low. He was aware of a pair of black eyes that glared up
at him horribly in the moonlight, of white teeth that shone under long
moustachios of peculiarly warlike aspect, but he felt the man was as
putty in his hands, and his fingers relaxed their pressure.

He looked around. The fight was ended almost as soon as it began. The
soldiers, six in all, were on their backs in the roadway. Two of them
were dead. The Italian sailor had been shot through the body, and was
twisting in his last agony.

The bloodshed was bad enough, but those shots were worse. They would
set the island in an uproar. The reports would be heard in town,
citadel, and fort, and the troops would now be on the _qui vive_. But
De Sylva was a man of resource.

"Strip the prisoners!" he cried. "Take their arms and ammunition, but
bind them back to back with their belts."

"Butt in there, me lads," vociferated Coke, who had accounted for one
of the Brazilians with an ax. "Step lively! Now we've got some
uniforms an' guns, we can rush that dam cittydel easy."

Hozier was busy relieving his man of his coat. When the prone warrior
realized that he was not to be killed, he helped the operation, but
Philip was thinking more of Iris than of deeds of derring-do.

"Why attempt to capture the citadel at all?" he asked. "Now that we
can make sufficient display, is there any reason that we should not go
straight for the launch?"

"Hi, mister, d'ye 'ear that?" said Coke to De Sylva. "There's horse
sense in it. The whole bally place will be buzzin' like a nest of
wasps till they find out wot the shots meant."

"I think it is a good suggestion," came the calm answer, "provided,
that is, the launch is in the harbor."

"She's just as likely to be there now as later. If she isn't, we must
hark back to the first plan. Now, you swabs, all aboard! See to them
buckles afore you quit."

A bell began to toll in the convict settlement. Lights appeared in
many houses scattered over the seaward slope. In truth, Fernando
Noronha had not been so badly scared since its garrison mutinied three
years earlier because arrears of pay were not forthcoming. It was
impossible to determine as yet whether or not the island steamer was at
her berth, so they could only push on boldly and trust to luck.
Hozier, never for an instant forgetting Iris, saw that Marcel still
remained with his leader. Under these new circumstances, it certainly
would be a piece of folly t