“Suddenly the pirate’s sails loomed close alongside. Our yardarms locked with his. Grappling irons were thrown aboard us and the whole horde of ruffians tried to board us by main force. But they met with such desperate resistance that they were compelled to retreat for the time. Right here is where the cook figured. Just as things looked most critical he turned the tide for us. Attached to a huge boiler in his domain was a hose, used for washing stains out of the decks.
“While we had been arming he had made up a roaring fire. By the time the pirates boarded us there was enough boiling water in the boiler to make that hose an effective weapon. Yelling like an Indian, the cook turned it on the scrambling mass of rascals. The stream of boiling water was more effective than bullets. With yells and cries they fell back, some of them scalded horribly.
“All this time I had lost sight of Captain Munson. Now I glimpsed him, just in time to see him leap into the main chains and from thence on to the bulwarks of the pirate ship. His face was fixed and terrible and held an expression of desperate resolve. Cutlass in hand, he fought his way through the demoralized pirates and at last I saw, in a flash of understanding, his purpose. His object was to find out, and kill with his own hands, the pirate chief. Hardly had I realized this before the men encountered each other. Apparently the pirate recognized Munson instantly, for I saw him recoil as if he had seen a ghost. But the next instant he had recovered and began to fight desperately for his life.
“In the meantime some of our crew had cut the two vessels apart, and before any of us recovered his wits and started to the captain’s rescue the two craft had drifted so far asunder that it was impossible. With horrified fascination we watched the fight, and if it held us spellbound it appeared to have the same effect on the pirate crew; at any rate, none of them interfered.
“Such a furious fight could not, in the nature of things, last long, but it came to an altogether unexpected conclusion. Captain Munson’s cutlass had broken off short and he closed with his enemy, grasping him about the waist. They both reeled backward—and suddenly vanished from sight. A hatchway had been left open, and in their blind fury neither had noticed it. Tripping on the coaming, they had plunged into it.
