The major and his companions could not help seeing that Captain Pecklar had deserted their cause, and that, with the gun on the deck, he was a dangerous enemy.
The report of a musket in the direction of the boat caused Christy to look very anxiously to the forward deck; but to his great satisfaction he saw that the captain had not been hit.

But he immediately retired under the pilot-house, so that he could not see him.

He was brave enough to stand up and be shot at, but he was also prudent enough not to expose himself unnecessarily.
Three other shots followed the first, one of the balls passing through the boards of the pilot-house, above the helmsman's head; and he saw a splinter fly from a stanchion forward.

Captain Pecklar waited for the fourth shot,--and he had evidently noticed how many men had muskets in their hands,--then he sprang out from his hiding-place, sighted the gun, and pulled the lock-string.
Through the aperture he had made, Christy looked with intense interest to ascertain the effect of this shot.

As soon as the smoke blew away, he saw that the shot had passed obliquely into the boat, striking the stern-board just behind Major Pierson, and splitting off the plank near the water-line.
There was a commotion in the ranks of the enemy, and it was plain enough that the water was flowing into the craft.