falconet, patarero, saker, and swivel, came hurtling from the battery
across the narrow water toward the ship. But the gallant cavalier had
been just a trifle too eager to display his valour, for most of the
missiles fell short, having been fired at rather too long a range, while
those which hit were so nearly spent that only a few of them lodged in
the solid woodwork of the ship's bulwarks, and not a man on board was
hit.

"Now, men," roared Bascomb, "give yonder presumptuous fool a lesson;
fire as your guns come to bear, and not before. I want that parapet
swept clean!"

And swept clean it was, the English holding their fire and the ship
sweeping on in grim, inexorable silence until she was within some two
hundred feet of the structure, when all her larboard ordnance, great and
small, bellowed and barked back its answer. As the smoke drove away
ahead before the wind the wall was seen to crumble into dust under the
impact of the heavy iron shot, while the lighter missiles mowed down the
soldiers like corn beneath the sickle, until not a man was left standing
upon his feet, even the magnifico in armour going down before the hail
of iron and lead, to say nothing of the Spanish standard, the staff of
which was cut clean in two, so that it toppled over and fell, carrying
the flag with it, to the ground at the base of the wall.

"So much for thicky!" exclaimed Bascomb, relapsing into broad Devon for
a moment, under the influence of excitement. "If it weren't that we
have a long and hot morning's work before us I would anchor the ship,
land a party, and blow their footy batteries into the air. But perhaps
we may have time to do that when we come back this way. Now, my
masters, load again, this time with double charges, consisting of a
half-keg of bullets to each culverin, with a chain shot on top, and the
smaller ordnance in proportion. We will not fire again, if we can help
it, until we run alongside the galleon, and not then until we rub sides
with her."

The ship had by this time traversed so much of the Boca that it became
necessary for her to shift her helm in order to avoid grounding upon a
sandspit that stretched athwart her course, and here the advantage and
value of Dick Chichester's previous observations became apparent; for so
sharp was the bend, and so little was there to indicate the existence of
the shoal, that if Dick had not previously had the opportunity to note
its position, the ship would undou