"Oh, but you did. It was in the excitement. Every one about you was firing, and you did the same. It would have been rather curious if you had not. Oh, here's my governor coming along with Chips." "I say," began Fitz excitedly. "All right; I wasn't going to; but slip in two more cartridges and close the breech." This was quickly done, and the skipper came up, talking to the carpenter the while. "Yes, my lad," he was saying, "I'd give something if you had a hammer and a bag of spikes to strengthen all the wood-work here.--Well, Poole," he continued, "Don Ramon is in ecstasies. He says this is his first success, and I believe that if I were not here he'd go round and embrace all the lads.--But about those poor wretches lying out there. I'm not an unfeeling brute, my lads," he continued, taking in Fitz with a glance the while, "but all I can do I have done." "But there are those two men moving out there, sir, that you can't have seen," cried Fitz imploringly, "and it seems so horrid--" "Yes, my lad; war is horrid," said the skipper. "I saw them when they first went down, and"--he added to himself--"I am afraid I was answerable for one. But, as I was saying, I have done all I could, and that is, insisted upon Don Ramon ordering his men to leave them alone and not fire at every poor wretch who shows a sign of life." "But," began Fitz, "Poole and I wouldn't mind going out and carrying them under shelter, one at a time." "No, my lad," said the skipper, smiling sadly, "I know you would not; but I should, and very much indeed. You have both got mothers, and what would they say to me for letting two brave lads go to certain death?" "Oh, but surely, sir," cried Fitz, "the enemy would not--" "Those worthy of the name of enemy, my boy, certainly would not; but those fighting against us are most of them the bloodthirsty scum of a half-savage tropical city, let loose for a riot of murder, plunder, and destruction. Why, my dear boy, the moment you and Poole got outside the shelter of these walls, a hundred rifles would be aimed at you, with their owners burning to take revenge for the little defeat they have just now suffered." "Are you sure you are right, Captain Reed?" "Quite, my lad; as sure as I am that it is not all ill that we have done this morning, for San Cristobal and Velova will both be the better for the absence of some of those who are lying dead out there." He stood gazing out between two boards for some few minutes, before turning back, and glancing round the room he said a few words to the English defenders. "Splendid, my lads," he said. "Nothing could have been cooler and better. We want no hurry at a time like this." "Think they'll come again, father?" asked Poole. "Sure to, my lad, and we shall drive them back again. After that, this Don Villarayo will have his work cut out to get them to come up again, and I don't believe he will succeed." "Will they retreat then, sir?" asked Fitz. The skipper smiled.