was watched, and started from
deck to deck till he had resumed the charge of his powder tub. Meantime
Paul Pringle was keeping an anxious eye on True Blue. There he sat as
composed and fearless as if nothing unusual was going forward, only
jumping up with alacrity and handing out the powder to the crews of the
guns he was ordered to serve. Never was his eye brighter. Never had he
seemed more full of life and animation.

"Ay, he's of the right sort," said Paul to himself; "I knew he'd be."

The moment his tub was empty, down he ran to the magazine, and speedily
again sprang with it on deck. His friend Harry imitated his example as
well as he could; but he could not avoid stopping short when a shot
crashed in just before him, carrying off the head of a seaman, whose
body fell across the deck along where he had to pass.

The cry of "Powder, powder, boy!" from the captain of the gun made him
move on, but his knees trembled so that he could scarcely reach his
post. After he had delivered the amount of powder required and sat down
on his tub, his tranquillity of mind and nerve returned. Another shot
came whizzing by; he merely bobbed his head. When the next passed near
him, he sat perfectly still. After that he scarcely moved eyelid or
muscle, in spite of all the missiles and splinters and fragments flying
about.

Not so the miserable Gipples. Compelled to stay on deck he was; but
nothing could keep his head from bobbing at every shot which struck the
ship or passed over her, while his whole body was continually shrinking
down on the deck. Several times he lay flat along it, and so confused
was he, that, when called on to deliver the powder, he often did not
appear to hear, or ran off to the wrong gun; till at last, had there
been anybody to supply his place, he would have been kicked below and
declared unfit to be even a powder-monkey. Even Tim Fid, when the
firing began, was not altogether as steady as usual; but though he
bobbed and sprang about with the feeling that he was dodging the shot,
which he could not do in reality, it was much in the same way that he
would have dodged a big play fellow whom he did not wish to touch him;
and as he never for a moment was found wanting at his post, no one
complained.

The action began at a quarter-past six that bright summer morning, and
for about a quarter of an hour the two frigates ran along parallel to
each other, exchanging broadsides with the greatest rapidit