striking the water on every side, and the pungy
reeled and quivered as if she had struck a rock.

"One ball went home that time!" Darius cried, and I knew by the sound
that he had leaped to his feet, running with all speed into the cuddy.

From below I made out the tiny gleam of the match as Darius lighted a
lantern, and did not need to be told that he was gone to learn what
injury our vessel had received.

Immediately the cannon had been discharged Captain Hanaford was on
his feet, grasping the tiller as if it was possible to steer the pungy
while the blackness continued so dense that one might fancy he could
feel it, and then came the glare of more rockets.

This aided the helmsman of ours more than it did the British gunners,
since it gave him an opportunity to see exactly where his vessel was;
but as to that I gave no heed. All my mind was centered on the
distance between us and the enemy.

I could have cried aloud with joy, and am not certain but that I did,
on seeing that we were drawing away with more speed than I had
believed was in the clumsy craft, and, what was of greater importance,
the pungy was rounding a bend which, once passed, would put us beyond
reach of the guns.

The rockets had been fired just in the nick of time, otherwise we
would have gone ashore on the western bank.

For the third time we heard the thunder of the guns; but the shot must
have passed astern of us, for I did not hear either the splashing of
water or the splintering of our wood-work to tell where they struck.

Then Darius came on deck with an announcement that relieved me of
nearly all my fears.

"The pungy has a solid shot above the water-line well forward; but
there's no need of pluggin' it, for the ball didn't get through the
timber. I reckon we've done the trick, eh, captain?"

"We're off for a fact, an' unless we strike the mud 'twixt here an'
the bay, we've seen the last of that lot of Britishers."

Now it was that all hands of us were ordered forward to act as
look-outs, and the pungy danced along in the darkness, as if rejoicing
at her escape from a peril that had well-nigh proved her ending.

It is impossible for me to set down what we said or did when it was
seen that we had really escaped from as dangerous a venture as human
beings ever embarked in. I dare say we acted like a party of simples,
and certain it is that the older members of the crew were no less
boisterous in their rejoicings than we lads.

An