Down went Spike, and the length of time he was under water, proved how much he was in earnest.  Up he came at length, and with no better luck than his companion.  He had got hold of the bag, satisfied himself by feeling its outside that it contained the doubloons, and hauled with all his strength, but it would not come.  The boatswain now proposed to take a jamming hitch with a rope around the neck of the bag, which was long enough to admit of such a fastening, and then to apply their united force.  Spike assented, and the boatswain rummaged about for a piece of small rope to suit his purpose.  At this moment Mulford appeared at the companion-way to announce the movements on the part of the sloop-of-war.  He had been purposely tardy, in order to give the ship as much time as possible; but he saw by the looks of the men that a longer delay might excite suspicion.

“Below there!” called out the mate.

“What’s wanting, sir?—­what’s wanting, sir?” answered Spike; “let’s know at once.”

“Have you heard the guns, Captain Spike?”

“Ay, ay, every grumbler of them.  They’ve done no mischief, I trust, Mr. Mulford?”

“None as yet, sir; though the last shot, and it was a heavy fellow, passed just above the schooner’s deck.  I’ve the topsail sheeted home and hoisted, and it’s that which has set them at work.  If I clewed up again, I dare say they’d not fire another gun.”

“Clew up nothing, sir, but see all clear for casting off and making sail through the South Pass.  What do you say, Ben, are you ready for a drag?”

“All ready, sir,” answered the boatswain, once more coming up to breathe.  “Now for it, sir; a steady pull, and a pull all together.”

They did pull, but the hitch slipped, and both went down beneath the water.  In a moment they were up again, puffing a little and swearing a great deal.  Just then another gun, and a clatter above their heads, brought them to a stand.

“What means that, Mr. Mulford?” demanded Spike, a good deal startled.

“It means that the sloop-of-war has shot away the head of this schooner’s foremast, sir, and that the shot has chipp’d a small piece out of the heel of our maintop-mast—­that’s all.”

Though excessively provoked at the mate’s cool manner of replying, Spike saw that he might lose all by being too tenacious about securing the remainder of the doubloons.  Pronouncing in very energetic terms on Uncle Sam, and all his cruisers, an anathema that we do not care to repeat, he gave a surly order to Ben to “knock-off,” and abandoned his late design.  In a minute he was on deck and dressed.

“Cast off, lads,” cried the captain, as soon as on the deck of his own brig again, “and four of you man that boat.  We have got half of your treasure, Senor Wan, but have been driven from the rest of it, as you see.  There is the bag; when at leisure we’ll divide it, and give the people their share.  Mr. Mulford, keep the brig in motion, hauling up toward the South Pass, while I go ashore for the ladies.  I’ll meet you just in the throat of the passage.”