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The necessity for it lay in the certainty that a few minutes more would enable the prows to gain shallow water and escape. "Besides," thought the captain to himself, as he walked up and down the bridge with his hands in his pockets, while bullets whistled round his head, "even a thin plate can stand a good strain when struck end-on. Never venture, never win!"
"No," answered Ryan sharply. "I wasn't looking that way. What did she look like?" "She is a square-rigged craft of about three or four hundred tons, under close-reefed topsails, lying end-on to us, sir," answered the man. "Surely it can't be our old friend the barque that has drifted within view of us again during the darkness?" exclaimed Ryan excitedly.
On the usual inquiries being made, the lookout further reported that one of the strangers was a barque; the rig of the other, which happened to be lying end-on, he could not clearly make out, but, from her size, he judged her to be a ship.
She was now about four miles from us, and it soon became apparent that she was overhauling us fast, although by no means so fast as I expected; and she was so nearly end-on to us that I suggested to Ryan the advisability of our showing a light, as it looked very much as though she had not yet seen us and might approach us so closely as to put both craft in imminent peril.
The firing continued, another broadside being directed at the flying pirates, who seemed to be certain now of escape, for the junk was end-on to us, and moving rapidly, forming a very difficult object for our marksmen; the gunboat, of course, rising and falling all the time upon the heaving sea.
The next moment the on-coming vessel struck them, fortunately not end-on or amidships, but in a slanting fashion, her cutwater sliding by the gunwale of the cutter, from bow to stern, with a harsh, grating sound and a rasping movement that shook their very vitals the little yacht heeling over the while until she was almost on her beam-ends.
At a low rate of speed, and keeping the ship dead end-on to the clump of timber to avoid alarming the elephants the professor deftly manoeuvred her into the berth chosen for her, and brought her gently to earth on a spot which afforded those on her deck a clear view over the top of the bush, while concealing practically the whole of her hull from the keen-sighted pachyderms; and, a few minutes later, the three hunters emerged from underneath the ship and waved a silent adieu to the little group who stood on deck watching them.
We were all standing, you must know, at the open door, taking a squint at the weather, when our attention was attracted by a curious object that appeared in the sky, and seemed to be coming down at the rate of ten knots an hour, right end-on for the house.
We were all standing, you must know, at the open door, taking a squint at the weather, when our attention was attracted by a curious object that appeared in the sky, and seemed to be coming down at the rate of ten knots an hour, right end-on for the house.
This movement seemed to be expected all round and it certainly had been delayed to the very last moment for the leading French ship fell off three or four points, and as the frigate was exactly end-on to her, let fly the contents of all the guns on her forecastle, as well as of those on her main-deck, as far aft as they could be brought to bear.
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