Page:Intrepid & daring adventures of sixteen British seamen.pdf/11

11 ght as sufficed to render objects close at hand distinguishable, while there was not  of it to expose to view those at a distance. favoured, the sixteen lion-hearted British left their lurking place, and stole into the ay towards the Minerva  About midnight, the  light of a lantern on board became visible,  in a few minutes afterwards the dim outline  the vessel’s hull was discovered. For a the drugger’s oars were suspended to allow  crew to draw one deep breath before striking  desperate blow. During this pause, each ascertained that his brace of pistols was in  belt, and his cutlass and boarding-pike at. Their courage required no “screwing ,” for in one and all of them it naturally, at all times, above the “sticking point;" t at this moment of suspense, it may easily be that their breasts were swelled with a  of distracted emotion, and with that  solicitude which is produced, even in the  of the bravest, by the consciousness that  moment has arrived when nought remains but  do or die. Agitated but not confused by these lings, the drugger’s crew rowed furiously  upon the Minerva’s larboard side. All was , until they reached within musket shot of  ship; it was then that the night watch sung t a challenge. “Dispatches from the fleet for  captain,” was the fisherman’s answer. “Keep —the captain is on shore,” replied the sentry. "Pull on, pull on, ye devils,” whispered Mackay. "Stand off, stand off, you there, or I’ll sink you, St. Maria,” reiterated the sentry ; and the