uld count every man that stood
grouped on her flush deck.

There seemed to be sixty or seventy of them, and they clustered
together, looking over the side of their vessel at their expected prey.

Nearer and nearer she still continued to glide--until the schooner was
almost alongside the _Hankow Lin_, and not ten yards off. It looked as
if the pirate was going to run them aboard!

"Now," whispered the lieutenant again to the expectant Englishmen around
him--"small-arm men reserve your fire; you at the guns, be ready to run
them out. Now, men, altogether, drop the ports! Run out the guns!
Fire!"

The concussion shook the ship to her centre, and a perfect hail of
grape-shot was poured on the deck of the schooner, making long lanes or
furrows through the ranks of the pirate's crew, as if they had been
mowed down by a scythe!

"Again, men; sharp's the word. Load again, and give them another round.
Quick! That's right," as a wild yell rose again from the crowded
pirate. "Now, Captain Morton, one more round and then I shall board her
on the weather-side. Load again as quickly as you can. Fire!"

The terrific shot-shower again swept into the schooner, which had
remained in the same position, the first two broadsides having broken
the sweeps and killed the men manning them; and before the pirates could
recover from their surprise the guns had been loaded again, and the gig
of the _Hankow Lin_, with Lieutenant Meredith and his chosen crew, not
forgetting Mr Sprott, had dashed out from the ship and boarded the
schooner on her other side, where they least of all expected a foe, and
the smoke concealed the boat's movements.

At the instant that the naval lieutenant jumped into her rigging with
his men, another discharge of the Armstrong guns swept her decks, and
the schooner, impelled by the calm, which makes floating surfaces
approach each other on the water, ranged up alongside the tea-ship. At
this moment, Snowball dropped from the forecastle of the _Hankow Lin_
into the bows of the schooner, followed by Jem Backstay and half-a-dozen
others.

Assailed thus on all sides--the lieutenant and his crew clearing all
before them with a valiant cheer, which Snowball re-echoed with a
terrific shout like an Indian war-cry, perhaps from some intuitive
recollections of his native wilds on the banks of the Congo, in which
the words "golly, take dat now!" could, however, be plainly
distinguished--the attack proved a trifle t