miles away for all he knew.
Accordingly he retraced his course for a few miles, to throw the enemy
off the scent, and the next day began again his descent of the bayou,
bumping along stern foremost amid snags and standing trees. The enemy
soon gave evidence that he was on the watch, and opened fire with his
artillery from the rear. At this one gunboat steamed back and silenced
the artillery for a time, after which she rejoined her fellows.
Sharp-shooters in the thickets along the levee then began to grow
troublesome; and the whistle of the rifle-balls, with an occasional
_ping_ as one struck the smokestack, warned the sailors that the deck
of a gunboat in a narrow canal was no safe place in time of war. The
high levees on either side of the bayou made it impossible to use the
guns properly: so Porter turned them into mortars, and, by using very
small charges of powder, pitched shells up into the air, dropping them
into the bushes back of the levee. This somewhat checked the fire of
the sharp-shooters, but the decks were still dangerous places to
frequent. A rifle-ball struck Lieut. Wells in the head as he stood
talking to Porter; and he fell, apparently dead, upon the deck. The
admiral beckoned an officer to come and bear away the body; but the
newcomer was also hit, and fell across the body of the first. Porter
concluded that the locality was getting rather hot, and gladly stepped
behind a heavy plate of sheet-iron, which an old quarter-master
brought him with the remark, "There, sir, stand behind that. They've
fired at you long enough."

From behind his shield, Porter looked out anxiously at the forces by
which he was beleaguered. He could see clearly that the Confederates
were increasing in numbers; and, when at last he saw a long gray
column come sweeping out of the woods, his heart failed him, and for a
moment he thought that the fate of his flotilla was sealed. But at
that very moment deliverance was at hand. The Confederates were seen
to fall into confusion, waver, and give way before a thin blue
line,--the advance guard of Sherman's troops. The negro
"telegram-wire" had proved faithful, and Sherman had come on to the
rescue.

That ended the difficulties of the flotilla. The enemy, once brought
face to face with Sherman's men, departed abruptly; and soon the
doughty general, mounted on an old gray horse, came riding down to the
edge of the bayou, for a word with Porter. Seeing the admiral on the
deck of his gu