If you can render it impossible for the men to stand at the wheel, we will make mincemeat of this fellow in no time.

Directly I have fired our port broadside, I am going to bring her up into the wind on the opposite tack, and give him the starboard broadside at close quarters.

Don't fire until we have gone about, and then pick off the helmsmen, if you can.
"Get ready, men." The brig was now but a little more than a quarter of a mile distant.
"Aim at the foot of his mainmast," he went on.

"Let each man fire as he gets the mast on his sight." A moment later the first gun fired, and the whole broadside followed in quick succession.
"Down with the helm! Hard down, sheets and tacks!" The men whose duty it was to trim the sails ran to the sheets and braces.

The Madras swept up into the wind, and, as her sails drew on the other tack, she came along on a course that would take her within a hundred yards of the brig.
As she approached, three rifles cracked out on her poop.