your part as well as the
best of us."

This he said in the hope of infusing a little backbone into the man, who
was shaking like a leaf; but his words had no effect. Quen-lung was
terrified, there was no doubt of that, and it seemed to Frobisher that
his terror arose not so much, from fear of the pirates themselves as
from some supernatural power which he appeared to attribute to them.

"Well, master," he said resignedly, "if you insist on attacking them,
you must; but you will not win. I know it; I can see it!" And without
another word he walked to the other side of the deck and leant over the
bulwarks, his chin resting on the palms of his hands, staring moodily
down into the muddy water.

By this time the _Su-chen_ had approached to within a distance of about
a mile from the fort and the small bight in the river, inside which lay
the five junks, and Frobisher determined to try a sighting shot at the
building, to accustom the men to a changing range. He therefore ordered
the men to load the four-inch gun forward, bring it to bear on the
square tower from which the pirates' signal-gun-had been fired, and
discharge it when ready.

The gun was loaded and trained, and the gunner laid his finger on the
firing key; there was a deafening report, the boat quivered from truck
to keelson, and Frobisher, watching, saw the shell strike and burst full
on the centre of the tower, in which a ragged hole immediately
afterwards appeared.

"Good shot!" he ejaculated, laying down his telescope. "Let us try a
few more of the same kind, men. That will soon show those fellows that
we mean business. Where's their invulnerability now, Quen-lung--eh?"

His words were drowned by a terrific discharge from the fort, the whole
eastern front of which seemed to break out into flame and smoke, while a
perfect storm of shot, shell, and small-arm missiles swept the ship,
striking down men, ripping up planking and bulwarks, cutting rigging,
and generally doing a tremendous amount of damage.

From all over the decks came the cries and groans of wounded men,
mingled with execrations from the unwounded who had seen their friends
shot down. Frobisher himself, when he had wiped the blood out of his
eyes which had flowed into them from a small wound on his forehead
caused by a flying splinter, was astounded to observe the amount of
damage and the number of casualties that had resulted from that one
discharge. The pirates had somehow managed