eturning our fire."

Very proud were Will and his crew when they sailed into Port Royal with
their two prizes. Will at once rowed to the flagship, where he received a
very hearty greeting. "You have not come empty-handed, I see, Mr.
Gilmore," the admiral said; "you were lucky indeed to take two ships of
your own size one after the other."

"We took them at the same time, sir," Will said, "as you will see by my
report."

The admiral gave a look of surprise and opened the document. First he ran
his eye over it, then he read it more attentively. When he had finished he
said: "You have fought a most gallant action, Mr. Gilmore, a most gallant
action. It was indeed long odds you had against you, two vessels each
considerably over your own size and manned by far heavier crews, besides
the two batteries. It was an excellent idea to leave the vessel with which
you were first engaged and turn upon the second one. If you had tried to
fight them both at once you would almost certainly have been overcome, and
you succeeded because you were cool enough to grasp the fact that the
schooner at anchor and with her sails down would not be able to come to
her friend's assistance for some minutes, and acted so promptly on your
conclusions. The oldest officer in the service could not have done better.
I congratulate you very heartily on your conduct. What are the contents of
the cargoes of the prizes?"

"I cannot say, sir. With three vessels on my hands I had no time to
examine them, but they certainly contain a number of bales of various
sorts. I opened one which contained British goods."

"Then no doubt they are the pick of the cargoes they captured," the
admiral said; "I will go off with you myself and ascertain. I have nothing
else to do this afternoon, and it will be a matter of interest to me as
well as to you. You may as well let your own gig row back and I will take
mine."

Accordingly the gig was sent back to _L'Agile_ with orders for two boats
to be lowered and twenty of the men to be ready to go to the two prizes.
As soon as the admiral came on board the hatchways were opened, and the
men brought up a number of the bales. These were found to contain fine
cloths, material for women's dresses, china, ironmongery, carpets, and
other goods of British manufacture. The other vessel contained sugar,
coffee, ginger, spices, and other products of the islands. "That is
enough," said the admiral; "I don't think we shall be far wrong i