nd
aft with round shot, there being a couple of hundred at least of the
bloodthirsty demons in the three craft assailing us. There were
probably as many more, too, in the junks astern, which were coming up
more leisurely, leaving their comrades in the van to bear the brunt of
the fray.

"Now, men!" shouted "Old Jock," who I must say came out like a brave man
and a hero on the occasion, losing all his peculiarities and
littlenesses of manner and behaviour--at least we did not notice them.
"Now, men, we've got to fight for our lives! We must first try and
prevent the pirates getting aboard; and, when we can't do that any
longer and they gain the decks, we'll retreat into the cabin and
barricade ourselves, and fight 'em again there."

"Hooray!" cried the men. "Hooray!"

"And when we can't hold the cabin any longer," continued Old Jock, who
seemed to be in a punning vein this afternoon, "we'll go below to the
hold, and hold that as long as we can!"

"Hooray!" shouted the hands again, full of the fire of battle now and
spurred on by his words. "We'll fight, old man, never fear!"

"And when we can't fight 'em any longer, my lads," cried Captain
Gillespie, looking round at us all with an expression of determination
that I had never seen in his face before, "we'll blow up the ship sooner
than surrender to this villainous gang!"

The cheer that followed this ending of his speech was so loud and
genuine, so full of British pluck, so hearty, that the pirates
absolutely quailed at the sound of it, holding back a second or two
before they sheered up alongside with the intention of boarding us.

They only made a short delay, though, during which we were not idle with
our guns and revolvers; for, the next moment, with another yell of
defiance, the pirate craft flung their grapnels in our rigging and
climbed up on both sides of the ship simultaneously.

"Come down out of the tops!" shouted Mr Mackay to the hands aloft.
"Come down at once, we want all of your aid with cold steel now!"

These soon joined us, and then followed a series of shouts and cries and
shots and groans which it makes me dizzy even now to think of; until,
after losing three of our number, amongst them being poor Mr Saunders,
whom we dragged in mortally wounded with us, we all retreated to the
cabin, barricading ourselves there with all sorts of bales and boxes,
and bracing up the saloon table, which we had previously unloosed from
its lashings, to act