s your guns bear!" shouted
I; and as we swept round almost square athwart our antagonist's stern
the six-pounders once more spoke out, one shot striking the stern of her
fair amidships and smashing her wheel to pieces, while the other two
took her in the larboard quarter at an angle that must have caused them
to traverse _very_ nearly three-quarters of the length of her deck
before they passed out through her starboard bulwarks.

The brigantine, no longer under the control of her helm, fell off until
she was running dead before the wind, when the pirates trimmed their
yards square; and a moment later I saw a number of her hands in the fore
rigging swarming aloft. The moment that her starboard broadside could
be brought to bear upon us she fired; and the next moment our bowsprit
and foretopmast both went, the former, with the flying-jib, towing under
the bows, while the latter dangled to leeward by its rigging, with the
royal towing in the water alongside. Our lads, having by this time
reloaded the starboard guns, again fired, hulling the pirate, and then,
by my orders, left their guns to clear away the wreck; for, encumbered
as we now were, with the jib under the bows and the square canvas
hanging over the side, the schooner was gradually coming-to, although
her helm was hard a-weather.

This ended the fight, for when I next found time to look at the
brigantine she had studding-sail booms rigged out on both sides and her
people were busy getting the studding-sails upon her, while the straight
wake that she was making showed that they had already contrived to rig
up some temporary contrivance for steering her. Seeing this, I at once
hove the schooner to, and went to work to repair damages; for, now that
I had had the opportunity to discover the stuff of which Senor Morillo
was made, it struck me as by no means improbable that the moment he had
repaired his damages he would return and attack us afresh.

Altogether the fight had not lasted longer than some eight or ten
minutes at the utmost, but during that short time we had lost two men,
killed outright, while six--including myself--were wounded, four of them
severely. Christie, recognising that his duty was to take care of the
prize, had hauled his wind when we passed ahead of him, and was now
about a mile to windward, with his maintopsail to the mast; but when he
saw that the fight was over he filled away and came booming down to us,
sweeping close athwart our ste