ean through the neck.
Ling would never speak again in this world, and his career, whether for
good or for evil, was closed for ever.

It was useless, therefore, for Frobisher to look for help in that
direction; so if he were to escape at all he had only himself to rely
upon. Unfortunately he was still much too weak from the effects of his
wound to be able to deal with the situation singlehanded; and there
were, as yet, quite enough of the barge's men remaining alive to
overpower and murder him in a moment if he were foolish enough to
attempt any such thing.

At this instant there occurred a fresh outburst of firing from the
Korean boats, followed, a second later, by a loud booming report in the
direction of the rebel squadron that caused the very atmosphere to
vibrate and the barge to quiver as though she had struck a rock.
Frobisher painfully hauled himself to his feet and staggered to the
bulwarks to ascertain what had happened, and a sufficiently
disheartening spectacle met his eyes. Several shots from the last
volley had evidently penetrated the plating of the steam launch's
boiler, causing it to explode, blowing the frail sides of the little
craft asunder and killing nearly every man of her crew. The Englishman
was just in time to see her disappear below the surface of the river in
a great cloud of steam, and to hear the shrieks of her wounded and dying
people as the engulfing waters swirled about them, the cries of
execration from the rebels, and the exultant shouts of the Koreans; and
he realised that his last hope of escape was slipping away from him.

Thrown into confusion by the loss of the steamer, the entire rebel fleet
came to a standstill, involuntarily brought to an anchor by the sunken
launch, which rested on the river bottom, still attached to the hawser
by which the squadron was being towed. And as the hawser happened to
consist of chain cable instead of rope, and as it had been made fast
with a complicated system of hitches, that it might not slip, it was
likely to be some time before it could be cast off and the boats set
free to pursue once more.

But the troops were not to escape without further punishment, after all.
Maddened by this sudden wreckage of their hopes, the rebels again
seized their rifles and poured a concentrated fire into the nearest
vessel of the enemy, which chanced to be the boat containing Frobisher
and his fortunes, she being last in the line; and that parting volley
d