We knew it, and needed no urging; the heavy rope was passed swiftly from hand to hand, and brought in forward to the fore-rigging; a turn was thrown round the windlass and the brakes were instantly in motion. As she lay now, this was the very pull she wanted. Hardly had we brought a strain when she began to slide and rumble under us, and a wild hurrah burst from all our lips as she settled into her element, and her head paid briskly off, under the power of her foretopsail. But as she did so, her stern swung in violently, and a projecting spur of the rock beneath the water met her under the counter, with a kind of dull, cracking sound that came ominously to our ears. We could not stop to think of this now. We looked astern; Mr. Dunham was coming! He had already cut the hawser at the shore end, and his crew were pulling the boat off by it, hand over hand, while he and Fisher stood with muskets keeping their foes at bay; for, maddened with rage and disappointment, they were now beginning to close in upon him. "Brace round the yards!" roared the captain. "Steady! meet her with the helm! Keep her right in the channel! All the muskets here now, and open a covering fire for this boat! Pull boys! pull! We'll have you all safe in another minute!" We no longer thought of saving powder, but fired away among the thickest of them. A dozen of them were killed or wounded and they soon found the work too hot. They hauled off with hideous yells, and we took all our men safely on board, though Fisher had a bad cut from one of the serrated spears, and the second mate and young Black Hawk were both severely wounded by stones, which had been hurled in great numbers from the canoes, when they closed up around the boat. "Is that gun loaded with ball?" asked the old man. "Ay, ay, sir!" responded Mr. Grafton. "Say the word!" "Luff hard, there!" said the captain. "Let her come up and shiver! Stand by, now, when she bears right--fire! Hard up, and keep full!" The old "persuader" did her work as effectually as at Dominica. Two canoes were struck by the discharge, and the yells that rose from the terrified barbarians, now joined by the advance division of the Woodle's Island fleet, rang in our ears, but with no terrors for us, now that we were fairly standing seaward. "Try the pumps, now, Mr. Grafton, while I look after these wounded men," said the captain. "I'm afraid we may have started a leak, under the counter, but I hope not a very bad one." The first strokes of the pump told us that his fears were not without good foundation. The water gushed from the scuppers bright and clean! "Get me a dry ropeyarn," said Father Grafton, quietly. "Draw the boxes, and let's sound the well." A plummet was soon extemporized, and lowered into the pump-well. It was drawn carefully up again. O, how anxiously all eyes were riveted upon it, as with suspended breath we awaited the mate's words. "Twenty-five inches."