The fleet of jacks were now to be seen coming on rapidly; but presently, the squall proving too strong for them, they all came fluttering up into the wind and began to shorten sail. "No heaving-to for this one, eh, Tim?" yelled Leary; and putting his wheel up, and feeling the _Ligonier_ beginning to pay off and the anchor to drag, he gave the word to slip the cable. Through the hawse-hole the clanking chain tore swiftly, and away came the _Ligonier_ like a wild thing. Leary patted the wheel and began to talk to her: "Crazy to get away, aren't you? Been laying too long to anchor, yes. No wonder. And I'll not stint you now--take your fill of it, girl." Which she did, and with Leary giving her plenty of wheel, through the white swash she scooped a long, wet rail. Tim Lacy now came aft. "There they are waitin' for us--an' the joke of it is, Sammie, we c'n go out the North Passage with a fair wind. They must 'a' forgot that I was born and brought up in this very bay." "But we're not goin' out the North Passage, Tim." "No?" "No." "But why? An' it's a beat up by them." "Well, a beat it'll be. Go for'ard now." "What'll he be at now?" muttered Tim. But Leary knew. One eye he had for the approaching fleet and one to the ledge of rocks toward which the _Ligonier_ was winging. "Some of 'em, by this time, think we're trying to run away. But they'll know better in a minute. And now do you, Tim, stand by that old cannon." She was almost into the rocks then, holding in for the last foot of clear water; but not for too long did he allow her to run on. Just in time he tacked, and then it was about and away, for the fleet of native schooners, who, watching her closely and assured now of her course, spread out to intercept her. Expert seamen themselves, nowhere did they leave a space wide enough for a rowboat, let alone a ninety-ton fisherman, to slip through. And they were armed. A shot rang out. Leary looked to see where the ball struck, but among the endless merging of whitecaps there was no discovering that. "Not that I care where it hit, blast ye--ye'll never stop me now--for--hide under the rail you, Tim, with the rest--I'm after some of you." And he headed the _Ligonier_ straight for the windward jack, which now he could see was that of the trader Lackford, whose round-shouldered figure in the bow betrayed him. "Out of my way!" roared Leary before he realized that he was too far away to be heard against the whistling squall. "But you'll hear me well enough soon," he muttered. "And, Tim, so long as you won't hide away, stand by that old fog-buster, and be sure to have the lanyard long enough to let you hide behind the forem'st, for there's no telling--the old antiquity might explode. I don't s'pose she's been shot off this ten years. When I give the word, now--but wait, wait yet!" For a flying moment he brought the _Ligonier's_ head into the wind. "Now!"