ambered up the rigging to repair the
injury done. Had they succeeded in their object, the slaver would
again have got under way and escaped from our fire. All this time,
Bangs and Gelid had been firing at the enemy with the most murderous
precision. They lay behind the bulwarks, and their black servants were
in the cabin busily engaged in loading their muskets for them.
Wagtail, who was not much of a shot, sat on deck and passed the
weapons up and down.

"For heaven's sake, Master Bangs," cried I, "pick off those two men in
the rigging. Down with them."

"What! those two chaps at the end of the long pole?" asked Bangs,
turning to me with the greatest coolness imaginable.

"Yes, yes--down with them."

He raised his musket as deliberately as if he were shooting at a
target.

"I say, Gelid, my boy, take the one this way, will you?"

"Certainly," replied Paul.

They fired, and the seamen fell, and after struggling in the water for
a moment like wounded birds, sank to the bottom, leaving on the
surface of the sea, pools of blood to mark their graves.

"Now," cried I, to the man at the wheel, "run her alongside of the
Spaniard. Out with the grapnels, men; that's right. Hurrah! she's
ours."

"Follow me, ye boarders!" I exclaimed as soon as I had collected my
people, and in the excitement of the moment I sprang on the slaver's
deck, followed by eight-and-twenty men. But the enemy was ready for
us, and we were received by a shower of musket balls that sent four of
our tars into the next world, and wounded three more. Spite of this
warm reception, however, we reached the quarter-deck, where the
Spanish captain with about forty men, armed with swords and pistols,
presented a formidable front. We attacked them; Tailtackle, who as
soon as he heard the cry of "boarders," had rushed out of the magazine
and followed us, split the captain's skull with his cutlass. The
lieutenant was my bird, and I had nearly finished him, when he
suddenly drew a pistol from his belt and shot me through the shoulder.
I felt no pain except a sharp twinge, and then a sensation of cold, as
if some one had poured water over my neck.

Our fellows fought with the accustomed bravery of British sailors, but
for some time the chances of the combat were doubtful. At last our
opponents began to waver, and finally gave way; but at this moment
some fifty blacks, armed with muskets, sprang suddenly upon deck, and
rushed to the aid of the Spaniards. I now