another broadside, just to `freshen their way' and show
them that we are in earnest; and then I shall abandon and blow up the
battery previous to shoving off to join our lads yonder."

The men turned to with a will; the guns were loaded; and I then went
with Tom to personally inspect the arrangement of the fuzes.

When all was ready I gave the word to fire; the six guns belched forth
their contents simultaneously; and without waiting to see what damage
had been done, the men seized their muskets, the water-kegs, and our few
other belongings; and with two hands specially detailed to convey the
master carefully down to the boat, all hands, excepting Tom and myself,
left the battery and made the best of their way down to the cutter,
which, after depositing poor old Mildmay as comfortably as possible in
the stern-sheets, they got afloat.

"Step your mast," I shouted, "and see all ready for hoisting the sail."

We waited patiently until we saw that everything was ready on board the
cutter; and then Tom and I ignited the fuzes in the three magazines. It
was awfully risky work, as the fuzes were fearfully short; but it had to
be done, and it was done coolly and smartly, after which we bounded over
the low parapet and ran for our lives down to the boat. "Shove off and
give way for your lives, men," I panted, as we tumbled in over the
gunwale with a considerable loss of shin-leather; and in another instant
we were surging away from the island as fast as the oars and sail would
drive us. The men were just belaying the halliards of the lug
when--_boom_--a dull heavy report came from the battery; a great black
cloud of smoke and dust, liberally intermixed with clods and stones and
masses of earth, shot up into the air; and when it cleared away _the
battery was gone_.

"Now, Tom, jump forward, my man, and get that carronade loaded with
grape or canister or langridge, _anything_ you happen to have handy, and
be smart about it, my fine fellow," I exclaimed, as I saw a group of
canoes separate themselves from the rest and form in line across our
course, evidently for the purpose of opposing our passage and preventing
our effecting a junction with our friends. "Load your muskets, men, and
draw your cutlasses; we must get through that line of canoes somehow,
and I mean to do it."

The men obeyed without a word; their blood was by this time thoroughly
aroused; they were all a-quiver with eager excitement; and as I looked
at them