posts to which they were
ordered by their too reckless captain. In that confusion her manceuvre
to go about went all awry, and precious moments were lost during which
she stood floundering, with idly flapping sails. In his desperate haste
the captain headed her straight to leeward, thinking that by running
thus before the wind he stood the best chance of avoiding the trap. But
there was not wind enough in that sheltered spot to make the attempt
successful. The galleys sped straight on at an angle to the direction
in which the Spaniard was moving, their yellow dripping oars flashing
furiously, as the bo'suns plied their whips to urge every ounce of sinew
in the slaves.

Of all this Sakr-el-Bahr gathered an impression as, followed by Biskaine
and the negroes, he swiftly made his way down from that eyrie that
had served him so well. He sprang from red oak to cork-tree and from
cork-tree to red oak; he leapt from rock to rock, or lowered himself
from ledge to ledge, gripping a handful of heath or a projecting stone,
but all with the speed and nimbleness of an ape. He dropped at last to
the beach, then sped across it at a run, and went bounding along a black
reef until he stood alongside of the galliot which had been left behind
by the other Corsair vessels. She awaited him in deep water, the length
of her oars from the rock, and as he came alongside, these oars were
brought to the horizonta