"I warn you all," he said; but as he spoke he could see that he was addressing men who were infuriated with drink. "I warn you all that we are desperate, and shall fight to the last. Come over to our side, and help to secure that scoundrel, and you shall all be richly rewarded. Fight for him, and if you escape death now, the law must overtake you for piracy, and you will be hung." There was a loud laugh at this, and the captain whispered: "Shall we make a bold charge?" "No: stand firm," said Dutch; and the little poorly-armed party closed up more determinedly. "What does that mean?" thought Dutch as, at a word from the Cuban, three of the men ran back up the cabin steps. His answer came almost directly. "Will you surrender?" cried Laure savagely. "No," was the reply. "Then your blood be upon your own heads," he yelled. "Fire!" He raised his own revolver as he spoke, and began to fire shot after shot at those before him, while at the same moment three shots came crashing from behind them through the skylight. Then, headed by the Cuban, the enemy dashed into the cabin, striking right and left with the cutlasses with which they were armed, and for a few minutes there was a desperate struggle, in which for the time, though weakened by two of their men going down at the first shots, and others being wounded, the cabin party held their own, everyone fighting manfully: but the three men who had been sent to fire through the skylight came shouting down to reinforce their comrades, and thus turned the scale. The captain went down with a terrible cut across the forehead; Mr Parkley had a bullet through the shoulder. The doctor drove his sword through one of the scoundrels, and then it broke short off, while another stabbed him in the back. As for Dutch, he singled out Laure, and made a desperate attack upon him with his long, keen knife, the shot the Cuban fired at him having merely grazed his neck, but directly after they were separated in the struggle as the furious knot of combatants swayed to and fro. But he rid himself of another antagonist, and seizing the cutlass with which he was armed again made at the Cuban. As he approached, Laure raised his revolver once more, took steady aim, and was about to fire; but regardless of this, Dutch struggled to get at him, when a wild shriek from a voice he knew made him turn for a moment, and that threw him off his guard. Poor Hester had been a horrified witness of the struggle, and had seen Laure's deadly aim. Till that moment her lips had been. Sealed, but now the involuntary cry escaped her, and as Dutch turned, the shot struck him on the shoulder, fortunately only ploughing a shallow flesh wound; but the next moment a blow from another hand struck him down, and the rest being mastered, the men, by Laure's orders dragged out two injured comrades and, securing the weapons, left the slippery cabin and secured the door. STORY ONE, CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. RENEGADES.