This was the last shot that told--every report became more and more faint,
and the musketry soon ceased altogether.
The breeze had taken off, and the Wave, resuming her superiority in light
winds, had escaped.
CHAPTER IX
Cuba Fishermen
"El Pescador de Puerto Escondido,
Pesca mas que Peseado,
Quando la Luna redonda Reflexado en la mar profunda.
Pero cuidado,
El pobre sera el nino perdido Si esta por Anglisman cogido.
Ay de mi".
It was now five in the afternoon, and the breeze continued to fall, and
the sea to go down, until sunset, by which time we had I run the
corvette hull down, and the schooner nearly out of sight. Right ahead
of us rose the high land of Cuba, to the westward of Cape Maize, clear
and well--defined against the northern sky; and as we neither hauled our
wind to weather the east end of the island, nor edged away for St Jago,
it was evident, beyond all doubt, that we were running right in for some
one of the piratical haunts on the Cuba coast.
The crew now set to work, and removed the remains of their late
messmate, and the two wounded men, from where they lay upon the ballast
in the Run, to their own berth forward in the bow of the little vessel;
they then replaced the planks which they had started, and arranged the
dead body of the mate along the cabin floor, close to where I lay, faint
and bleeding, and more heavily bruised than I had at first thought.
The captain was still at the helm; he had never spoken a word either to
me or any of the crew, since he had taken the trifling liberty of
shooting me through the neck, and no thanks to him that the wound was
not mortal; but he now resumed his American accent, and began to drawl
out the necessary orders for repairing damages.
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