'le is keepin' his eyes skinned.

"Well, a few minutes ago--it may be five, or it may be ten--I'd just
swung round to walk aft from the main riggin' when, as my eyes travelled
away out here over the port quarter, I got the notion into my head that
there was somethin' goin' on down there, for it seemed to me that I'd
got a glimpse--out of the corner of my eye, as it might be--of a small
sparkin', like--like--well, hang me if I know what it was like, unless
it might be twenty or thirty pistols or muskets all being fired close
after one another."

"Ah!" I ejaculated. "And did you hear any sound, Henderson--anything
like that of distant firing, for instance?"

"No, Mr Delamere; not a sound, sir," answered the gunner. "But then,"
he continued, "that ain't very surprisin' when you comes to think of it,
for just listen to what's goin' on aboard here--the old hooker ain't so
very noisy, I'll allow; still, what with the rustlin' of the canvas
overhead, the patter of the reef-points, the creakin' of the jaws o' the
mainboom, the clank o' the wheel-chains, and the wash and gurgle of the
water alongside with the roll of her, there's not much chance of pickin'
up sounds comin' from a distance, is there, sir?"

"No, that is true, there is not," I admitted. "Did you see, or hear,
anything else, Henderson?" I asked.

"No, sir; never another thing," answered the gunner. "And I'd like ye
to understand, Mr Delamere, that I wouldn't care actually to stand up
in court and swear that I really saw what I told ye; for, as I
explained, I only caught the thing out o' the tail-end of my eye, as it
might be, and then 'twas gone again, and I saw nothin' more. But the
impression that I really had seen something was so strong that I felt it
was my duty to report it."

"Of course; you did perfectly right," I agreed; "particularly in view of
the task that has been given us to do. Did the lookout see anything of
this appearance of flashes?"

"No, sir," answered Henderson; "he didn't. Nat'rally he wouldn't, for
he was keepin' a lookout ahead and on either bow, while this here
flashin' showed--if it really did show at all, and wasn't my
imagination--out there over the port quarter."

"Quite so," I concurred. "Under those circumstances he would not be in
the least likely to see the appearance. Did it occur to you to take the
bearing of the spot where you thought you saw those flashes?"

"Yes, sir, it did," answered Henderson. "I stood