et, even now they would not admit, to
themselves, much less to their enemies, that they were beaten. Slewing
round their two remaining guns, and collecting their scattered and
sadly-depleted forces into one compact body, they abandoned the attack
on the fort, and directed the whole of their energies to the task of
preventing the troops from landing from the boats; enduring the
persistent volleys poured into their ranks from the fort with the most
stoical resignation. The gunners pointed and elevated their pieces as
coolly as though they were firing for practice at a target, and the
riflemen loaded, and fired their volleys at the word of command as
steadily and as accurately as though there were no foemen returning
their fire, and no remotest possibility that every man of them would be
shot or cut to pieces within the next quarter of an hour.

And, had their numbers not been so dreadfully reduced during that
fierce, all-day struggle, it is quite possible that they might have won,
after all; for the guns were so well served, and the rifle volleys
directed with such deadly aim, that the boats and their crews were
beginning to suffer severely. Already two of the towed boats had been
sunk, and had been cut adrift so that they should not delay the others;
and so terrible was the punishment inflicted by their enemies that the
landing party could not afford to stop to pick up their crews. The bay
was known to be swarming with sharks, and it was not therefore probable
that very many, even of the unwounded, would reach the shore alive.

One of the swivel-guns, too, mounted aboard the steam launches, had been
struck and hurled overboard by a well-directed shot, and Frobisher could
distinguish many a limp and lifeless form hanging over the boats'
gunwales, with arms trailing helplessly in the water.

But the Chinese were no less obstinate and determined than their
opponents. They had set out with the intention of landing, and they
meant to carry out their resolve. The three steamers were still puffing
bravely onward, and moment by moment the distance between their bows and
the beach became less.

Then, suddenly, high above the crackling of flames, the rattle of rifle
fire, and the crashing explosions of the guns, the young Englishman
heard the clear notes of a bugle pealing out. It was evidently the
command to fix bayonets, for the flash and glitter of steel could be
seen as the Chinese drew them from their scabbards and