pert swimmer, the
commotion he made in the water attracted the ear of the sentry on that
side of the ship, who, turning about in his walk, perceived the faint
white spot where the fugitive was swimming in the frigate's shadow. He
hailed it; but no reply.

"Give the word, or I fire!"

Not a word was heard.

The next instant there was a red flash, and, before it had completely
ceased illuminating the night the white spot was changed into crimson.
Some of the officers, returning from a party at the Beach of the
Flamingoes, happened to be drawing near the ship in one of her cutters.
They saw the flash, and the bounding body it revealed. In a moment the
topman was dragged into the boat, a handkerchief was used for a
tourniquet, and the wounded fugitive was soon on board the frigate,
when, the surgeon being called, the necessary attentions were rendered.

Now, it appeared, that at the moment the sentry fired, the top-man--in
order to elude discovery, by manifesting the completest quietude--was
floating on the water, straight and horizontal, as if reposing on a
bed. As he was not far from the ship at the time, and the sentry was
considerably elevated above him--pacing his platform, on a level with
the upper part of the hammock-nettings--the ball struck with great
force, with a downward obliquity, entering the right thigh just above
the knee, and, penetrating some inches, glanced upward along the bone,
burying itself somewhere, so that it could not be felt by outward
manipulation. There was no dusky discoloration to mark its internal
track, as in the case when a partly-spent ball--obliquely
hitting--after entering the skin, courses on, just beneath the surface,
without penetrating further. Nor was there any mark on the opposite
part of the thigh to denote its place, as when a ball forces itself
straight through a limb, and lodges, perhaps, close to the skin on the
other side. Nothing was visible but a small, ragged puncture, bluish
about the edges, as if the rough point of a tenpenny nail had been
forced into the flesh, and withdrawn. It seemed almost impossible, that
through so small an aperture, a musket-bullet could have penetrated.

The extreme misery and general prostration of the man, caused by the
great effusion of blood--though, strange to say, at first he said he
felt no pain from the wound itself--induced the Surgeon, very
reluctantly, to forego an immediate search for the ball, to extract it,
as that would have