not severely tried, for in another moment it rested
upon his chest.

"Boarders a hoy!" shouted the admiral, and at once he laid hold of the
trespasser. "Yard-arm to yard-arm, I think I've got you now. Here's a
prize, doctor! he shall go away without his leg if he goes away now. Eh!
what! the light--d----e, he has--Doctor, the light! the light! Why
what's this?--Hilloa, there!"

Dr. Chillingworth sprang into the passage, and procured the light--in
another moment he was at the side of the admiral, and the lantern slide
being thrown back, he saw at once the dilemma into which his friend had
fallen.

There he lay upon his back, grasping, with the vehemence of an embrace
that had in it much of the ludicrous, a long boot, from which the
intruder had cleverly slipped his leg, leaving it as a poor trophy in
the hands of his enemies.

"Why you've only pulled his boot off," said the doctor; "and now he's
gone for good, for he knows what we're about, and has slipped through
your fingers."

Admiral Bell sat up and looked at the boot with a rueful countenance.

"Done again!" he said.

"Yes, you are done," said the doctor; "why didn't you lay hold of the
leg while you were about it, instead of the boot? Admiral, are these
your tactics?"

"Don't be a fool," said the admiral; "put out the light and give me the
pistols, or blaze away yourself into the garden; a chance shot may do
something. It's no use running after him; a stern chase is a long chase;
but fire away."

As if some parties below had heard him give the word, two loud reports
from the garden immediately ensued, and a crash of glass testified to
the fact that some deadly missile had entered the room.

"Murder!" said the doctor, and he fell flat upon his back. "I don't like
this at all; it's all in your line, admiral, but not in mine."

"All's right, my lad," said the admiral; "now for it."

He saw lying in the moonlight the pistols which he and the doctor had
brought into the room, and in another moment he, to use his own words,
returned the broadside of the enemy.

"D--n it!" he said, "this puts me in mind of old times. Blaze away, you
thieves, while I load; broadside to broadside. It's your turn now; I
scorn to take an advantage. What the devil's that?"

Something very large and very heavy came bang against the window,
sending it all into the room, and nearly smothering the admiral with the
fragments. Another shot was then fired, and in came something els