"Here's the cap'n; he was hit by a piece of a shell," said one of the men. "Who is he?" asked Somers. "Cap'n Pillgrim." The sufferer was taken down into the ward-room, and the surgeon began to examine him as the Firefly steamed down the channel under a shower of shot and shell from the battery. "How is he?" asked the young commander, when the ship had passed out of the reach of the guns of the fort. "He is dead!" replied the surgeon. "Dead! Good Heaven!" exclaimed Somers, impressed by the terrible retribution which had at last overtaken the traitor. "Yes, sir; he died a few moments since. A fragment of a shell tore open his breast and penetrated his lungs," added the surgeon. "That's the last of him," said Lieutenant Longstone. "He will lay no more plots." "He has been a dangerous enemy to his country," continued Somers. "If he had succeeded in running in with that vessel, he would have obtained her armament, and made terrible havoc among the merchant ships on the coast. He was a daring fellow; he was reckless at times. He told me on board of the Chatauqua that he had purchased three steamers in Scotland; this is the last one." "Three Bens," added Tom. "Captain Somers, you have had a hand in capturing and destroying them all." "I have; and it is really marvellous, when I think of it." "I knew you would capture the Ben Ledi," continued the second lieutenant, exultingly. "I did not capture her." "It is the same thing." "You will not find it so when your prize money is distributed." "A fig for the prize money," replied Tom, contemptuously. "We destroyed her; and it's all the same thing. I would rather have had that villain hanged than killed by an honest shell; but there is no help for it now." "Peace, Mr. Longstone; he is dead now. We have nothing more to do with him." The body of Mr. Pillgrim was laid out in a proper place, and as the coal bunkers of the Firefly were nearly empty, she was headed for Port Royal, where she arrived on the afternoon of the following day. On the passage, the men from the Ben Ledi, who had been picked up in the boat, were examined in regard to their knowledge of her ultimate use. One of the party was an intelligent English seaman, who acknowledged that he had shipped, for the Confederate navy, in the Sunny South, which was to be the new name of the Ben Ledi. She had waited a month at Halifax for orders. Langdon was not on board of her, and the seaman had no knowledge of any such person.