to get out of this scrape, I will not fail to
report to Captain Vernon. But I should like to take a squint into these
magazines myself."

"Certingly, sir, by all means," returned Tom; and leading the way to the
magazines he pointed out the manner in which the fuzes had been placed,
and graphically redescribed the manner in which a terrible catastrophe
had been averted.

We had, indeed, had a frightfully narrow escape from destruction; for
the magazines, of which there were three, one in each angle of the
triangular-shaped battery, contained about one hundred cartridges each--
quite sufficient to have completely destroyed the battery and all in it.

Having satisfied myself that all was safe here, I at once turned my
attention to the next most pressing business of the moment, which was to
secure the muskets, ammunition, provisions, and water in the cutter, and
to make the craft herself as safe as possible. This was likely to prove
a somewhat hazardous task, as the canoes were now close to the beach and
pressing rapidly in on all sides. I felt greatly averse to further
slaughter; but in this case I scarcely saw how it was to be averted, the
natives being so pertinacious in their attacks. It was quite evident
that we must either kill or be killed. I therefore most reluctantly
gave the order for the discharge of the six nine-pounders which the
battery mounted right into the thickest of the crowd--the men to
immediately afterwards rush for the boat, secure their muskets and
ammunition, and at once return to the battery. This was done; and
without pausing an instant to note the effect away we all went down to
the boat, seized as much as we could conveniently carry, and immediately
scampered back again. The whole operation did not occupy more than a
couple of minutes; and I had the satisfaction of seeing all hands
scramble back into the battery before the natives had recovered from the
check of our last discharge.

So far so good; but a great many things still remained in the boat,
especially the provisions and water, which it was absolutely necessary
that we should secure; so I called for volunteers to accompany me on a
second trip to the cutter. All hands proving equally willing to go, I
picked half-a-dozen, leaving the remainder in the battery to cover us
with their muskets.

Leaping the low sod parapet of the battery we once more made a dash for
the boat; and the natives, catching sight of us, instantly raised