ed to be nothing less than a rough
earthwork, mounting four thirty-two pounders.

My devious path had brought me to the face of the battery, so I had to
clamber up the steep face of the slope before I could get a view of the
interior. This I did, entering the battery through one of the
embrasures, when I found myself standing upon a level platform
constituting the floor of the battery. Keeping carefully within the
deep shadow of the gun, and crouching down upon my hands and knees, I at
once proceeded to reconnoitre the place, and presently made out a couple
of huts, the smaller of which I concluded must be the magazine, while
the larger probably accommodated the garrison. Both were in utter
darkness, however, and my first impression was that they were
untenanted; but, to make quite certain, I crept very softly up to the
larger building, and, finding a closed door, listened intently at it.
For a few seconds I heard nothing save the sough of the night breeze
through the branches of some cotton-wood trees that grew close at hand,
but presently I detected a sound of snoring in the interior, which, as I
listened, grew momentarily more distinct and unmistakable. The sounds
certainly emanated from more than one sleeper; I thought that there were
probably at least three or four of them at work, but my hearing was not
quite keen enough to enable me to accurately differentiate the sounds
and thus arrive at the correct number of those who emitted them. They
were, however, sound asleep, and therefore not likely to be disturbed by
a slight noise. Moreover, the hut was well to windward, and the sough
and swish of the wind through the cotton-woods seemed powerful enough to
drown such slight sounds as I might be likely to make; so I stole softly
across the open area to the nearest gun, which I at once proceeded to
carefully spike with the aid of some nails and a leather-covered hammer
with which I had provided myself. Despite the deadening effect of the
leather the hammer still made a distinct "clink," which to my ears
sounded loud enough to wake the dead; but a few seconds' anxious work
sufficed to effectually spike the first gun, and as nobody appeared to
have heard me, I then proceeded to spike the next, and the next, until I
had rendered all four of them harmless. This done, I slipped out of the
same embrasure by which I had entered, and successfully made my way back
to the beach and to the spot off which the dinghy lay awai