"Now, look out for squalls," cried Jack warningly, as the _Black Adder_ put her helm up and yawed. This time every fire-arm on the schooner seemed to have been let off. For a moment her decks were hidden in smoke, and the boom of heavy metal mingled with the sharp report of the rifles. "Snakes an' coyotes, the pole-cat's been and overshooted!" burst out Broncho exultantly, as the storm of lead sang by above them. "Thank 'eaven for that," grunted the bluejacket. "It 'ummed overhead like funnel-stays in a pampero." Jack seized the telescope again, and looked long and earnestly at the approaching stranger; and whilst he had the glass up to his eye, the red rim of the rising sun showed above the horizon. In the excitement of the moment no one gave a thought to the spreading daylight, Jack least of all; and now he stood gazing, all unconscious that it was broad daylight and that he could see. For nearly two minutes he stood there, the glass glued to his eye; then he slowly collapsed on to the stroke thwart, and blurted out with shaking voice, "It's the French Government schooner from Papeete, Lolie--I'm sure of it--and heading this way. You're saved! you're saved!" The woman stared at him with wide-open eyes, trying in vain to speak, and then fell back fainting. The shock of the release from the strain of this desperate fight had proved too much for her intrepid spirit. Tenderly they laid her down in the bottom of the boat and sprinkled water over her face. "You bruck it too rapid, Jack," observed the bosun's mate slowly. "It's the recoil as knocks a woman." "I was a cursed, thoughtless fool," groaned Jack, in bitter self-reproach. "That 'ere put-upon an' hard-pressed gal has the sand an' grit o' forty of us men-folk," declared Broncho, with emphasis. "The way she stands this racket an' plays her hand has me bulgin' with admiration an' respec'." "Me too!" gulped Jim, with big tears in his eyes. Loyola was too wiry a woman to stay long in a faint, and in a very short space of time she opened her eyes and looked round fearfully. "It's all right, Lolie, it's all right!" said Jack softly, as he bent over her. Slowly she raised herself, looking wildly at him; then her eyes grew blurred, and with a heavy sob she held out her hands. He seized them in his own and held them firm, his lips quivering. "Oh, Jack!" she murmured brokenly, fighting for her self-control. "Oh, Jack!" Nobody who has not experienced it can understand how a sudden unexpected release from long nerve-strain affects one. Many are the stories of men rescued when hope of rescue had been almost abandoned, and of their strange behaviour on realising that they were saved. One hears of big, strong men crying like babes and hugging each other; of men behaving as if their brains had been taken from them by the shock; who knew not what they did, all control being lost for a few wild minutes, of which they had no recollection whatever afterwards.