“The first boat is not more than fifty yards behind, the other thirty or forty behind it.  They gain on us very slowly, but I think they will catch us.”

“Then we must do our best, Rupert.  We have each our pistols, and I think we might begin to fire at the rowers.”

“The pistols are not much good at that distance, sir.  My idea is to let them come alongside; then I will heave that cask of water down into the boat, and there will be an end of it.”

“That water cask!” the marquis said.  “That is an eighteen gallon cask.  It is as much as we can lift it, much less heave it through the air.”

“I can do it, never fear,” Rupert said.  “You forget my exercises at Loches, and as a miller’s man.

“My only fear,” he said in a low voice, “is that they may shoot me as I come to the side with it.  For that reason we had better begin to fire.  I don’t want to kill any of them, but just to draw their fire.  Then, just as they come alongside put a cap and a cloak on that stick, and raise them suddenly.  Any who are still loaded are sure to fire the instant it appears.”

The marquis nodded, and they began to fire over the stern, just raising their heads, and instantly lowering them.  The boats again began to fire heavily.  Not a man in the boats was hit, for neither of those in the lugger took aim.  The men cheered, and rowed lustily, and soon the boat was within ten yards of the lugger, coming up to board at the side.  Rupert went to the water barrel, and rolled it to the bulwarks at the point towards which the boat was making.  The marquis stooped behind the bulwarks, a few paces distant, with the dummy.

“Now!” Rupert said, stooping over the barrel, as the boat made a dash at the side.

The marquis lifted the dummy, and five or six muskets were simultaneously discharged.  Then a cry of amazement and horror arose, as Rupert, with the barrel poised above his head, reared himself above the bulwarks.  He bent back to gain impetus, and then hurled the barrel into the boat as she came within a yard of the side of the lugger.

There was a wild shout, a crash of timber, and in an instant the shattered boat was level with the water, and the men were holding on, or swimming for their lives.  A minute later the other boat was on the spot, and the men were at work picking up their comrades.  By the time all were in, she was only an inch or two out of the water, and there was only room for two men to pull; and the last thing those on board the lugger saw of her in the gathering darkness, she was slowly making her way towards shore.

Now that all immediate danger was at an end, the marquis took the tiller, and Rupert lifted the hatchway.

“The captain and two of the crew may come on deck if they promise to behave well,” he said.

There was a shout of laughter, and all the sailors pressed up, eager to know how the pursuit had been shaken off.  When Rupert told them simply that he had tossed one of the water barrels into one of the boats and staved it, the men refused to believe him; and it was not until he took one of the carronades, weighing some five hundred weight, from its carriage, and lifted it above his head as if to hurl it overboard, that their doubts were changed into astonishment.