ll-arm fire, and was shortly
obliged to leave the bridge, in order to avoid being shot. He therefore
took up his post in the forward starboard casemate, from which position
he could observe the enemy and at the same time encourage his crew to
greater efforts. This he was obliged to do by signs, for at the
beginning of the battle Quen-lung had vanished, and Frobisher was unable
to catch a glimpse of him anywhere. He had doubtless sought the
seclusion of his cabin, in the hope that there he might find safety,
oblivious of the fact that the enemy were using such large and powerful
guns that the wooden sides of the gunboat offered little more protection
than he would have obtained out on deck. Frobisher determined to go and
find him, when he could spare a moment or two from the matter in hand,
bring him up on deck, and thus teach him, by the most practical of
methods, how to stand fire without flinching.

At present, however, he had more than enough to occupy him, without
thinking of Quen-lung. The fort had brought all its guns to bear on the
_Su-chen_ directly the gunboat became practically stationary, and it, as
well as the junks, was making such excellent practice that Frobisher at
length began to realise that he was in a very warm corner indeed, out of
which it would tax his skill to the utmost to extricate himself, to say
nothing of carrying out his expressed intention of destroying the pirate
stronghold. There was, of course, still time to retire, to return to
Tien-tsin and bring reinforcements, explaining to the admiral that one
small gunboat was utterly inadequate to undertake so important an
enterprise as this was proving to be; and this would doubtless have been
his wisest plan. But this particular Englishman happened to be one of
those who do not know when they are beaten, and the mere idea of retreat
never so much as entered his mind.

He therefore went about from gun to gun, cheering and encouraging the
men, sometimes training one of the weapons himself, and all the while
impressing upon the crew--as well as he could by signs--the necessity
for holing and sinking the junks as speedily as possible, and so
reducing to some extent the severe gruelling to which the _Su-chen_ was
being subjected.

At last his constant exhortations began to have their effect. A
well-directed shell from the four-inch gun--laid, as it happened, by
Frobisher's own hands--struck the junk at the end of the line nearest to
the g