through
the hole would be enough to attract the entire fire of the rebels, since
they would naturally take him for one of the garrison; and there was
also the very probable chance of his being seen by the riflemen on the
battlements, who would be able to pick him off with the utmost ease as
he climbed out. No; it would be necessary to delay the attempt until
after dark, trusting that meanwhile everybody in general, and the
Governor in particular, would be much too busy to pay him a visit of
investigation and inspect the damage done.

He therefore placed himself at the window once more, and soon saw that,
even during the short interval of his absence, matters had altered
considerably. Another rebel gun had been dismounted, leaving only two
remaining, while of these one had had its carriage very badly damaged.
Also, several more shells from the war-ships must have fallen among the
riflemen, for the dead and wounded were now lying scattered about in
heaps upon the sand, while the fire from the men in the jungle had
dwindled very considerably.

The boats, too, had by this time pushed off from the sides of the
transports and were heading--twelve of them altogether, crowded with
men--in three lines, "in line ahead", as Frobisher would have phrased
it, for the shore. Each of the leading boats was a steam pinnace whose
work it was to tow the rest, and in the bow of each pinnace the
Englishman was able to make out a small swivel-gun, with the gunners
standing by ready to open fire as soon as the boats drew within range.
It could not now be long before the end came, for, when once the boats
had landed the troops, the rebels would be hopelessly outnumbered; and
it seemed evident that Frobisher's hope of being rescued by the latter
was doomed to disappointment.

By this time the dusk had closed down sufficiently to enable Frobisher
to distinguish the trains of small sparks left behind by the fuses of
the time-shells which were now bursting thickly over the jungle, the
idea of the Chinese evidently being to drive the men concealed there out
into the open; and the plan succeeded admirably, although not quite in
the manner anticipated.

Frobisher had watched shell after shell fall among the brush and reeds,
and had seen group after group of men come reeling out from cover, only
to be mowed down by the rifle fire from the fort, when suddenly he
perceived a small tongue of flame shoot upward from the seaward corner
of the jungle