chances; the two boats were drawing
dangerously near, and I must stop them by hook or by crook before they
actually got alongside. I therefore quickly recharged my piece and
carefully pointed it at the inner end of the passage through the reef.
I had barely got this done to my satisfaction, when the leading boat
thrust her nose through. Bang! The four-inch barked out its greeting,
and a moment later that boat disappeared in flame and smoke, to my
intense relief.

Mentally I patted myself on the back. "Now, surely," I thought, "that
remaining boat will turn tail, and I shall have a chance to wipe her out
on her way back to the junk!" But no; on she came, her crew yelling
like demons, and churning the placid waters of the lagoon into foam with
their oars. They sprang to their feet at each stroke, that they might
throw the whole weight of their bodies into it, while a man standing in
the stern-sheets frantically waved a most murderous-looking blade above
his head. I jumped to the next gun--there was no time to reload now--
and hastily levelled it. As I did so I saw a flash burst from her bows,
followed by a gust of smoke; the ball struck the waterway close by my
feet and hurtled past, sending a shower of splinters flying, and this
distracted my aim. I missed, and the shot harmlessly struck the water
some distance astern of the boat, to be greeted by its occupants with a
yell of mingled triumph and derision.

Matters were becoming frightfully critical now. Should I have time for
another shot, I wondered? As the thought flashed through my brain a
rifle shot rang out from the poop, and, glancing that way, I saw the boy
Julius with a Remington repeater at his shoulder aiming at the rapidly
advancing boat. And--what I had absolutely forgotten--I saw also the
Maxims standing there, ready for action! To dash up on to the poop and
level the port Maxim at the enemy was the work of but a moment, and the
next instant the deadly little weapon was thudding away, pouring its
leaden stream fair into the boat. At that range--a bare three hundred
yards--it was impossible to miss, and in a few seconds every occupant of
the boat was either dead or wounded; the oars trailed motionless in the
water, the boat lost her way, and in less than a minute it became
evident that the craft was sinking, literally riddled with that leaden
hail.

"Hurrah!" I yelled. "There goes the last of them, and, thank God, that
danger's over! Now