e,
which hit the wall on the opposite side of the room, rebounding from
thence on to the doctor, who gave a yell of despair.

After that all was still; the enemy seemed to be satisfied that they had
silenced the garrison. And it took the admiral a great deal of kicking
and plunging to rescue himself from some superincumbent mass that was
upon him, which seemed to him to be a considerable sized tree.

"Call this fair fighting," he shouted--"getting a man's legs and arms
tangled up like a piece of Indian matting in the branches of a tree?
Doctor, I say! hilloa! where are you?"

"I don't know," said the doctor; "but there's somebody getting into the
balcony--now we shall be murdered in cold blood!"

"Where's the pistols?"

"Fired off, of course; you did it yourself."

Bang came something else into the room, which, from the sound it made,
closely resembled a brick, and after that somebody jumped clean into the
centre of the floor, and then, after rolling and writhing about in a
most singular manner, slowly got up, and with various preliminary
hiccups, said,--

"Come on, you lubbers, many of you as like. I'm the tar for all
weathers."

"Why, d----e," said the admiral, "it's Jack Pringle."

"Yes, it is," said Jack, who was not sufficiently sober to recognise the
admiral's voice. "I sees as how you've heard of me. Come on, all of
you."

"Why, Jack, you scoundrel," roared the admiral, "how came you here?
Don't you know me? I'm your admiral, you horse-marine."

"Eh?" said Jack. "Ay--ay, sir, how came you here?"

"How came you, you villain?"

"Boarded the enemy."

"The enemy who you boarded was us; and hang me if I don't think you
haven't been pouring broadsides into us, while the enemy were scudding
before the wind in another direction."

"Lor!" said Jack.

"Explain, you scoundrel, directly--explain."

"Well, that's only reasonable," said Jack; and giving a heavier lurch
than usual, he sat down with a great bounce upon the floor. "You see
it's just this here,--when I was a coming of course I heard, just as I
was a going, that ere as made me come all in consequence of somebody a
going, or for to come, you see, admiral."

"Doctor," cried the admiral, in a great rage, "just help me out of this
entanglement of branches, and I'll rid the world from an encumbrance by
smashing that fellow."

"Smash yourself!" said Jack. "You know you're drunk."

"My dear admiral," said Mr. Chillingworth, laying hold of one of