south would draw all eyes from the north, and the stronger
squadron of canoes might be enabled to run under the bows of the ship
so speedily and quietly that the occupants of the leading craft, men
who could climb like monkeys, stood some chance of gaining the deck
unobserved. That this was their design was proved by the abstention of
the newcomers from firing or stone-slinging. They were gathering with
the speed and silence of vultures.

Two mines protected the front of the _Kansas_, and several canoes had
passed them. Indeed, Courtenay soon found that some of the assailants
were already screened by the ship's bows, but the larger number were
clustered thickly round Tollemache's infernal machines. It was well
that a cool-headed sailor was called on to deal with this emergency.
The captain of the _Kansas_ even smiled as he appreciated the full
meaning of the trick which his adversaries had tried to play on him,
and the man who smiles in the face of danger is one to be depended on.

The six cords were numbered. He dropped No. 2, which he was holding,
and seized Nos. 4 and 5. He drew them in, hand over hand, as rapidly
as possible, but careful not to sacrifice a smooth tension to undue
hurry. In a few seconds two deafening reports split the air, the glass
front of the chart-house shook, pieces of the broken panes rattled on
the floor, several scraps of iron, bolts, nuts and heavy nails fell on
the decks and hatches, and a tremendous hubbub of yells came from the
main body of Indians. A couple of heavily charged dynamite bombs had
burst in their midst, dealing death and destruction over a wide area.
Several canoes near the floating platforms were torn asunder and sank,
while men were killed or wounded out of all proportion to the number of
craft disabled.

Courtenay at once picked up the governing cord of the mine which he was
about to fire in the first instance. He felt that the Alaculof
flotilla would act in future on the "once bitten twice shy" principle
where those innocent-looking little poles showed above sea level, and
he must strike fierce blows while the opportunity served. The nine
canoes on the south were not clustered around the bomb in the same
manner as the others, but they were near enough to sustain heavy loss,
and their affrighted crews had ceased to ply their paddles. So he
fired that shell also, and had the satisfaction of seeing two more of
the frail craft capsize.

He heard the crash of