rs rang sharply out upon the evening air.
Each man then seized his loaded musket, saw that his naked cutlass was
ready to his hand, and waited breathlessly for the inevitable rush.

The round-shot ploughed six well-defined lanes through the approaching
phalanx; but our persevering foes had apparently become accustomed to
the effects of artillery fire by this time, seeming to regard it as a
disagreeable concomitant to the struggle which _must_ be faced, but
which, after all, was not so very formidable. They had already acquired
the knowledge that the guns, once fired, were perfectly harmless until
they could be re-loaded, and that the operation of reloading required a
certain amount of time. The moment, therefore, that they received our
fire they charged down upon the battery, evidently feeling that the
worst was over and that it now amounted to no more than an ordinary
hand-to-hand fight. "Here they come, lads, with a vengeance!" I
exclaimed. "Take your muskets and _aim low_--make every bullet do
double or treble duty if you can. Keep cool, and be careful not to
throw a single shot away."

This was excellent advice to give, especially as the giver thereof
needed it perhaps more than any of those around him; but it was spoken
with a calm and steady voice, and the lads responded to it with a hearty
and inspiring cheer. They levelled their muskets carefully and steadily
over the top of the sod parapet, selecting a particular mark and firing
only when they felt sure of their aim, though at the moment a perfect
cloud of spears came flying into the battery. The next instant our foes
were upon us, and then commenced a furious, breathless, desperate hand-
to-hand fight which lasted fully ten minutes--the blacks leaping upward
or assisting each other in their efforts to surmount the parapet, and we
cutting and slashing right and left without a moment's breathing-space
in an equally determined effort to keep them out.

During the very thick of the fight light thin jets of smoke were seen to
issue from the joints and crevices in the wooden walls of the huge
barrack-like structure to windward of us, the jets rapidly growing in
numbers and volume and being speedily succeeded by thin arrowy tongues
of flame which shot into view for a moment, disappeared, and then
appeared again, darting along the surface of the wood and uniting with
others, until the entire building became completely enveloped in the
flames, which no doubt