"Grape and canister!" the captain shouted, and broadside after
broadside swept the decks of the brig, which, hampered by her
wreckage, was lying almost motionless in the water. So terrible was
the fire, that the privateer's men threw down the axes with which they
were striving to cut away the floating spars, and ran below.
"Double shot your guns, and give her one broadside between wind and
water!" the captain ordered.
"Haul on the sheets and braces, Mr. Green, and get her on her course
again--the schooner won't trouble us, now."
That craft had indeed, at first, luffed up, to come to the assistance
of her consort; but on seeing the fall of the latter's mast, and that
she was incapable of rendering any assistance, had again altered her
course, feeling her incapacity to engage so redoubtable an opponent,
single handed. Three hearty cheers broke from all on board the Madras
as, after pouring in a broadside at a distance of fifty yards, she
left the brig behind her, and proceeded on her way.
"Then you don't care about taking prizes, captain?" one of the
passengers said, as they crowded round to congratulate him upon his
easy, and almost bloodless, victory.
"No, taking prizes is not my business; and were I to weaken my crew,
by sending some of them off in a prize, I might find myself
short-handed if we met another of these gentlemen, or fell in with bad
weather.
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