e launch with Mr Gilham,
who was directed to command her, Larkyns, having to play second fiddle
in the boat on this occasion. "Those blessed Chinamen won't come up to
the scratch as soon as they see we mean business."

"Perhaps not," said Mr Gilham. "But, they were precious sharp last
night in detecting those fellows that went after the booms. I think
they mean fighting this time, they're keeping so dark."

"Well, I only hope they do, sir," replied the master's mate, with a
heavy sigh that evidently came from the bottom of his heart. "For my
part, I think they'll cut and run at the first shot, as they've always
done before. I was out here, sir, in the Fatshan affair up the Canton
River in '57, and I remember as we boarded the junks on one side, all of
us racing after them up the creek, the yellow devils would jump out on
the other, without standing up against us for an instant."

While they were talking, I managed to scramble into the bows of the
launch unobserved, nobody noticing me till we had left the ship and it
was too late; and, though Mr Gilham shook his fist at me and told me I
was "acting against orders," he beckoned me to come aft, where Larkyns
and Mr Stormcock made a place for me between them in the sternsheets,
the rest of the boat being crammed with bluejackets and marines, the
latter sitting down on the bottom boards between the thwarts and the
knees of those pulling.

On pulling inshore we made fast to some junks which had been
requisitioned and moored just inside the bar for the purpose, and here
we remained while the gunboats went on to the assault; Admiral Hope
leading the advance in person and hoisting his flag on the little
_Plover_, which showed the way to the rest, moving onward to the first
obstruction in the river, a long row of iron piles linked together by
eight-inch hawsers hove taut.

As we watched our comrades making this forward movement at last, the
flood tide filled the turgid stream of the Peiho, flooding the reedy
marshes on either side of its banks; until, presently, a sheet of muddy
water stretched up to the base of the forts, lapping their wide earthen
escarpments.

These made no sign of defiance whatever, not a man being seen on the
parapets, nor a gun peeping from their embrasures, which were hidden
with mantlets.

Every heart beat high with excitement; and instead of fearing the worst,
the worst we feared was a hollow victory!

The gunboats all took up their severa