back I saw that the other boats had been less fortunate,
there being a gap or two here and there where a moment before a man had
sat, while certain of the oars were at that moment slipping through the
rowlocks to trail in the water by their lanyards a second later. Here
and there, too, could be seen a man hastily binding up a wounded limb or
head, either his own or that of a shipmate.

The skipper sprang to his feet in the stern-sheets of the gig, and drew
his sword.

"Hurrah, lads!" he shouted. "Give way, and get alongside that wharf as
quickly as you can. Then let every man run his hardest for the shelter
of the buildings, carrying his musket and ammunition with him. One hand
remain in each boat as boat-keeper, who must crouch down under the
shelter of the wharf face. Mr Fortescue, stick close alongside me,
please; I shall probably want you to carry messages for me."

"Ay, ay, sir," I answered; and the next moment the voice of the coxswain
pealed out: "Oars! rowed of all!" followed by the clatter of the long
ash staves as they were laid in on the thwarts, and the gig, still
leading the other boats, swept up alongside the low wharf and hooked on.

With a yell of fierce delight, and eyes blazing with excitement, Cupid,
the Krooboy, bounded up on the wharf, and extended one great black paw
to assist the skipper, while in the other he grasped his favourite
weapon, an axe, the edge of which he had carefully ground and honed
until one could have shaved with it; in addition to which he wore a
ship's cutlass girded about his waist. Moreover he had "cleared for
action," by stripping off the jacket and shirt which he usually wore,
and stowing them carefully away in the stern-sheets of the boat; so that
his garb consisted simply of a pair of dungaree trousers rolled up above
his knees and braced tight to his waist by the broad belt from which
hung his cutlass.

In a second the gig was empty save for her boat-keeper, and her crew
were racing for the shelter afforded by the barracoon, where, as I
understood it, the captain intended to announce his arrangements for
clearing the enemy out of the bush. But when we had accomplished about
half the distance between the edge of the wharf and the barracoon there
came a sudden splutter of fire from the windows of the other buildings--
which were so arranged as to enfilade the whole of the open space--and
in a moment we once more found ourselves in the midst of a storm of
flying