"By no means," I answered hurriedly. "Take especial pains to shoot wide of him, if you please. I look to him to afford us very effectual help presently." My companion turned and stared inquiringly at me for a moment, apparently doubting whether I was in earnest; when, seeing that I evidently was so, he muttered-- "Oh, very well," and, taking aim, fired simultaneously with me; and I saw two pairs of arms tossed into the air as their owners went down. At the same moment, in obedience to a command that we distinctly heard given, the sweeps were very smartly laid in and thrown clattering on to the deck, while every man on board, save the helmsman, sank under cover behind the proa's low bulwark. "Now, Mr Roberts, stand by with your hose, and give them the benefit of it the moment they show themselves," I cried. "Pump, boys, and fill the hose," exclaimed the mate, plunging the nozzle into the flame of a lighted lantern that he had brought aft with him for the purpose. The tow band instantly burst into a fierce flame, casting a broad yellow glare on everything within its influence, and dripping burning drops into a bucket of water with which Roberts had taken the precaution of providing himself. While this was doing, the proa's helm had been ported, and she now came driving along toward our port quarter, as I had expected. When within fifty feet of us another order was given on board her, in response to which her crew--some eighty in number, at the very least, and as fierce and relentless looking a set of cut-throats as I ever desire to see-- rose to their feet, with their naked creeses grasped in their hands--the yellow glare falling strongly upon their keen steel and fierce gleaming eyeballs--and lined her rail in readiness to spring on board us on the instant that the sides of the two craft should touch. "Now is your time, Mr Roberts; let them have it, fore and aft!" I shouted.