e from it, and on
the sloping land that was nigh to the beach, we had thrown up a kind of
intrenchment, behind which we could kneel and fire, and under whose
cover we hoped to be able to make a good account of assailants. I was on
guard here at night, and I paced up and down in front of it thinking of
all the chances that had happened since I sailed in the Royal
Christopher; and I pleased myself by recalling every word that Marjorie
had said to me, or in thinking of all the words that I should like to
say to her.

Suddenly my thoughts were brought from heaven to earth by a sound as of
a splash in the water. It might have been but a sweep of a sea-bird's
wing as it stooped and wheeled in its flight over the sea, but it set my
pulses tingling and all my senses straining to hear more and to see
something.

The sea that lay so little away from me was all swallowed up in
darkness. I could see nothing to cause me alarm. The quiet of the night
seemed to breathe a deep peace that invited only to thoughts of sleep.
But I was as wide awake as a startled hare, and I listened with all my
ears and peered into the blackness. Was it my heated fancy, I asked
myself, or did I indeed hear faint sounds coming to me from where the
sea lay?

I whistled softly a note something like our English starling's--a signal
that had been agreed upon between Lancelot and me. In a very few seconds
he was at my side.

As I told him of my suspicions Lancelot peered into the darkness,
listening very carefully, and now both he and I felt certain that we
could hear sounds, indistinct but regular, coming from the sea.

'They are doing what I thought they would,' Lancelot whispered to me.
Lancelot's voice had this rare quality, that when he whispered every
syllable was as clear as if he were crying from the housetops. 'They
have chosen this dark night to attack us, and they are rowing with
muffled oars. We must do our best to give them a wild welcome. It is
well we have those fireworks; they will serve our turn now.'

He slipped away from my side and was swallowed up in the darkness. But
he soon came back to my side.

'All is ready,' he said.

He had been from man to man, and now every one was at his post. The bulk
of our little body crouched down behind the breastwork while four men
were stationed by the open gates of the stockade to allow us to make our
retreat there. Those who were behind the breastwork knew that when
Lancelot gave the word they