n's answering gun,
followed almost immediately afterwards by still another tremendous
shock, accompanied by the rumble and rattle of falling masonry as
another shot from the attacking force struck full upon the fortress
wall, this time seemingly just above him. The foemen gunners seemed to
have waited for the flash of the gun on the battlements, and aimed for
that, and they appeared to be making pretty good practice.

The young Englishman looked at his watch--which had somehow escaped the
fingers of his captors, and which he had kept wound regularly--and found
to his astonishment that it was close on half-past four o'clock in the
morning, and that therefore daylight could not be very far distant. It
would not be long before he could climb up to his perch at the window,
and see who the attackers were. Meanwhile the explosions had increased
from the exchange of single shots to a general cannonade on both sides;
and now the very atmosphere was vibrating with the deafening
concussions, as the guns on the battlements roared and the heavy conical
shot from the attacking party plunged against the thick masonry of the
walls, toppling down great masses of stone, mortar, and debris at every
hit.

The gunners were evidently directing their fire mostly on that portion
of the building wherein Frobisher was confined, and he told himself that
it would require but little more of their attention before the walls
became so shattered that the shot would come plunging right into the
cell. He began to speculate on what would then happen first--whether he
would be blown to pieces or smashed into shapelessness, or whether an
opening would be made by which he might be enabled to escape. If only a
shot would strike directly upon the iron bars of the window, perhaps it
would enlarge the aperture sufficiently to allow him to crawl through.

Looking up at the window, as the idea entered his mind, he saw that the
sky was already flushed pink, and knew that there would therefore be
light enough outside to enable him to see what was going on; and he at
once climbed up on the pile which he had collected, and, hauling himself
up to the opening, looked out.

At the edge of the jungle he observed half a dozen big field-pieces
drawn up in line, and he could see the gunners busily loading and
reloading from the piles of ammunition placed beside each gun; while
behind, on the slightly-rising ground, and partly concealed by the
jungle, it was possib