o touch the side of the sloop; but the
touch was no light one. It sent the cutwater crashing through bulwark,
plank, and beam, until the "Coal-Coffin" was cut right down amidships,
within a foot of the water-line. There was a wild cry from the men as
they leaped towards their destroyer. Some succeeded in grasping ropes,
others missed and fell back bruised and stunned on the sloop's deck.

Billy had been standing beside his father when the steamer was first
observed, and naturally clung to him. Gaff put his left arm tight round
the boy, and with the others prepared for a spring, believing, as did
all the rest, that the sloop would be sunk at once.

Not so Haco Barepoles, who went to the wheel of his little vessel, and
calmly awaited the result.

Gaff's spring at the chains of the cutwater was successful, but in
making it he received a blow on the head from one of the swinging blocks
of the sloop which almost stunned him, insomuch that he could only cling
to the chain he had caught with the tenacity of despair.

One of the sailors observed him in this position of danger, and
instantly descending with a rope fastened it under his chest, so that he
and Billy were safely hauled on board, and the former was led below to
have his head examined by the surgeon.

Meanwhile the men in the bow of the steamer shouted to Haco to come on
board.

"No, thank'ee," replied the skipper, "shake yourself clear o' my riggin'
as fast as ye can, and let me continoo my voyage."

"Your sloop is sinking," urged the captain of the steamer.

"Not sinkin' yet; I'll stick to her as long as she can float."

"But you've none of your men left on board, have you?"

"No; better without 'em if they're so easy frightened."

As he said this one of his own men slid quickly down a rope that hung
from the steamer's bowsprit, and dropt on the deck of the sloop,
exclaiming--

"It'll never be said o' Tom Grattan that he forsack his ship so long as
a man wos willin' to stick by her."

Haco took Tom by the hand as he went aft and shook it.

"Any more comin'?" he said, glancing at the faces of the men that stared
down upon him.

There was no reply.

"You can't expect men to volunteer to go to the bottom," said the
captain of the steamer. "You're mad, both of you. Think better of it."

"Back your ship off, sir!" said Haco in a deep stern voice.

The order was given to back off, and the vessels were soon clear. Haco
put his sloop at once on