d Ashantis to reinforce
them."

"You knew? Excuse me, Mr Stapleton, but how could you know that when
you were, according to your own description, hemmed in the stockade?
Did they shout the news so as to frighten your men?"

The Commodore leaned across the table, and put the question, while he
looked closely at his guest. Dick flushed again, for he felt ill at
ease in this atmosphere of the wardroom, with officers listening so
intently to his words.

"It was through an accident, you see, sir," he said. "It happened that
when the attack was made, I was out in the forest scouting for the
enemy, for we had seen a small force in our neighbourhood a little time
before."

"Then you had taken precautions against attack, I imagine?" interrupted
the Commodore. "You had set a watch, so as not to be taken unawares?"

"And yet they took me by surprise, sir. They came up from the other
side, and as I was in the forest I did not know of their presence till I
heard firing. Yes, we had taken precautions. Johnnie was on the watch
at the stockade, and the men had been warned, and had been trained as to
their action in case of attack. A tom-tom was beaten, and they simply
ran to the stockade and banged the door. Then they peppered the enemy,
with excellent results."

"Meanwhile you were in the forest, cut off from your men?"

"Yes, sir. But I managed to creep through during the night, and, thanks
to the fact that I can now understand the Ashanti tongue and speak it a
little, I learned of these reinforcements on my way through."

"And you got through without incident?"

"Hardly," admitted Dick, telling them quietly how he had been followed,
and had had to fight for his life, and how he had been rescued when on
the point of being dragged away to captivity. "After that we fooled
them," he said easily. "We sent out a party to the front, the direction
from which their attack had come, while we made preparations to slink
off in the opposite direction. The party retired over the hill with the
gold, while I went on firing for a time. We had our launch in hiding in
a creek some little distance away, and we got safely aboard her and set
off down the river, towing the men in a native boat. Later we paid off
our men and hid the boat. Then we steamed down-stream and had the bad
luck to meet with an Ashanti army. They peppered us hotly, and, in
fact, nearly cut us off. There were two big war boats which were the
greatest dan