h! Yellow Devil," the dwarf cried as he swung, "look behind you: there
is another devil, yellower and fiercer than you."

Pereira turned and all his company with him, and at that moment, with
a crackling roar, a vast sheet of flame burst up from the morass. The
reeds had caught at last in good earnest, and the strengthening wind was
bringing the fire down upon them.

CHAPTER XIV

VENGEANCE

"Treachery! treachery!" screamed Pereira. "The reeds are fired, and that
witch has betrayed us."

"Ha! ha! ha! ha!" cried Otter again from his airy perch. "Treachery!
treachery! And what if the slaves are loosed? And what if the gates be
barred?"

Hitherto the mob had been silent in their fear and wonder. There they
stood closely packed, a hundred or more of them, staring first at Otter,
then at the advancing flames. Now they found tongue.

"He is a fiend! Kill him! Storm the slave camp! To the gates!" they
yelled in this language and in that.

For many it was their last earthly cry, since at that moment a sheet of
flame burst from the rampart of the camp, followed by the boom of
the cannon, and six pounds of canister swept through the crowd. Right
through them it swept, leaving a wide lane of dead and dying; and such a
shriek went up to heaven as even that place of torment had never heard.

Then they broke and fled this way and that, screaming curses as they
went.

When Leonard and the priest had rolled down the rising bridge they found
Juanna standing safely by the guard-house, surrounded by some of the
Settlement men.

"To the gun!" he cried, "to the gun! Fire into them! I will follow you."

Then it was that he saw Otter left to his death and called out in fear.
But Otter saved himself as has been told, and clambered down the bridge
safe and sound.

Leaning on the dwarf and Francisco, Leonard, followed by Juanna,
staggered along the earthwork to the place where the gun was mounted.
Before he had gone a step he caught sight of the figure of Soa, outlined
in bold relief against the background of the fire and surrounded by many
of the freed Settlement men. At the instant when he saw her she was in
the act of springing back from the breech of the gun, the lanyard in her
hand. Then came the roar of the shot and the shriek of the smitten.

"_Wow!_" said Otter, "the old woman has not been idle. She is clever as
a man, that one."

Another minute and they were helping to reload the piece, that is,
except Soa, who wa