the fog should enfold him he
would be lost in the Pacific or killed on the rocks almost beyond a
peradventure, and yet he was heading for such a fate with all the
strength that he possessed. This was what first convinced his pursuers
that he was the man whom they sought--none other would have pursued so
desperate a course. At the same time a marine glass brought conviction,
and the order was given to open fire.

A six-pound brass cannon roared, and splinters flew from the boat; but
its occupant, with tantalizing bravado, rose and waved his hand
defiantly. The six-pounder then sent out a percussion shell, and just
as the frail boat was entering the fog it was blown into a thousand
fragments. Some of the observers swore positively that they saw the
Malay floundering in the water a moment after the boat was destroyed
and before he was engulfed by the fog, but this was deemed incredible.
In a short time the order of the post had been restored and the police
had taken themselves away.

The other dramatic occurrence must remain largely a matter of surmise,
but only because the evidence is so strange.

The great steel gun employed at the fort to announce the setting of the
sun thrust its black muzzle into the fog. Had it been fired with shot
or shell its missile would have struck the hills on the opposite side
of the channel. But the gun was never so loaded; blank cartridges were
sufficient for its function. The bore of the piece was of so generous a
diameter that a child or small man might have crept into it had such a
feat ever been thought of or dared.

There are three circumstances indicating that the fleeing man escaped
alive from the wreck of his boat, and that he made a safe landing in
the fog on the treacherous rocks at the foot of the bluff crowned by
the guns. The first of these was suggested by the gunner who fired the
piece that day, two or three hours after the destruction of the fleeing
man's boat; and even that would have received no attention under
ordinary circumstances, and, in fact, did receive none at all until
long afterwards, when Rabaya reported that he had been visited by
Freeman, who told him of the two other strange circumstances. The
gunner related that when he fired the cannon that day he discovered
that it recoiled in a most unaccountable manner, as though it had been
loaded with something in addition to a blank cartridge. But he had
loaded the gun himself, and was positive that he had placed n