Without a
foresail she could never get out of his way. Her crew had stopped the
leak, and cut away and unshipped the broken foremast, and were stepping a
new one, when they saw the huge ship bearing down in full sail. Nothing
easier than to slip out of her way could they get the foresail to draw;
but the time was short, the deadly intention manifest, the coming
destruction swift. After that solemn silence came a storm of cries and
curses, as their seamen went to work to fit the yard and raise the sail;
while their fighting men seized their matchlocks and trained the guns.
They were well commanded by an heroic able villian. Astern the consort
thundered; but the _Agra's_ response was a dead silence more awful than
broadsides.
For then was seen with what majesty the enduring Anglo-Saxon fights.
One of the indomitable race on the gangway, one at the foremast, two at
the wheel, conned and steered the great ship down on a hundred
matchlocks, and a grinning broadside, just as they would have conned and
steered her into a British harbor.
"Starboard!" said Dodd, in a deep calm voice, with a motion of his hand.
"Starboard it is."
The pirate wriggled ahead a little.
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