daughter, being at the time in his bare feet, clad only in his
shirt and breeches, and with no hat upon his head, a pistol in

one hand and a cutlass in the other. However, he was not left
for long to his embarrassments, for almost immediately after he

had thus far relaxed, Captain Morgan fell of a sudden serious
again, and bidding the Sieur Simon to get his ladies away into

some place of safety, for the most hazardous part of this
adventure was yet to occur, he quitted the cabin with Master

Harry and the other pirates (for you may call him a pirate now)
at his heels.

Having come upon deck, our hero beheld that a part of the Spanish
crew were huddled forward in a flock like so many sheep (the

others being crowded below with the hatches fastened upon them),
and such was the terror of the pirates, and so dreadful the name

of Henry Morgan, that not one of those poor wretches dared to
lift up his voice to give any alarm, nor even to attempt an

escape by jumping overboard.
At Captain Morgan's orders, these men, together with certain of

his own company, ran nimbly aloft and began setting the sails,
which, the night now having fallen pretty thick, was not for a

good while observed by any of the vessels riding at anchor about
them.

Indeed, the pirates might have made good their escape, with at
most only a shot or two from the men-of-war, had it not then been

about the full of the moon, which, having arisen, presently
discovered to those of the fleet that lay closest about them what

was being done aboard the vice admiral.
At this one of the vessels hailed them, and then after a while,

having no reply, hailed them again. Even then the Spaniards
might not immediately have suspected anything was amiss but only

that the vice admiral for some reason best known to himself was
shifting his anchorage, had not one of the Spaniards aloft--but

who it was Captain Morgan was never able to discover--answered
the hail by crying out that the vice admiral had been seized by

the pirates.
At this the alarm was instantly given and the mischief done, for

presently there was a tremendousbustle through that part of the
fleet lying nighest the vice admiral--a deal of shouting of

orders, a beating of drums, and the runninghither and thither of
the crews.

But by this time the sails of the vice admiral had filled with a
strong land breeze that was blowing up the harbor, whereupon the

carpenter, at Captain Morgan's orders, having cut away both
anchors, the galleon presently bore away up the harbor, gathering

headway every moment with the wind nearly dead astern. The
nearest vessel was the only one that for the moment was able to

offer any hindrance. This ship, having by this time cleared away
one of its guns, was able to fire a parting shot against the

vice-admiral, striking her somewhere forward, as our hero could
see by a great shower of splinters that flew up in the moonlight.

At the sound of the shot all the vessels of the flota not yet
disturbed by the alarm were aroused at once, so that the pirates

had the satisfaction of knowing that they would have to run the
gantlet of all the ships between them and the open sea before

they could reckon themselves escaped.
And, indeed, to our hero's mind it seemed that the battle which

followed must have been the most terrific cannonade that was ever
heard in the world. It was not so ill at first, for it was some

while before the Spaniards could get their guns clear for action,
they being not the least in the world prepared for such an

occasion as this. But by and by first one and then another ship
opened fire upon the galleon, until it seemed to our hero that

all the thunders of heaven let loose upon them could not have
created a more prodigiousuproar, and that it was not possible

that they could any of them escape destruction.
By now the moon had risen full and round, so that the clouds of

smoke that rose in the air appeared as white as snow. The air
seemed full of the hiss and screaming of shot, each one of which,

when it struck the galleon, was magnified by our hero's
imagination into ten times its magnitude from the crash which it

delivered and from the cloud of splinters it would cast up into
the moonlight. At last he suddenly beheld one poor man knocked

sprawling across the deck, who, as he raised his arm from behind
the mast, disclosed that the hand was gone from it, and that the

shirt sleeve was red with blood in the moonlight. At this sight
all the strength fell away from poor Harry, and he felt sure that

a like fate or even a worse must be in store for him.
But, after all, this was nothing to what it might have been in

broad daylight, for what with the darkness of night, and the
little preparation the Spaniards could make for such a business,

and the extreme haste with which they discharged their guns (many
not understanding what was the occasion of all this uproar),

nearly all the shot flew so wide of the mark that not above one
in twenty struck that at which it was aimed.

Meantime Captain Morgan, with the Sieur Simon, who had followed
him upon deck, stood just above where our hero lay behind the

shelter of the bulwark. The captain had lit a pipe of tobacco,
and he stood now in the bright moonlight close to the rail, with

his hands behind him, looking out ahead with the utmost coolness
imaginable, and paying no more attention to the din of battle

than though it were twenty leagues away. Now and then he would
take his pipe from his lips to utter an order to the man at the

wheel. Excepting this he stood there hardly moving at all, the
wind blowing his long red hair over his shoulders.

Had it not been for the armed galley the pirates might have got
the galleon away with no great harm done in spite of all this

cannonading, for the man-of-war which rode at anchor nighest to
them at the mouth of the harbor was still so far away that they

might have passed it by hugging pretty close to the shore, and
that without any great harm being done to them in the darkness.

But just at this moment, when the open water lay in sight, came
this galley pulling out from behind the point of the shore in

such a manner as either to head our pirates off entirely or else
to compel them to approach so near to the man-of-war that that

latter vessel could bring its guns to bear with more effect.
This galley, I must tell you, was like others of its kind such as

you may find in these waters, the hull being long and cut low to
the water so as to allow the oars to dip freely. The bow was

sharp and projected far out ahead, mounting a swivel upon it,
while at the stern a number of galleries built one above another

into a castle gave shelter to several companies of musketeers as
well as the officers commanding them.

Our hero could behold the approach of this galley from above the
starboard bulwarks, and it appeared to him impossible for them to

hope to escape either it or the man-of-war. But still Captain
Morgan maintained the same composure that he had exhibited all

the while, only now and then delivering an order to the man at
the wheel, who, putting the helm over, threw the bows of the

galleon around more to the larboard, as though to escape the bow
of the galley and get into the open water beyond. This course

brought the pirates ever closer and closer to the man-of-war,
which now began to add its thunder to the din of the battle, and

with so much more effect that at every discharge you might hear
the crashing and crackling of splintered wood, and now and then

the outcry or groaning of some man who was hurt. Indeed, had it