The moments passed in silence, save for the hissing of the rain-drops as they mingled with the water of the river, and I was saying to myself that of a verity we must have drifted safely through the fleet without touching a ship, when that came which I had been fearing. Suddenly I felt a shock; then a noise as of wood grinding against wood, and I knew we had fouled the enemy! While one might have counted five the pungy rubbed against the side of the ship, and then came the hail: "Ahoy there! Ahoy!" "What are you hailing?" a strange voice cried, and he who had first broken the silence replied: "There's a craft of some kind alongside, sir!" Then it was as if a swarm of bees had been let loose. The enemy's ship was alive with moving, buzzing beings, some of whom cried out this or that order, and others called down maledictions on the head of the man who had needlessly aroused them. "There's nothin' here, sir. Sam was dreamin'," I heard the voice of a sailor cry, and almost at the same instant came the rattling of fire-arms as they were being handled, sounding so near aboard that it seemed as if a portion of the enemy had leaped upon our decks. "Make ready! Fire!" sounded the command, sharp and quick. Then came a sheet of flame which lighted up surrounding objects until we could distinctly see the deck of the bomb-vessel, and the eager men thronging her deck. This illumination was but as the lightning's flash, and then we could hear the angry hum of the bullets as they swarmed above our heads. We had been seen, and I believed that a broadside would follow in short order, yet at the same time I realized that our good fortune had followed us when it sent the pungy afoul of a bomb-vessel, instead of a craft which had her guns ready trained for service. Now had come the time, however, when we were to remain idle no longer. I heard Darius call Bill Jepson, and knew by the noises which followed that the two sailors were taking to the canoe in order to tow the pungy, and at the same time Captain Hanaford cast off the lashing of the tiller as he ordered us to run up the canvas. Work? I have never moved so lively before nor since, as I did then when I felt positive that within a very few seconds our deck would be swept by grape and cannister. At such moments of supreme danger one's senses are unnaturally acute, and while I gave strict attention to all that was taking place aboard the pungy, it became possible to understand what the enemy was about. The other vessels of the fleet were making ready to take a hand in our destruction. From every quarter we could hear cries of command, mingled with the noise of men running to and fro, and just when the pungy began to feel the effect of the canvas which was clapped on her in such a hurry, a rocket went up, illumining the scene for ten seconds or more.