charge of grape was rammed into the mouth
of the brass piece. The muzzle was raised, and the gunner took long aim
at the base of the blazing pyramid. Henry and the shiftless one stood
by, watching eagerly, and the three in the boat at a little distance
were also watching eagerly. Every one of them ran water from head to
toe, but they no longer thought about rain, thunder, or lightning.

"He'll do it," the shiftless one said in the ear of Henry.

The gun was fired. A great blaze of flame leaped from its muzzle, and
the _Independence_ shook with the concussion. But the bonfire seemed to
spring into the air. It literally went up in a great shower of timber
and coals, like fireworks, and when it sank darkness blotted out the
space where it had been.

"A hit fa'r an' squar'!" exclaimed Shif'less Sol.

From the fleet came a thunder of applause, which matched the thunder
from the heavens, while from the shore rose a fierce yell of rage and
execration.

"Well done! Well done!" shouted Adam Colfax to the gunner, who said
nothing, but whose smile showed how much he was pleased at this just
praise.

"It's likely that some warriors went out with their fire," said Henry.
"A lot of them were bound to be around it, feeding it and making it go
in all this rain."

"They can be well spared," said Adam Colfax. "God knows I am not a
seeker of human life, but I am resolved to do my errand. Now for the
opposite bonfire on the northern bank."

The _Independence_ swung through the fleet, which parted to let her
pass, quickly closing up again. The boat came within seventy or eighty
yards of the northern shore, all those aboard her sheltering themselves
by one means or another from the Indian bullets, one of which struck
upon the brazen muzzle of the twelve pounder, but which did no damage.

The triple load of grape was used again, and the first shot was not
successful, but the second seemed to strike fairly at the base of the
bonfire, and it was extinguished as the first had been. The two further
up were soon put out in the same manner.

The thunder of applause rose in the fleet at every successful shot, and
then it swung forward with increased speed. The river at this point sank
into darkness, save when the lightning flared across it, and the Indian
bullets, which still came like the rain itself, were of necessity fired
at random, doing, therefore, little damage.

Shif'less Sol laughed in sheer delight.

"It was a good trick the