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 blows. In another minute the sword would split his ribs.

A breeze sprang up. The Vulcan was gathering headway.

He was bracing his last efforts against the force that was bending him double, when a long-legged figure rushed from amidship, seized the swordsman around the waist, and with a mighty heave, flung the fellow upward and outward into the sea, falling end over end—a grotesque gyrating figure in the searchlight, still waving his sword.

“Down! Down! Everybody!” yelled Caradoc, as he waded up the rail, overthrowing the last of the boarders.

Madden and the defenders fell prone on the deck, and it was not too soon. The moment the boarding party was definitely repulsed, there broke out a crashing volley from the long boat, and their bullets played a ringing tattoo over the ironwork. Then the tug drew steadily away from their assailants.

The searchlight played over the steamer for several minutes in order to afford a target for the small boats, but the crew lay close, only