is was true. My head was nearly in range; and had the shot been a
large one, it would have struck me upon the left temple. As it was, I
felt the "wind" of the bullet, and already began to suffer a painful
sensation over the eye.

"I'm mighty curious to know which of us the fellow has missed, Captain,"
said Hennessy, turning to me as he spoke.

"If it were not a `bull' I should say I hope neither of us. I'm
inclined to think, with Colonel Harding, that it was altogether an
accident."

"By the powers! an ugly accident too, that has spoiled five dollars'
worth of an illigant cap, and a pint of as good brandy as ever was mixed
with hot water and lemon-juice."

"Plenty left, Captain," cried the major. "Come, gentlemen, don't let
this damp us; fill up! till up! Adge, out with the corks! Cudjo,
where's the screw?"

"Never mind the screw, Mage," cried the adjutant, repeating his old
trick upon the neck of a fresh bottle, which, nipped off under the wire,
fell upon a heap of others that had preceded it.

And the wine again foamed and sparkled, and glasses circled round, and
the noisy revelry waxed as loud as ever. The incident of the shot was
soon forgotten. Songs were sung, and stories told, and toasts drunk;
and with song and sentiment, and toast and story, and the wild
excitement of wit and wine, the night waned away. With many of those
young hearts, old with hope and burning with ambition, it was the last
"Twenty-second" they would ever celebrate. Half of them never hailed
another.

CHAPTER FIVE.

A SKELETON ADVENTURE.

It was past midnight when I withdrew from the scene of wassail. My
blood was flushed, and I strolled down upon the beach to enjoy the cool
fresh breeze that was flowing in from the Mexican Sea.

The scene before me was one of picturesque grandeur, and I paused a
moment to gaze upon it. The wine even heightened its loveliness to an
illusion.

The full round moon of the tropics was sweeping over a sky of cloudless
blue. The stars were eclipsed and scarcely visible, except a few of the
larger ones, as the belt of Orion, the planet Venus, and the luminous
radii of the Southern Cross.

From my feet a broad band of silver stretched away to the horizon,
marking the meridian of the moon. This was broken by the line of coral
reef, over which the surf curled and sparkled with a phosphoric
brightness. The reef itself, running all round, seemed to gird the
islet in a circle of fire. H