"And have one good round shot send us to the bottom as easy as a man crushes a pesky mosquito," observed Nick. "No, thankee. If it's all the same to you I'd rather keep out of gun-fire of both sides to this little controversy." Antony, crouched on the small deck forward, was too busy watching what was going on to consider the likelihood of his boat going aground. The tide was at the ebb, and there was no likelihood of any of the three fighting-ships getting off the shoals for hours. The _Royal James_ and the _Henry_ had listed the same way, and now lay almost in line with each other, so that the hull of the pirate ship was turned directly toward the Charles Town sloop, while the deck of the latter was in full view of the pirate, and only a pistol-shot away. "They're more like two forts now than ships," said Nick. "There she goes!" Antony was yelling. The _Henry_ had opened fire on the pirate ship. But instantly the _Royal James_ returned the fire with a broadside, which, on account of its position, raked the open deck of the _Henry_. "Those lads have got grit to stick to their guns!" cried Park, keeping his smack bobbing on the waves at a safe distance. "They're using their muskets, too!" Antony cheered every time shots blazed from the _Henry_ and held his breath to see what damage the answering fire of the pirate did to his own townsmen. The other Charles Town sloop, the _Sea Nymph_, was aground too far down-stream to be of any help to her mate. Her crew, like the crew of three in the fishing-smack, could only watch from a distance, and cheer as the battle was waged back and forth. And waged back and forth it was for a long time, while men were shot down at the guns, and parts of each ship shot away, and the sea scattered with wreckage, and the air filled with smoke and the heavy, acrid odor of powder. "The pirate's getting the best of it," shouted Simeon Park, after some time of fighting. It looked that way; her crew were yelling exultantly, and her captain had called to the sloop, demanding that the latter's crew haul down their flag in surrender. At length, however, the tide began to turn, and with it the chance of victory for the pirates. The _Henry_ floated from the shoal first, and her captain prepared to grapple with his enemy and board her. Then the _Sea Nymph_ floated, and headed up to aid her consort. The pirate chief, seeing the chances now two to one against him, yelled to his crew to fight harder than ever; and the _Royal James_ blazed again and again with broadsides, making a desperate stand, like a wild animal brought to bay. The rail of the _Henry_ was carried overboard, and to the three in the fishing-smack it looked as if some of the crew had gone over with it.