ed with the cook's axe, cut the
hawsers fore and aft by which the schooner was secured to the bank.

The wind was very baffling just where we were; moreover we happened,
unfortunately, to be on the lee side of the canal, and for a couple of
minutes after cutting adrift we were in imminent danger of taking the
ground after all our trouble. Between us, however, we succeeded in so
far flattening in the main-sheet as to cant her bows to windward, and
though the schooner's keel actually stirred up the mud for a distance of
quite fifty yards, we at last had the gratification of seeing her draw
off the bank. The moment that she was fairly under weigh I drew
Smellie's attention to the violent pounding at the companion doors, and
suggested as a precautionary measure that we should run one of the guns
up against the doors in case of any attempt to batter them down, which
we accordingly did; the wheel being lashed for the short period
necessary to enable us to accomplish this task.

Very fortunately for us the wind had by this time broken up the dense
black canopy of cloud overhead, permitting a star or two to peep through
the rents here and there; the moon, too, just past her second quarter,
had risen, so that we now had a fair amount of light to aid us. The
navigation of the narrow creek was, however, so difficult that a look-
out was absolutely necessary, and Smellie accordingly went forward and
stationed himself on the stem-head to con the ship.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

WE REJOIN THE "DAPHNE."

The people in the cabin, finding that no good result followed their
violent pounding upon the inside of the companion doors, soon abandoned
so unprofitable an amusement, and I was just beginning to hope that they
had philosophically made up their minds to submit with a good grace to
the inevitable, when _crash_ came a bullet through the teak doors and
past my head in most uncomfortable proximity to my starboard ear.

Smellie looked round at the sound.

"Any damage done, Hawkesley?" he hailed.

"None so far, I thank you," replied I; and as I spoke there was another
report, and another bullet went whizzing past, well to port this time
for a change. A minute or two passed, and then came a regular fusillade
from quite half a dozen pistols discharged simultaneously I should say,
one of the bullets knocking off the worsted cap I wore and grazing the
skin of my right temple sufficiently to send a thin stream of blood
trickling down