ther,
always looking toward the sea where the smoke of the relieving fleet
might appear. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Major Hector St. Hilaire
passed together on a tour of inspection. They gave approving looks to
the three trim youths, with the frank open faces, but said nothing and
went on. Harry heard their footsteps for a moment or two, and then the
oppressive silence came again.

The same stillness endured for a long time, so long that the three began
to believe nothing would happen. Despite himself, Harry began to nod
and he was forced to bring himself back to earth with a jerk. Then he
stretched a little and peered over the earthwork. It was brighter now.
A fine moon rode high, and the sea was dusted with starshine. The bulk
of Sumter, black no longer, was coated with silver.

"Looks peaceful enough," whispered Langdon. "The ships have heard that
you and St. Clair and I are here waiting for them and have turned back."

Harry made no answer. This waiting in the silence and the night made
his blood quiver just a little. He was about to turn back when he saw a
sudden flash of fire from another point further up. It was followed by
a heavy crash that echoed and re-echoed over the still sea and city.
Harry's heart leaped, but his body stiffened to attention. Tom and
St. Clair by his side pressed against the earthwork.

"What is it?" they whispered.

"The moonlight is good," replied Harry, "but I don't see any ship.
It must be a signal of some kind."

"Hush!" said Langdon, "there it goes again!"

Another cannon thundered, and the echoes, as before, came back from sea
and shore, followed, as the echoes died, by that strange, heavy silence.
But, straining their eyes to the utmost, the three boys could see
nothing on the sea. It swayed gently like a vast mass of molten silver
in the starshine, and lapped softly against the shore. The report of a
third heavy gun came, and then the reports of several more. After that
the silence was complete. It had seemed to Harry, his brain surcharged
with excitement, like the tolling of great bells. Langdon and St. Clair
whispered together, but he said nothing.

It was permitted to the three to lie down in their blankets in the
earthwork and sleep, but they did not think of trying it. They wished
to know the meaning of those cannon shots and they waited, tense with
excitement. It was nearly midnight when Colonel Leonidas Talbot came.

"We have learned that the N