However, only one ball took effect; it touched the end of the bowsprit, and sent the jib-boom into the air in splinters.

Manton applied the match to the brass gun almost at the same moment, and the heavy ringing roar of her explosion seemed like a prolonged echo of the broadside.

The gun was well aimed; but the schooner had already passed so far behind the point that the ball struck a projecting part of the cliff, dashed it into atoms, and, glancing upwards, passed through the cap of the Talisman's mizzen-mast, and brought the lower yard, with all its gear, rattling down on the quarter-deck.

When the smoke cleared away, the Avenger had vanished from the scene.
To put the ship about, and follow the pirate schooner, was the first impulse of Montague; but, on second thought, he felt that the risk of getting on the rocks in the narrow channel was too great to be lightly run.

He therefore gave orders to warp the ship about, and steer round the islet, on the other side of which he fully expected to find the pirate.