But--oh! Walter,
I hope, I pray, that we may none of us be driven to that frightful
alternative. Now I must leave you, for I want to have a good
heart-to-heart talk with Momma. But I shall see you again before--
before--"

"Yes, yes," I said hurriedly, for I saw that the poor girl was becoming
a trifle overwrought, and I had an uncomfortable feeling that her
emotion carried something of a contagious character with it. It was
necessary to get away from emotionalism and down to the commonplaces of
life once more, so I nodded smilingly at Anthea and ran briskly below,
jingling the keys in my hand as I went.

I had said that I should pin my faith principally to the Maxims, if it
came to a fight, and so I fully meant to do; at the same time, I by no
means overlooked the fact that a four-inch shell or two might prove very
convincing arguments, under certain conditions. I therefore began my
preparations by conveying eight shells and a corresponding number of
cartridges up on deck and loading them into the eight main-deck guns
that still remained to us, after carefully sponging out the latter.
Next, I gave my attention to the Maxims, preparing them for action with
meticulous care, overhauling, cleaning, and oiling the mechanism of
them, satisfying myself that they were in perfect working order, placing
a belt of cartridges in position in each, and taking care to have an
abundant supply of relays in hand. While doing all these things I kept
one eye pretty constantly upon the junk, in the hope that she would
respond to the display of our ensign by hoisting some sort of signal
which I might interpret as that of a friend coming to our rescue in
answer to our appeals for help. But she showed no bunting beyond a
small whiff at her mainmast head, which meant nothing.

Having prepared our artillery, I next turned my attention to the subject
of magazine rifles, a dozen of which I brought up on deck. These I
loaded and laid handy on the poop, near the Maxims, with a box of
cartridges, although I doubted whether, after all our other weapons had
played their part, there would be much opportunity to use them. Finally
I produced and loaded six revolvers, two of which I thrust into the belt
of a cutlass girded round my waist, while the other four I designed for
the use of the women in the last dreadful resort. The boy I did not
greatly trouble about, feeling pretty certain that he would look after
himself.

I had finished all