The World of Ice | Page 5

crew of which sprang up the side like cats, formed on
the forecastle, and poured a volley upon the men.
"Follow me, lads," shouted the captain, as he sprang forward like a
tiger. The first man he reached fell by a ball from his pistol; in another
moment the opposing parties met in a hand-to-hand conflict.
Meanwhile Fred, having been deeply impressed with the effect of the
shot from the little carronade, succeeded in raising and reloading it. He
had scarcely accomplished this when one of the boats reached the
larboard quarter, and two of the men sprang up the side. Fred observed
them, and felled the first with a handspike before he reached the deck,
but the pirate who instantly followed, would have killed him, had he
not been observed by the second mate, who had prevented several of

the men from joining in the melee on the forecastle, in order to meet
such an emergency as this. Rushing to the rescue with his party, he
drove the pirates back into the boat, which was immediately pulled
towards the bow, where the other two boats were now grappling and
discharging their crews on the forecastle. Although the men of the
West-Indiaman fought with desperate courage, they could not stand
before the increasing numbers of pirates, who now crowded the
forepart of the ship in a dense mass. Gradually they were beaten back,
and at length were brought to bay on the quarter-deck.
"Help, Father!" cried Fred, pushing through the struggling crowd,
"here's the carronade ready loaded."
"Ha! boy, well done!" cried the captain, seizing the gun, and, with the
help of Buzzby, who never left his side, dragging it forward. "Clear the
way, lads!"
In a moment the little cannon was pointed to the centre of the mass of
men, and fired. One awful shriek of agony rose above the din of the
fight, as a wide gap was cut through the crowd; but this only seemed to
render the survivors more furious. With a savage yell they charged the
quarter-deck, but were hurled back again and again by the captain, and
a few chosen men who stood around him. At length one of the pirates,
who had been all along conspicuous for his strength and daring,
stepped deliberately up, and, pointing a pistol at the captain's breast,
fired. Captain Ellice fell, and at the same moment a ball laid the pirate
low; another charge was made; Fred rushed forward to protect his
father, but was thrown down and trodden under foot in the rush, and in
two minutes more the ship was in possession of the pirates.
Being filled with rage at the opposition they had met with, these
villains proceeded, as they said, to make short work of the crew, while
several of them sprang into the cabin, where they discovered Mrs Ellice
almost dead with terror. Dragging her violently on deck, they were
about to cast her into the sea, when Buzzby, who stood with his hands
bound, suddenly burst his bonds and sprang towards her. A blow from
the butt of a pistol, however, stretched him insensible on the deck.

"Where is my husband?--my boy?" screamed Mrs Ellice wildly.
"They've gone before you, or they'll soon follow," said a savage
fiercely, as he raised her in his powerful arms, and hurled her
overboard. A loud shriek was followed by a heavy plunge. At the same
moment two of the men raised the captain, intending to throw him
overboard also, when a loud boom arrested their attention, and a
cannon-shot ploughed up the sea close in front of their bows.
While the fight was raging, no one had observed the fact that the breeze
had freshened, and a large man-of-war, with American colours at her
peak, was now within gunshot of the ship. No sooner did the pirates
make this discovery than they rushed to their boats, with the intention
of pulling to their schooner, but those who had been left in charge,
seeing the approach of the man-of-war, and feeling that there was no
chance of escape for their comrades, or, as is more than probable, being
utterly indifferent about them, crowded all sail, and slipped away, and
it was now hull-down on the horizon to leeward. The men in the boats
rowed after her with the energy of despair, but the Americans gave
chase, and we need scarcely add that, in a very short time, all were
captured.
When the man-of-war rejoined the West-Indiaman, the night had set in
and a stiff breeze had arisen, so that the long and laborious search that
was made for the body of poor Mrs Ellice, proved utterly fruitless.
Captain Ellice, whose wound was very severe, was struck down as if by
a thunderbolt, and for a long time his