the moment he seemed to think well of it. 'Cut the tackle first,'
said he, lifting his gun. ''Twill be as good as hamstringing 'em':
and for him the shot would have been child's play. But after a
second or two he lowered his piece and drew back. 'Damme,' said he,
'I'm losing my wits. Let 'em do their work first, and we'll get
cannon and all. If only'--and here he looked nervous-like over his
shoulder up the hill--'if only those fellows from the town don't
hurry up and spoil sport!'

"I couldn't see his face, but I could feel that he was chuckling as
the fellows below us swung up the gun and fixed it in position and
handed up the round shot. But when they followed up with two kegs of
powder and dumped 'em on to the platform, my dear master's hand went
up and he rubbed the back of his head in pure delight. After that--
as I thought, for nothing but frolic--he even let 'em load and train
the gun for us, and only lifted his musket when the gunner--a
dark-faced fellow with a red cap on his head--was act'lly walking up
with the match alight in his linstock.

"'I don't want to hurt that man afore 'tis necessary,' says Sir John;
and with that he takes aim and lets fly, and shears the linstock
clean in two, right in the fellow's hand. I saw the end of it--match
and all--fly halfway across the platform, and popped back my head as
the dozen Genoese there turned their faces up at us. The pity was,
we hadn't time for a look at 'em!

"Sir John had warned me to hold my fire. But neither he nor I were
prepared for what happened next. For first one of them let out a
yell, and right on top of it half a dozen were screaming '_Imboscata!
Imboscata!_"--and with that we heard a rush of feet and, looking
over, saw the last two or three scrambling for dear life off the edge
of the platform and down the rocks to their boat.

"'Quick, Billy--quick! Damme, but we'll risk it!' cried Sir John,
snatching up his spare gun. 'If we make a mess of it,' says he,
'plug a bullet into one of the powder kegs! Understand?' says he.

"'Sakes alive, master!' says I. 'You bain't a-going to clamber down
that gizzy-dizzy place sure 'nuff!'

"'Why, o' course I be,' says he, and already he had his legs over and
was lowering himself. 'Turn on your back, stick out your heels, and
hold your gun wide of you, _so_,' says he; 'and you'll come to no
harm.'

"Well, as it happened, I didn't. Not for a hundred pound would I go
down that cliff again