that they had collected a fleet of small boats and catamarans in the drain, evidently for the purpose of coming off to the ship, and strings of horses had been attached to the bailitas, while we could see the Bedouin Arabs galloping about near the spot, and the divan crowded with the sultan’s attendants, no doubt watching every movement in the ship. “At ten, we dropped six boats containing thirty-six men, and as soon as they were in range of the hawsers—the ship being stern off to her anchors on the first of the ebb—as I expected, a shot from the fort on the main whistled past her bow just as the axes were lifting to cut the cables. Down they came in quick, effective strokes, and the men gave a long pull together as the heavy chains rattled out of the hawse-holes, and once more the old Tartar was in motion seaward. “‘Frank, my man,’ said I to the man-of-war’s man, whom I retained on board with some of the steadiest of the men, ‘jump aft and hoist a red rag of some sort at the gaff—their own colors, you know—if it’s only to puzzle them. Stand by, carpenter, to sweep the poop when I give you the word.’ When a shot better aimed than the last struck the mizzen-rail, narrowly missing a shroud, and scattering the splinters right and left among the Arabs. Down they went on their faces, out of the way of their friends’ balls, all except Hadji, who stood it without flinching, while my hands itched, I confess, for a chance to send an ounce bullet from the barrel in my hand through his heart.