eaguering army of phantoms, and the solemn hush of night was
broken only by the loud _chirr_ of the insects and the lapping ripple of
the rushing stream.

Thicker and thicker gathered the mist about us until at last it became
impossible to see across from one side of the battery to the other, and
then ensued an anxious time indeed for all of us, and especially so for
me, upon whom rested the responsibility of directing what steps should
be taken for the safety and preservation of the little force under me.
Would the natives attempt another attack that night under cover of the
fog? I thought it highly probable that they would, seeing how important
an advantage it would be to them to have the power of arranging their
forces and creeping up to the very walls of the battery undetected. The
idea indeed occurred to me, that under cover of that same fog it might
be possible for us to take once more to the cutter, and, letting her
drift with the current, in that way slip unobserved away down the river.
But a very few minutes' consideration of that scheme sufficed to
convince me of its impracticability. I felt convinced that our enemies
were quite shrewd enough to anticipate and make due provision for any
such attempt on our part. I felt certain, indeed, that would the fog
but lift for a moment, of which, however, there was not the most remote
probability, we should find ourselves completely hemmed in by a cordon
of canoes lying silently and patiently in waiting for the undertaking of
some such attempt on our part. And, doubtless, all their arrangements
were so framed that, in the event of our making any such attempt, a
simple signal would announce our whereabouts and enable the entire
flotilla to close in at once upon us; in which case our fate must be
certain and speedy. No, I decided, the risk was altogether too great
and the prospects of success too infinitesimal to justify any such
attempt.

Then as to the expected attack. They would probably wait an hour or
two, in the hope of tempting us to venture afloat; then, failing that,
they would cautiously close in upon the island, land, steal up as close
as possible to the battery, and then endeavour to overpower us with a
sudden rush.

Fortunately it was not absolutely dark, notwithstanding the fog, there
being a moon in her first quarter, which, though invisible, imparted a
certain luminous quality to the haze; and two or three stars of the
first magnitude were faintl