The first glance explained to him the reason of the continued confusion on board the schooner, which a moment before he had sneered at as a proof of incapacity. The pirate had gone to windward, and now lay on the brig's weather quarter, the tack of her mainsail hauled up, quite out of the reach of her fire. Her crew had been busy getting up from her hold a long eighteen-pounder, which was shipped amidships, and worked on a swivel. The first shot had struck the "Halcyon's" bulwarks, just abaft the foremast, leaving a long white strip, where the wood had been torn away. Both captain and mate looked at each other, for here seamanship was powerless. "The bloody-minded villains!" ejaculated the mate. "They have us at their mercy," sighed the master. "Sailing more than three feet for our one, there they can stick and pound away at us as they like." "Shall we try our range, Captain Weber?" "Do so, but it is quite useless," was the reply, as the seaman leaned his elbows on the weather bulwarks, and gazed steadily at the schooner. "Take good aim, my lads, and fire when you are ready." The light report of the gun, differing so greatly from the loud heavy thud of the eighteen-pounder, was heard, and the master noted the hall as it flew from wave to wave, scattering the spray, but finally dropping with a splash into the sea, a few hundred yards short of the schooner. "I thought as much," growled the captain. "The scoundrels have well calculated their distance." A puff of white smoke from the schooner's deck was followed by the heavy boom of the eighteen-pound gun as the ball came whistling through the air. Captain Weber held his breath for a moment, looking anxiously at his spars, but the projectile, being aimed too high, passed between the masts, pitching into the sea beyond. "It's hard lines, Lowe, to serve as a target to those scoundrels," he said; "and yet I see nothing for it." "Our only hope is in yonder cloud. If it would but come on to blow, the sea would get up quickly, and that craft would have her aim spoiled." "Could you not tack and stand towards her?" asked the missionary, who at that moment came upon deck with Dom Maxara. "It would be useless. Yonder schooner lies up to the wind a couple of points nearer than we can do. It is the advantage her fore and aft sails give her; besides, she has the heels of us, and can choose her distance and position. We have nothing to do but to hold on and trust to chance."