all was needed, the men being all alert in an instant, the
boats' crews vieing with each other as to which should supply the fresh
hands required for the gunboats; although these would be going, as they
well knew, into the very jaws of death.

Fortunately the launch was the nearest.

"Give way, men!" cried Mr Gilham, waving his sword over his head in a
perfect delirium of joy at being at last no longer a mere spectator of
the exciting scene. "Now, we have a chance, lads; pull like devils lest
it be taken from us!"

But, the lieutenant might have spared his breath, for the men's blood
was up; and, with a bound, the heavily-laden launch dashed forwards as
if she were a racing galley, distancing all her competitors, and being
alongside the leading gunboat before the rest had got half=way up, our
start giving us an advantage, which even their lesser weight could not
lessen.

In less than a minute, the lot of us scrambled on board the _Opossum_,
bluejackets, marines, gunners and all.

We found the engineer and one solitary uninjured stoker below, the
others having all been killed by a bursting shell.

These men, however, were still sticking manfully to their posts in the
engine-room, notwithstanding that they must have been longing all the
while to scuttle up on deck and "have a shy" at the treacherous beggars
who had caught us in such a villainous trap; and at once piling on
steam, the gunboat in which we were in, followed by the _Plover_,
hurried up to the front again to relieve the _Lee_ and _Haughty_ which
were now standing the brunt of the fire from the enemy's batteries, and
looked decidedly as if they were getting the worst of it.

The _Lee_, indeed, had a hole knocked in her bows which a wheelbarrow
could have been trundled into; while her consort had been hulled
repeatedly below the water, and, being close in under the guns, these,
as the tide fell, plunged their shot right through her bottom planking.

"Hot work, ain't it, youngster?" observed Mr Stormcock to me,
presently, when we came under fire and I had the pleasant sensation of a
jinghal ball passing close to my ear, cutting a bit out the collar of my
jacket and making me wince, though I can honestly say I was not
frightened at this, my first experience of being really in action.
"Keep moving about and there'll be less chance of your being picked off.
A lively man who does his work without thinking of the shot, seldom
gets touched. So I found it two