The shot hummed overhead, one struck the water alongside, a yard or two away, but still she was untouched.
"Some of her shots went as near the cutter as they did to us," the skipper said.

"She won't fire again." They were now fast approaching the cutter, which, when she was within a quarter of a mile, changed her course and was brought up again into the wind, firing the four guns she carried on her broadside as she came round.

The lugger's head was paid off, and this placed the cutter on her starboard quarter, both going free.

The former was travelling the faster, but a gun was fired from the cutter's bow, and the shot struck splinters from the lugger's quarter.

The crew were on deck again now.
"Train that gun over the stern," the skipper said.