ill flying up into the wind,
the felucca crashed into our starboard quarter with a shock which made
us heel to our covering-board, and caused our antagonist to rebound a
full fathom from us. Then, as the schooner recovered herself and rolled
heavily to windward, the felucca poured in her broadside, and whilst the
sharp ring of her brass pieces, mingled with the crash of timber, was
vibrating in my ears, I felt a sharp stunning blow on the head which
momentarily rendered me unconscious.

"Hurrah, sir, we're afloat, we're afloat!" were the first sounds I heard
as my scattered senses came back to me; and, clearing away with my
pocket-handkerchief the blood which was streaming down into my eyes and
blinding me, I found that I had been knocked up against the mainmast, to
one of the belaying-pins in the spider-hoop of which I was clinging with
one hand; and I further observed that the shock of the collision,
coupled no doubt with the action of our square canvas, which had been
laid aback, had caused the schooner to back off the shoal on which she
had grounded, and that she now had stern-way upon her. A hasty glance
round the deck showed that our bulwarks and deck-fittings had been
considerably damaged by the felucca's fire; and some eight or nine
prostrate forms--O'Flaherty's among them--bore still further witness to
its destructive effect.

The boatswain came up to me and said:

"Poor Mr O'Flaherty's down, sir; and you're hurt, yourself. Who is to
take command of the schooner, sir?"

"I will," said I, rallying at once as a sense of the responsible
position in which I thus suddenly found myself rushed upon me.

The boatswain touched his forelock and remarked:

"We've got starn-way upon us, sir, and if we don't look out we shall
drive over that there stream of ours and perhaps send a fluke through
our bottom."

"Yes," said I. "Have the goodness, Mr Fidd, to muster all hands aft
here; let them tail on to the hawser and rouse it smartly inboard; then
man the capstan and lift the anchor."

"Ay, ay, sir," was the reply, and the man turned away to see the order
executed. At that moment Courtenay came aft.

"Why, Lascelles, old man," he exclaimed, starting back as I turned my
face toward him, "what have the rascals done to you? You're an awful
sight, old fellow; are you hurt much?"

"I can scarcely say yet," I replied; "not very much, I think; but my
head is aching most consumedly. I wish you would kindly get a co