Over, over, over, rapidly leaned the shattered hull of the _Leon_, the water pouring into her through the gaps in her starboard side. Down from her had dropped boat after boat, to be crowded with her surviving wolves, no effort being made by them to save any of their wounded companions. She had now drifted into pretty close neighborhood with the _Santa Teresa_, and a wild shout went up as the boats pulled away. "Board the Spaniard!" cried her captain. It was the last resource of utter desperation, and they might even now have succeeded in gaining possession of the _Santa Teresa_ if she had been unassisted. "Stand by your guns, men!" shouted Captain Velasquez. "Let them have it as they come!" "Steady about," said Captain Avery to the steersman of the _Noank_, "we must take care o' those boats. Oh! how I wish we were nearer! Give it to 'em!" "Ay, ay, sir!" came back from his gunners, "but the Spaniard's in the way. As soon as we clear her--" "Down with the mainsail! Haul on that jib! Port! Here we come!" It was not round shot this time. The long sixes had been glutted with grape-shot, and so had the pivot-gun. The Spanish cannon, hastily fired by excited men, had done some execution, but not one of the buccaneer boats had been disabled. The foremost of them was within ten fathoms of the _Santa Teresa_, and the swarm of murderers would have been over her bulwarks in another minute, when past her port quarter swept the Yankee privateer. Bang, bang, bang, as fast as they were brought to bear, spoke out her three guns of that broadside, and Up-na-tan's eighteen-pounder. Then she seemed to come about like a top, somewhat increasing her distance. Three more successive reports, and then where were the picaroons? Muskets and pistols were hurling lead among them from the deck of the Spanish trader. A shot from one of her guns had knocked out the stern of the largest boat. All that, however, had been of small account compared to the effect of that tempest of grapeshot. The boat crews withered away before it, and two of the boats themselves were upset in the panic that followed, while the fourth was evidently sinking. Black heads dotted the water, and a shriek from one of them brought a sharp, quick exclamation from Coco. "Shark! Shark!" he yelled. "See back fin! Twenty of 'em! See 'em! Shark take 'em all!" "Father," exclaimed Vine Avery, "that's awful! Can't we save some of them?" "Too late!" said the captain. "Not a man, I'm afraid. Jest look how they're goin' down! It's a reg'lar school o' sharks. They're bitin' fast. We'll go about, though, and we'll pick up any that are left." The Spaniards continued firing while their American friends sped on and came back on the other tack. Every boat had now been upset or shattered and the sharks were having their own way with the picaroons. "Here comes one of 'em, Captain Avery," said Guert. "I'll try and save him!"