in the boat?"

"No, sir," answered the lad. "I hadn't a glass with me. Is there such
a thing knocking about anywhere here in the tent, I wonder?"

"Yes," answered Hutchinson. "You will find Mr Nugent's somewhere
about. It was picked up and brought in by the fatigue-party this
morning. You might take it, if you can find it, and see if you can
distinguish an officer in the boat. The glass ought to be somewhere
over there."

Parkinson went to the spot indicated, and proceeded to rummage among the
heterogeneous articles that had been recovered from the scene of the
previous night's fight, and soon routed out the instrument of which he
was in search, with which he went to the opening of the tent, from which
the launch was by this time visible. Applying the telescope to his eye,
he focussed it upon the fast-approaching boat and stared intently
through the tube.

"Yes," he said at length, "I can make out Mr Purchase in the stern-
sheets, with Rawlings, the coxswain, alongside of him; and there is
Cupid's ugly mug acting as figure-head to the boat. The beggar is
grinning like a Cheshire cat--I can see his double row of ivories
distinctly--so I expect there is nothing much the matter."

Presently, from where I was lying, the launch slid into view, coming
down-stream at a great pace under whole canvas, and driven along by a
breeze that laid her over gunwale-to. She was edging in toward our side
of the river; and as I watched her movements, her crew suddenly sprang
to their feet, apparently in obedience to an order; her foresail and
mainsail were simultaneously brailed up at the same moment that her
staysail was hauled down, then her helm was put up and she swerved
inward toward the beach, upon which she grounded a minute later. Then
Mr Purchase rose to his feet, sprang up on the thwarts, and, striding
from one to the other, finally sprang out upon the beach, up which,
followed by Cupid, he made his way toward our tent. A couple of minutes
later he stood in the entrance, waiting for his eyes to accustom
themselves to the comparative darkness of the interior.

"Well, doc.," he exclaimed cheerily, "how have things been going with
you to-day?"

"Quite as well as I could reasonably have expected, taking all things
into consideration," answered Hutchinson. "Poor Nugent has passed
away--went about half an hour ago--but the rest of the wounded are doing
excellently. How have things gone with you, and where are the ot