Misfortune attended him even to the last minute. The new clerk, who
chanced to be an enthusiastic young man, had resolved to celebrate his
own advent and his predecessor's departure by firing a salute from an
old carronade which stood in front of the fort, and which might,
possibly, have figured at the battle of the Nile. He overcharged this
gun, and, just as the boat pushed off, applied the match. The result
was tremendous. The gun burst into a thousand pieces, and the clerk was
laid flat on the sand! Of course the boat was run ashore immediately,
and Jack sprang out and hastened to the scene of the disaster, which he
reached just as the clerk, recovering from the effects of the shock,
managed to sit up.

He presented a wonderful appearance! Fortunately, none of the flying
pieces of the gun had touched him, but a flat tin dish, full of powder,
from which he had primed the piece, had exploded in his face. This was
now of a uniform bluish-black colour, without eyelashes or eyebrows, and
surmounted by a mass of frizzled material that had once been the
unfortunate youth's hair.

Beyond this he had received no damage, so Jack remained just long enough
to dress his hurts, and make sure that he was still fit for duty.

Once more entering the boat, Jack pushed off. "Good-bye, boys!" said
he, as the sailors pulled away. "Farewell, Teddy, mind you find me out
when you go up to Quebec."

"Bad luck to me av I don't," cried the Irishman, whose eyes became
watery in spite of himself.

"And don't let the ghosts get the better of you!" shouted Jack.

O'Donel shook his head. "Ah, they're a bad lot, sur--but sorrow wan o'
them was iver so ugly as _him_!"

He concluded this remark by pointing over his shoulder with his thumb in
the direction of the house where the new clerk lay, a hideous, though
not severely injured, spectacle, on his bed.

A last "farewell" floated over the water, as the boat passed round a
point of land. Jack waved his hand, and, a moment later, Fort
Desolation vanished from his eyes for ever.

Readers, it is not our purpose here to detail to you the life and
adventures of Jack Robinson.

We have recalled and recounted this brief passage in his eventful
history, in order to give you some idea of what "outskirters," and
wandering stars of humanity sometimes see, and say, and go through.

Doubtless Jack's future career would interest you, for his was a nature
that could not be easily subdued.