, two faces I had good reason to know.

I had barely time to pull out the Commandant's revolver from my pocket.
I knew it was to be either the pock-marked genius or the engineer. But,
for the moment, I was not to be sure which one I had hit. For, as my gun
went off, something heavy came down on my head, and for the time I was
shut off from whatever else was going on.

CHAPTER VIII

_In Which I Once Again Sit Up and Behold the Sun._

"Which did I hit, Tom?" were my first words as I came back to the glory
of the world; but I didn't say them for a long time, and, from what Tom
told me it was a wonder I ever said them at all.

"There he is, sar," said Tom, pointing to a long dark figure stretched
out near by. "I'm afraid he's not the man you were looking for."

"Poor fellow!" I said; it was George, the engineer; "I'm sorry--but I
saw the muzzles of their guns sticking out of the bush there. It was
they or me."

"That no lie, sar, and, if it hadn't been for that sucking-fish's skin,
you wouldn't be here now."

"It didn't save me from a pretty good one on the head, Tom, did it?"

"No, sar, but that was just it--if it hadn't been for that knock on the
head, pulling you down just that minute, that thar pock-marked fellow
would have got you. As it was, he grazed your cheek, and got one of his
own men killed by mistake--the very fellow that hit you. There he
is--over there."

"And who's that other, Tom?" I asked, pointing to another dark figure a
few yards away.

"That's the captain, sar."

"The captain? O I'm sorry for that. God knows I'm sorry for that."

"Yas, sar, he was one of the finest gentlemen I ever knowed was Captain
Tomlinson; a brave man and a good navigator. And he'd taken a powerful
fancy to you, for when you got that crack on the head, he picked up your
gun, and began blazing away, with words I should never have expected
from a religious man. The others, except our special friend--"

"Let's call him Tobias from now on, Tom," I interposed.

"Well him, sar, kept his nerve, but the others ran for the boats as if
the devil was after them; but the captain's gun was quicker, and only
four of them got to the _Susan B._ The other two fell on their faces, as
if something had tripped them up, in a couple of feet of water. But,
just then, Tobias hit the captain right in the heart; ah! if only he had
one of those skins--but he always laughed off such things as
superstitious.

"There was only me and