veral
other officials, pulled across to investigate the matter.

"We may as well go to see the fun," said Nettleship; "the first
lieutenant won't find fault with us when I explain the object."

Away we pulled with the rest, and lay off the beach, while Captain
Bouncer and his party landed.

The sentry, who was standing in his box, stepped out, and saluted in due
form.

"How did you get here, my man?" inquired Captain Bouncer in an angry
tone.

"Faith, captain, that's more than I can be after telling you," answered
the sentry, whom I recognised as a countryman.

"You don't mean to tell me that you don't know how you and your
sentry-box were transported across the harbour in the middle of the
night!" exclaimed Captain Bouncer.

"That's just what I'm saying I can't do, captain dear," replied the
sentry.

"You must have been drunk as a fiddler," shouted the captain.

"I can swear, your honour, by all the holy saints, that I was sober as a
judge," answered Pat. "Shure it's my belief I was lifted up by a couple
of witches riding on broomsticks, and carried across without so much as
wetting my feet, for my boots are as dry as if they had been roasting
before the fire."

"If witches carried the man across, they must be hunted up and
punished," cried one of the bystanders.

"Witches be hanged!" exclaimed the captain; "the man must give a better
account than that of the way he came across."

"Then, captain, if it was not witches, it must have been a score of
will-o'-the-wisps, who just upset the sentry-box and towed it across the
harbour while I was sitting quiet, not dreaming of what was happening,
and only just looking up at the stars shining brightly above me," said
Pat in a wheedling tone.

"You must have been asleep, at all events, or you would have discovered
that your box was being moved," said the captain.

"Asleep is it, your honour!" exclaimed the sentry; "shure Pat Donovan,
and that's myself, never went to sleep on guard since he listed in His
Majesty's army."

"Whether the sentry was drunk or asleep, whether transported across by
witches or imps, we must have the sentry-box back again," said Captain
Bouncer, and he gave orders to have it lifted into a boat. This was
found, from its weight, not to be an easy matter, confirming the people
in their belief that the sentry had been carried across as he stated,
for if heavy when empty, it must have been much heavier with him in it.

Poor Pat meantime