not uncommon for the thermometer to rise above ninety. These
breezes were usually present to cool the nights, and doubtless the
inhabitants slept the sounder for the one which had just begun to fan
the cheeks of the officers and seamen of the expedition.

"There is a battery there, Mr. Passford," said the pilot in a very low
tone. "I can make it out now, and it is just where I supposed it would
be."

"I can see something that seems like an earthwork at the right of the
buildings," added Christy. "Can you make out anything that looks like a
sentinel?"

"I can see nothing that denotes the presence of a man. If there were
a sentinel there, he would be on the top of the earthwork, or on the
highest ground about it, so that he could see out into the bay, for
there can be no danger from the land side of the place," added Amblen.

"I can hardly imagine such a thing as a battery without a sentinel to
give warning if anybody should try to carry it off. There must be a
sentry somewhere in the vicinity."

"I can't say there isn't, though I can't make out a man, or anything
that looks like one," replied the pilot.

"Very likely we shall soon wake him up, Mr. Amblen; and in that case it
will be necessary for us to find a safer place than in front of the guns
of the battery, for I do not feel at liberty to expose the men to the
fire of the works, whatever they are."

"All you have to do is to pull around to the other side of the point
into the bay, where the vessels are. I am confident there is no battery
on that side, and there can hardly be any need of one, for this one
commands the channel, the only approach to the place for a vessel larger
than a cutter."

"I fancy this battery does not amount to much, and is probably nothing
more than an earthwork, with a few field guns behind it. Suppose we
should wake it up, and have to make for the bay, can we get out of it
without putting the boats under the guns of the battery?"

"Without any difficulty at all, sir. We have only to pull around the
North Key, and pass out to the Gulf, beyond the reach of any field gun
that can be brought to bear on us," replied Mr. Amblen.

"If they have one or two field batteries here, they may hitch on the
horses, and follow us," suggested Christy, who, in spite of the audacity
with which he had been mildly charged, was not inclined to run into any
trap from which he could not readily withdraw his force.

"We shall have the short line, and if