"True," replied the captain. Then turning to his men, he added, "Bring lights, some of you, and remove the wounded below." By this time the vessels were some twenty yards apart. "See!" exclaimed Billy Bowsprit, "they are loading the cannon on board the _Falcon_." Only dimly through the night shadows could the deck of the brig be seen; for now the last vestige of daylight had departed. Some of the men who belonged to the _Duchess_ were enabled to assist in loading the two cannon; for Captain Johnson had expressed his determination that, if a shot was fired from the pirate-brig, he would, as before, return them two for one. "The two shots which I fired at the moment of their boarding us," he said to Coe, "made a good-sized hole in their hull just above the water-mark; and they must have taken in considerable water through it, during the tossing and pitching of the brig. I will make another hole in their timbers if they fire at me again." Even while he spoke a shot came from the _Falcon_. It was fired, probably, by the skilful hand of Seacome; for it again carried away a part of the guards. Fortunately, no one was injured. Captain Johnson quickly responded with his two guns. His object was to strike the enemy's hull, near where his last two shots had struck; and he probably did so, for, in a few moments afterwards--by the light of the lamps on board the _Falcon_--men were seen hurrying to and fro in apparently great excitement. Loud tones were also heard, seemingly giving orders. All who were on the deck of the _Duchess_ stood still, listening and watching. "Your shot must have done them serious damage," said Coe, at length, to Captain Johnson; "the excitement seems to increase." "It seems to me," said Billy Bowsprit, who was watching things sharply, "the _Falcon_ is settling in the water." Upon the background of the sky, the spectators on board the _Duchess_ could see the masts of the brig slowly bend forward; still slowly for a while they moved onward in the same direction, sinking, sinking from the horizontal line in the sky which they had formerly touched; and then their motion was gradually accelerated. "See!" exclaimed Bowsprit, "her bows are going under, as sure as my name is William." That instant, a wild, despairing and mingled cry arose from the deck of the _Falcon_; the next moment that gallant craft plunged head-foremost into the sea and disappeared. "God have mercy on their souls!" exclaimed Captain Johnson. "The best among them can be but little prepared to enter the other world."