to right and left, the shimmering sea,
and straight in front the two junks; while almost at my feet, in spite
of their hard rowing, there were our four boats, with the oars dipping
with glorious regularity, and making the water flash and glitter, but
not so brightly as did the bayonets of the few marines in each, as they
sat in the stern-sheets with their rifles upright between their legs,
and the keen triangular blades at the tops of the barrels twinkling at
every movement of the boats.

It was a sight to make any one's heart throb, and in spite of my
splendid position for seeing everything I could not help wishing I was
there to help make a part of the picture I saw, with the men in their
white ducks and straw hats, the marines glowing like so many patches of
poppies, and the officers with their dark blue coats faintly showing a
lace or two of gold.

How I longed to be with them bound upon such an exciting trip, and all
the time how glad I was to be up there in so commanding a position, as,
after watching the progress of the boats for a few moments, I opened and
focussed my glass, rested it against a rope, and fixed it upon the
junks.

The first thing I noticed was that one of them lay a little over to
port, as if from being too heavily laden on one side; while, as I gazed,
the other was evidently settling in the other direction.

I wondered what they were doing to them, and whether it meant changing
heavy guns over to one side, when I grasped the fact,--they had gone as
high up-stream as they could, and then run aground, and were fixed in
the sticky mud of which the bottom of the river was composed.

"Ahoy! there aloft," shouted Mr Reardon. "What do you make out?"

I did not take the glass from my eye, but shouted down to him--

"Both junks fast aground, sir. Chinese crews running backwards and
forwards, trying to work them off, sir."

An eager conversation ensued between Mr Reardon and the captain, during
which I carefully scanned the two Chinese vessels, and could see the men
swarming here and there, as if in an intense state of agitation, but
they soon ceased trying to rock the junks, and, as I judged, they were
waiting for the tide to rise higher and float them off.

There was nothing between to hinder my having a thoroughly good view of
where they lay, just round a slight bend, but I felt certain that they
could not see our boats, and I had proof that this was the case, on
noticing that a group of me