the gun-boat, shaking the little vessel violently. Miss
Pritty's voice came up responsive with an unearthly yell!

"Load!" was instantly ordered, and so quickly was it obeyed that before
the enemy were ready with their second volley the gun-boat had charged
and fired again, doing great damage.

There being no wind, a dense cloud of smoke from the three volleys
settled down on the water and completely hid them and their enemy from
each other.

"Steam ahead, full-speed," signalled the captain to Edgar Berrington.

The screw instantly whirled, and under cover of the dense veil, the
active little vessel moved away just in time to escape a murderous
volley of shot, shrapnel, and ball, which was poured into the smoke she
had left behind her! The pirates followed this up with a wild cheer and
a brisk fire of musketry, which only ceased when, discovering their
mistake, they beheld the gun-boat emerge from the smoke, steer round the
end of their line, and, slewing to port, deliver another volley of great
guns and small arms, that raked them all from stem to stern, doing
terrible execution both to the prows and their crews.

Thus the gun-boat played round and round the enemy, always maintaining
the distance of about a hundred yards, and keeping up the action as fast
as they could load and fire. The pirates, on their part, fought with
the courage of trained men of war and with the ferocity of tigers at
bay--who ask and expect no mercy. And thus they fought for no less than
three hours.

One reason why the pirates were able to hold out so long lay in the fact
that their prows were surrounded by a thick matting made from a certain
palm-leaf, which, although it could not prevent shot from passing
through, concealed the men who lay behind it, and so prevented the
riflemen of the gun-boat crew from taking aim. In order to get the
better of this difficulty, the latter fell into the way of watching for
the puffs of smoke that came through the matting, and firing at these
puffs.

Conspicuous among the pirates for his coolness, daring, and utter
disregard of his life, was one tall, powerful fellow in a red jacket.
Every one guessed him at once to be a chief among the pirates, and this
question was soon settled by some of the recently freed captives, who
recognised him as being the great chief of the fleet--Pungarin.

He went about the deck of his prow, which occupied the centre of the
line, encouraging his men to rapid action