o great distance from me. Seeing
that all hands appeared pretty well able to take care of themselves, I
at once struck out and joined him.

"Ah! Mr Chester," he exclaimed, as I ranged alongside, "glad to see
that you have weathered it so well. It was a very narrow squeak; and we
have come out of it a good deal better than I dared expect. I have been
trying to count heads, and I make out thirty-eight, all told; how many
men had you with you?"

"Twelve," I answered.

"Twelve?" he repeated, "then that brings us out all right, for I counted
twenty-four of my people as they passed down into the boat, and I make
twenty-five, which, with you and your dozen, brings up the complement.
Here come the boats to pick us up. I have no doubt the explosion has
frightened all the sharks within a dozen miles of us, and started them
off to seaward under a heavy press of sail; otherwise I should not feel
quite so easy in my mind about those poor fellows. Some of them are
clinging to very small pieces of wreckage, and would have no chance if
attacked."

I remarked that I thought there was not very much danger; an opinion
which soon received singular confirmation; for while we were still
speaking, immense numbers of fish of all sizes and descriptions, some
killed, and others merely stunned by the violence of the explosion,
floated up to the surface; and shortly afterwards, when the boats had
picked us all up, and we were pulling out toward the fleet, we fell in
with an enormous shark, floating helplessly on his back, in an
apparently paralysed condition. A running bowline was promptly slipped
over his tail and drawn taut; and he was triumphantly and unresistingly
towed alongside the "Victory," and hoisted inboard.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

A FOOLHARDY ADVENTURE.

Short time after this, a melancholy event occurred, which cast a gloom
over the entire fleet.

The siege was not progressing to the admiral's satisfaction; the
garrison showed no sign of yielding; and our chief became anxious to
learn something with regard to the condition of things within the walls
of Bastia.

The moment that this desire became known, a host of volunteers stepped
forward, with offers to do their best to make their way inside and gain
the required information. Admiral Hood, however, felt very reluctant to
allow any of these volunteers to expose themselves to so great a risk;
particularly as it turned out, when questioned, that not one of them had
b