The tops were to be utilized by sharpshooters in the coming fight, for to my delight I found a whole armoury stowed away on the foretop--muskets, pistols, cutlasses, and two sharp axes, with plenty of powder and ball. Had I delayed my desperate plan much longer the top would have been filled with men. I examined the muskets and the pistols and found them already loaded. I next turned my attention to the deck of the pirate ship. The guns’ crews were at their stations, and were either looking astern or else regarding my position. The captain and his scarred-faced lieutenant were almost speechless with rage, for they knew that for the time being I held the trump card. Not a sign could I see of my four men, but presently the wretched negro was hauled out, a knife was thrust into his hand, and by shouts and dumb-show he was ordered to go into the rigging and bring me down. The recreant blackamoor was almost mad with terror, his skin turned a dusky-greyish hue, and his eyes rolled about in an agony of fright. Behind and below him were the knives and pistols of the pirates, above him was I, covering his trembling body with a pistol that I steadied against the edge of the lubber’s hole. Slowly he climbed till, urged on by the shouts of the fiendish crew, he reached the futtock shrouds. Here he stopped, and in a low, agonized voice he whispered: "No shoot, Massa; only pretend to shoot! Me come to you; me help you! No shoot me!" Seeing that this man would be useful in the defence of the top, I fired, the bullet passing well over his head. He then climbed up hurriedly, till his head and shoulders were through the lubber’s hole. Then with a yell of triumph the treacherous black seized my right wrist in his powerful grip, and his knife flashed in the air. But he reckoned not on the other weapons that I had. Seizing another pistol in my left hand, I fired point-blank at his head. Through the smoke I saw the gaping hole cut by the ball, his grip relaxed, and he fell. For a brief space his body hung suspended on the inside of the futtock shrouds, then it slowly over-balanced and crashed with a heavy thud across a gun carriage on the deck below. A loud yell came from the pirate crew, and once more a heavy fire was opened on the foretop, but, lying snugly under the shelter of the mantlet, I remained in perfect safety. The only chance they had of bringing me down was by training a piece of ordnance on the top; but either they did not possess a cannon capable of being elevated to that height, or else they feared that the damage done would be greater than the success of getting rid of me.