Commodore Junk — page 198: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

NEWS AT LAST. 19] brief moments that followed he saw himself returning to England in triumph, his task done, and beautiful, fashionable Lady Jenny Wildersey welcoming him with open arms. It was a puff of fancy, dissipated lke the puff of smoke which came from the schooner’s bows ; while, in company with the report that rumbled heavily away, came a round shot skip- ping over the calm surface of the sea, not forward like the summons to heave-to of the king’s ship, but straight at her hull, and so well-aimed that it tore through the starboard bul- wark amidships and passed just in front of the mainmast, which it almost grazed. ‘The insolent!” exclaimed Humphrey, turning purple with rage. ‘* How dare he!” As he spoke he raised his spy-glass to his eye, for something could be seen fluttering up the side of the great mainsail, and directly after a large black flag was wafted out by the breeze in defiance of a ship-of-war double the schooner’s size, and heavily armed, as well as manned by a picked and disciplined crew. “Very good, Commodore!” cried Humphrey, with a smile, “You can’t escape us now. Gentlemen, the ball has opened. Down with her spars, my lads. Never mind her hull; we want that to take back to Falmouth, from whence she shall sail next time with a different rig.” The men cheered and the firing commenced, when, to the annoyance of the captain, the wind dropped entirely, a dead calm ensued ; night was coming on rapidly, as it descends in the tropic lands, and he had either to try and silence the schooner at long range, or man the boats and take her by boarding, a plan from which he shrank, knowing, as he did, that it could only be successful at a terrible cost of life. and this he dreaded for the sake of his men. The sloop crept a little nearer in one of the puffs of wind Gomicbooks