“I’m shot again! I’m shot again! Take me down below! Take me down below!” Such peals of laughter followed this that the lad opened his eyes, looked about, came to his senses and realized his position. At the captain’s command he went forward and slunk out of sight. The next shot from the _Sea Scourge_ took off the head of the brave old salt, spiraling it round and round until it struck the deck, while the headless body sank quivering down upon the very spot where but a moment before the form of the coward had rolled. But— “The coward dies many deaths, The brave man dies but once.” Shot after shot was now exchanged between the ships with little effect; the _Xyphias_ all the while gradually drawing nearer the _Sea Scourge_, and the chase growing more exciting. At length a lucky shot from the _Xyphias_ struck the enemy’s mizzen mast, just above the mizzen top, and down came the wreck. Cheers upon cheers went up from the crew of the _Xyphias_. Yells of defiance answered them from the decks of the enemy. Lieutenant Ethel again leveled his glass at the chase. The _Sea Scourge_ still minded her helm, as her spanker and crotchet were still standing and drawing. The wreck of her mizzen mast was promptly cleared away. And she doggedly answered gun for gun, shot for shot, though the _Xyphias_ was now gaining rapidly upon her, and her case was well-nigh hopeless. At last a shot from the _Xyphias_ struck the taffrail of the enemy, close by the wheel, scattering the splinters in every direction. One struck the helmsman, driven to his very heart. In his death agony and delirium he clutched the spokes of the wheel with the grasp that could not be loosened, and he slowly sank windward to the deck, turning the wheel with him. The _Sea Scourge_, in obedience to her helm, rounded sharply to the wind. Seeing his ship broaching to, the captain of the _Sea Scourge_ ran aft, yelling: “What d’ye mean by that, you —— sea cook? Luff! Luff!” There came no response from the helmsman; and indeed in the same instant that he ceased speaking the captain perceived that the man was past hearing. He reached the helm too late. The ship was already taken aback and lying directly across the course of the _Xyphias_, and not two cables’ length from her. He gave the helm to a seaman near, and, springing upon the poop deck, yelled forth the order: “Rake her with your port battery!” Then issued forth a tremendous discharge that shook the privateer from masthead to keel, so that she trembled like a living creature struck with palsy. Then he braced her yards and put her wheel hard down, so as to bring her again upon her course.