ogers had ordered another party of seamen to join him under the
second lieutenant as soon as the boats could bring them on shore, and
finding the determined way in which the rebels were attacking the part
of the walls he had been directed to defend, he sent back Tom and
Desmond to hurry them forward. The midshipmen met the party about
half-way, and Tom delivered the message. Under the belief that he knew
the road, he led them through several narrow streets, when suddenly he
discovered that he had made a mistake, but whether he ought to have kept
more to the left or right, he could not tell.

Sharp firing, however, being heard to the right, he concluded that was
the direction he ought to have taken. The party moved forward again at
the double. The walls soon rose up before them, and the shot, which
came down like hail, showed that the enemy were firing away as hard as
ever. Just then, at the end of a short street they caught sight of a
large body of men moving away from them.

"I wonder where those fellows can have come from?" remarked the
lieutenant.

"They are making for the gate we rode out of yesterday," observed Tom.

"Probably the enemy are attacking it; we will go and assist, though they
appear to be Chinese, and are not likely to make much of a stand,"
observed the lieutenant.

The seamen dashed forward, when just as they reached the gate, which was
in front of them, it was thrown open, and the party they had seen,
turning round, rushed back the way they had come, followed by many
others who were streaming through the gate.

"There is some treachery at work here," exclaimed the lieutenant, and
ordering his men to halt and fire, they poured a volley upon the
advancing mass.

Before the rebels could recover from the confusion into which the
unexpected shower of bullets had thrown them, the blue jackets were in
their midst, cutting them down, knocking them over, or making them turn
and try to escape through the gate. This put a stop to the further
progress of those still outside, and the seamen, led by their gallant
officer, fought their way up to the gate. Here a desperate struggle
ensued. A big Tae-ping was on the point of cutting down Tom, when, a
cutlass intervening, brought the Tae-ping with a blow on the head to the
ground, and Tom saw his old shipmate, Jerry Bird, whom he had not before
recognised, slashing away right and left by his side. The rebels at
length having been forced out, the lieu