“So they are,” replied Lord Hastings.  “And they are arming themselves.  I guess we shall have to fight this thing out yet.  How’s your arm, Jack?” he called to the lad, who was in another boat.

“Feels pretty good, sir,” was the reply.  “Why?”

“And your head, Frank?” demanded Lord Hastings, paying no heed to Jack’s question.

“First rate, sir, doesn’t hurt a bit.”

“All right.  Rifles ready, men.  We’ll swoop down on those fellows before they are prepared to hold us off.”

But already they had delayed too long to surround the pirates without a fight. The Vulture’s boats were afloat now and were manned by the crew; and from the distance the British could see they were all armed.

Lord Hastings gave his commands quickly.

“Mr. Templeton, make a short detour to the right,” he commanded.  “Take them from the flank.”  He motioned to Edwards, who was steering the boat next to his own.  Edwards approached.  “Climb in there and take command, Frank,” said Lord Hastings.

Frank did so quickly.

“Now make a detour to the left,” Lord Hastings commanded.  “I’ll try and hold them off here until you reach a proper position.  Then we can bear down on them from all sides.”

The first shot of the battle came from the pirates and was fired by Davis himself.  A man in the bow of Lord Hastings’ boat muttered an imprecation and wrung his hand.  The bullet had struck his left little finger and carried the tip of it away.

“Hurt much, Price?” asked Lord Hastings.

“Not much, sir,” was the quiet response.  “May interfere with my shooting a little though, sir.”

“Fire when ready,” Lord Hastings commanded his men.

He threw his rifle to his shoulder and it cracked viciously.  A man in the foremost pirate boat threw up his arms, sprang to his feet and pitched into the sea head first.

“One less,” Lord Hastings muttered to himself.

In the meantime, while Lord Hastings engaged the enemy, Frank and Jack were nearing their respective positions.  Jack came into action first, sweeping down upon the enemy from the right.

The forces were about evenly divided, three boats to a side, but it appeared that in men the pirates slightly outnumbered the British.

A man dropped in Jack’s boat now, fatally wounded.  The others did not even pause, but returned the fire steadily.  Another man in Jack’s boat dropped his rifle and fell back gasping.  A pirate bullet found two victims in Frank’s boat and Lord Hastings now suffered the loss of another.

But the enemy was paying for these victims.  In the center pirate boat three men were no longer able to handle a rifle, while in the craft to the right two had been wounded.  The boat to the left also had suffered.

And all this time the boats had been nearing each other and the crack of the rifles mingled with the hoarse shouting of the German sailors.  The British, for the most part, fought coolly and silently, only the groans of the wounded breaking the stillness from their part of the water.