The captain listened patiently to my breathless and somewhat disconnected story, and then turned to Mr Purchase, who was standing close at hand, and said-- "Mr Purchase, have the goodness to take the entire port watch, and go out to Mr Nugent's assistance. But do not allow your men to fire away their ammunition recklessly, for we have very little of it. Let no man pull trigger until he is quite certain of hitting his mark." "Ay, ay, sir!" answered Purchase. "Port watch, follow me." And away he and his following trudged into the darkness. I was making to join them, but the skipper happened, unfortunately, to see me, and called me back. "No, no, Mr Fortescue," he said; "you and Mr Copplestone will please remain with me. I may want one or both of you to run messages for me presently." So we remained. But I at once ranged up alongside Copplestone, for I was anxious to hear the news from Marline, down by the boats. "Well, Tommy," I said, "what was old Marline blazing away at? Whatever it was, he managed to hit it, for I heard the smash." "Yes," answered Copplestone. "But it was more a case of luck than of good shooting, for it is as dark as a wolf's mouth. Some of his men, however, had eyes keen enough to see that there was a whole flotilla of boats, or canoes, or something of that sort, hovering in the river and manoeuvring in such a fashion as to lead to the suspicion that they had designs upon our boats, so he dosed them with a few charges of grape, which caused them to sheer off `one time,' as Cupid is wont to remark. What was the row with Nugent?" "Lot of niggers creeping along the spit on their stomachs toward him," I answered. "Got some idea of rushing the camp for the sake of the plunder in it, I expect. But now that Mr Purchase and the port watch have gone out to back him up I think we need not--hillo! that sounds like business, though, and no mistake." My ejaculation was caused by a sudden cracking off of some six or eight muskets, one after the other, closely followed by a heavy if slightly irregular volley, and the next instant the air seemed to become positively vibrant with a perfect pandemonium of shrieks, howls, yells, and shouts as of men engaged in close and desperate conflict. The skipper pricked up his ears and clapped his hand to his sword-hilt; then he turned to where Tommy and I were standing close beside him. "Mr Copplestone," he said, "take twenty men--the first you can pick-- and go with them to support Mr Marline, for I fancy he will need a little help presently. The rest of us are going out to support Mr Purchase and Mr Nugent."