g horribly. He was in
hopes his old schoolfellows would have recognised him. Back he was
hurried. Still he felt sure that his friends would overtake him. The
retreating villains had got close to the barracoon, and not far from the
last entrance to the fort. The seamen pressed on. There was still some
space between the parties, when the old man fired his pistol into a cask
sunk into the ground; a thick smoke came out of it. Back, back the
pirates pushed. In an instant more a dense mass rose before them of
earth, and stone, and timbers, horribly mingled with the arms and legs
and bodies of human beings;--a mine had been sprung. Jack was in an
agony of fear for the fate of his friends. He could see nothing of
them. He observed only that the mine had taken effect under one end of
the barracoon. The terrible shrieks and cries of its wretched inmates
rang in his ears. A large number of them had been liberated, and with
loud yells were following in the rear of the slave-dealers, for whom
they served as an effective shield against the shot of the seamen. The
slaves had been told that the English would kill them, so they ran away
as soon as they were let out of the barracoon, as fast as the rest. The
piratical crew, for such they really were, took their way up the hill,
towards the king's residence, followed closely by the slaves and all the
rabble who had escaped out of the fort. Jack expected that his friends
would have pursued, and should he escape the pistol of the old gentleman
who had him by the arm, he hoped before long to be rescued. They had
not, however, got far up the hill when he saw flames burst forth from
the barracoon, in which he knew, judging from those following, that a
number of poor wretches had been left in chains, and he truly guessed
that his countrymen were stopping to try and rescue them. The flames
burst fiercely, and blazed up high, as they caught the dry inflammable
timber of which the building was composed. Nothing could arrest their
progress. The gallant seamen, he knew, would be dashing in among them
in spite of the hot smoke, and doing their best to rescue the
unfortunate wretches, but he feared that few would be saved. Even where
he was he could hear their piteous shrieks, as the flames caught hold of
them, chained as they were and unable to escape. As was too likely the
pirates had set fire to the barracoon on purpose to delay the English;
this plan succeeded perfectly. Ofte