“That is good,” Sir Louis exclaimed, as, on turning a point, they saw the flames.  “That cannot have been lighted long, and we are pretty certain to come upon the vessels before the marauders have set sail.”

Several inlets and small bays were passed, but all were empty.  A few fishing boats lay on the shore, but there were no signs of life, as no doubt the people would, long since, have taken alarm and sought shelter in the woods.  There was a sharp point just before they reached the southeastern extremity of the island, and as the galley shot past this, a shout of exultation rose from the knights, for, near the mouth of an inlet that now opened to their view, there lay four long, low vessels, above each of which floated the Moslem flag.  A number of men were gathered on the shore near the ships, and heavily laden boats were passing to and fro.

A yell of rage and alarm rose from the ships as the galley came into view.  There was a stir and movement on the shore, and numbers of men leapt into the boats there, and started for the ships.  These were some quarter of a mile away when first seen, and half that distance had been traversed when a puff of smoke shot out from the side of one of them, followed almost immediately by a general discharge of their cannon.  One ball tore along the waist of the galley, killing six of the rowers, and several oars on both sides were broken.  Two balls passed through the cabins in the poop.  But there was no pause in the advance of the galley.  The whips of the slave masters cracked, and the rowers whose oars were intact strained at them.  There was no reply from the guns, but the knights raised loud the war cry of the Order, a war cry that was never heard without striking a thrill of apprehension among their Moslem foes.

As they neared the pirate ships, the helm was put down, and the galley brought up alongside the largest of them and a broadside poured into her; then the knights, headed by their commander, leapt on to her deck.

Although a number of the crew had not yet come off from shore, the Moslems still outnumbered their assailants, and, knowing that their consorts would soon come to their aid, they threw themselves in a body on the Christians.  But in a hand-to-hand conflict like this, the knights of the Hospital were irresistible.  Protected by their armour and long shields from the blows of their enemies’ scimitars and daggers, their long, cross handled swords fell with irresistible force on turbaned head and coat-of-mail, and, maintaining regular order and advancing like a wall of steel along the deck, they drove the Moslems before them, and the combat would soon have terminated had not a shout been raised by one of the overseers of the slaves.  One of the other ships had rowed alongside the galley, and the crew were already leaping on board it.  At the same moment another ship came up alongside that they had boarded, while the fourth was maneuvering to bring up under her stern.