Part 53

The sea-warriors drifted along, eyeing each other, for about an hour, when the stranger ran in her lower deck-guns and closed her port-holes.

"She's a treasure ship," cried a sailor. "And she won't fight if she can avoid it!"

Walker turned to his officers and asked,

"Gentlemen, shall we fight her?"

"Aye! Aye!" came from all. "She's afraid of us!"

The vessel, in fact, was a treasure ship which had been recently chased by some English men-of-war and had already landed her treasure, to the value of about one million sterling (about $5,000,000). A slight breeze sprang up, at about five in the afternoon, and the big ship kept on her course; the gamey King George following, while the white sails of the Prince Frederick were far astern, as the breeze had not yet struck her. So they swashed along, the Englishmen anxious for a fight, and a chance to overhaul the supposed treasure which the stranger was carrying. At eight o'clock the King George was struck by a favorable puff of wind, and came quite close to the seventy-four. It was time for battle.

"What ship is that?" hailed Captain Walker, in the Portuguese tongue. He was cleared for action and his men were all lying down at their quarters. There was no answer to his challenge.

"What ship is that?" he asked again; this time in English.

A voice came back,--also in English,

"And what ship may you be?"

"The King George."

Crash! B-oo-m!

A thundering broadside belched from the side of the seventy-four, dismounting two guns on the port side of the King George, and bringing the main topsail yard crashing to the deck. It was now bright moonlight, and in its radiance the flag of the stranger was seen to blow straight out, disclosing her nationality to be Spanish. She was the Glorioso: a strong and powerful vessel, ably officered and ably manned. She towered above the little King George like a church-spire, and her broadsides now sputtered with great regularity.

Crash! Crash! Crash!

The sprightly little King George kept after the big warship like a sword-fish chasing a whale. She drew so close that some burning wads from the Spanish guns set fire to her mainsail. Continually hoping that the Prince Frederick would come up, the gallant Walker hammered away at the Glorioso with furious precision, and drove her so near the rocks off Cape Vincent that the castle guns began to play upon the two grappling warriors of the sea. The British sea-captain fought and commanded with "a calmness peculiar to himself" and his example secured order and discipline even in the thickest of the fight, when the mainsail was set on fire. He was magnificent in action.

So the unequal struggle kept on. By half-past ten the King George had been so severely damaged aloft that she could not have escaped if she had tried. All the braces were shot away; the foremast was quite disabled; and the mainmast was badly splintered. Battered, torn, and distressed she kept banging away at the great, towering Spaniard; while the big fellow ceased her fire somewhat, and ever now and again let go a broadside, like the blow from the mouth of a huge whale. It sounded like, Chu-spow!

But hurrah! hurrah! The Prince Frederick had at last caught the breeze, and came bouncing by, her little pennons fluttering like so many silk stockings on a clothes-line.

"Are you all well?" shouted her commander, as he neared the splintered King George. "You look as if you're sinking."

Captain Walker came to the rail with the speaking-trumpet in his hand.

"One killed and fifteen wounded," he answered. "Now sail after that Spanish villain and take her, in revenge for all the damage that she has done me. She's a treasure ship."

"All right," Captain Dottin called back, and he kept on after the Glorioso, which was now rapidly drawing away.

By the bright moonlight it could be seen that the Duke and the Prince George were also approaching. And, when they came close enough to the maimed and battered King George, her captain called to them, "to keep on after the Spaniard, and catch the rascal." They continued on their way, and, at daybreak the three vessels could be seen, through the glass, as they closed in upon the Spanish game-cock from three sides. "She'll be ours before nightfall," said Captain Walker, chuckling.

The headmost ship, apparently the Duke under Captain Dottin, could now be seen to hotly engage the Glorioso, which greatly displeased the captain of the dismantled King George.

"Dottin will fire away all of his cartridges," said he, turning to a few of his officers, who clustered around him. "He will shoot them all off at too great a distance, and will afterwards be obliged to load with loose powder, by which some fatal accident is sure to occur. He's a brave fellow, but a rash one!"

He had scarcely spoken, when a broadside rang out. Simultaneously, with the discharge of the guns, a pillar of smoke and flame shot high into the air.

"Good Heavens, the Duke has blown up!" cried Captain Walker. "Dottin and his brave followers have found a watery grave!"

"It is merely the smoke of a broadside," one of the officers interrupted.

"No! No!" answered Walker, dejectedly. "It's the last that will ever be seen of noble Dottin and his men!"