"That dark ship has, perhaps, four or five hundred poor wretches under hatches whom it is our business to set free," cried Lieutenant Hemming. "And then, my boys, if we do take her, what a lot of prize-money we shall get? Hurrah! hurrah!" Hemming had been too long at sea not to know how to excite the spirit of seamen. "We shall have some tough work, hurrah! hurrah! You'll knock over some of those pirates, depend on it." Each officer excited his men by similar cries. Their only fear was that a breeze might spring up, and that the enemy might escape them. However, though they pulled hard, nearly half an hour passed from the time the first shot was fired till they got up to the ship. "What an ugly set of cut-throats the fellows are," said Adair, pointing to the people who crowded the pirate's deck. "Let's be at them, Jack." Jack was quite ready to respond to the proposal. The two other boats boarded on the starboard side, amid a hot fire of langrage of all sorts poured down upon them. Hemming pulled up on the port bow, sprang up the side, and soon fought his way upon deck. Jack and Adair were climbing in at one of the ports when the pirates fired the gun through it directly over their heads. "Come on, Paddy, come on," Jack sang out; but Adair had been knocked over into the bottom of the boat. Happily, however, he was only kilt, as the Irish say; so he clambered up again, and quickly followed his friend, accompanied by Dick Needham, who had joined the _Ranger_, and another seaman.