s not susceptible of highly-finished drill.

Amyas is now in his element, and so are the brave fellows at his heels;
and there are ten breathless, furious minutes among the sand-hills; and
then the trumpets blow a recall, and the sailors drop back again by twos
and threes, and are helped up into the embrasures over many a dead and
dying foe; while the guns of Fort del Oro open on them, and blaze away
for half an hour without reply; and then all is still once more. And in
the meanwhile, the sortie against the deputy's camp has fared no better,
and the victory of the night remains with the English.

Twenty minutes after, Winter and the captains who were on shore were
drying themselves round a peat-fire on the beach, and talking over the
skirmish, when Will Cary asked--

"Where is Leigh? who has seen him? I am sadly afraid he has gone too
far, and been slain."

"Slain? Never less, gentlemen!" replied the voice of the very person in
question, as he stalked out of the darkness into the glare of the fire,
and shot down from his shoulders into the midst of the ring, as he might
a sack of corn, a huge dark body, which was gradually seen to be a man
in rich armor; who being so shot down, lay quietly where he was dropped,
with his feet (luckily for him mailed) in the fire.

"I say," quoth Amyas, "some of you had better take him up, if he is to
be of any use. Unlace his helm, Will Cary."

"Pull his feet out of the embers; I dare say he would have been glad
enough to put us to the scarpines; but that's no reason we should put
him to them."

As has been hinted, there was no love lost between Admiral Winter
and Amyas; and Amyas might certainly have reported himself in a more
ceremonious manner. So Winter, whom Amyas either had not seen, or had
not chosen to see, asked him pretty sharply, "What the plague he had to
do with bringing dead men into camp?"

"If he's dead, it's not my fault. He was alive enough when I started
with him, and I kept him right end uppermost all the way; and what would
you have more, sir?"

"Mr. Leigh!" said Winter, "it behoves you to speak with somewhat
more courtesy, if not respect, to captains who are your elders and
commanders."

"Ask your pardon, sir," said the giant, as he stood in front of the fire
with the rain steaming and smoking off his armor; "but I was bred in
a school where getting good service done was more esteemed than making
fine speeches."

"Whatsoever school you were trained in