The Wimpletonians poured in over the rail, until the deck was crowded. Company B had stacked their muskets on this deck, and except the officers, our boys were unarmed, while every Wimpletonian presented a musket with a fixed bayonet upon it. As the enemy were boarding the steamer, the captain, amazed at the audacity of the young ruffians, rang the bell to back the boat; but before she had headway enough to shake off the fleet, which clung to her like swarming bees, all the Wimpletonians, except one in each boat, were on our deck. “Up there, twenty of you!” said Major Waddie, indicating the hurricane deck with a flourish of his sword. “What are the rascals going to do?” added Captain Underwood, who had not given the enemy credit for the skill and daring they now displayed. “Don’t let a single Top go on the hurricane deck!” shouted Waddie; and the twenty students he had sent up stationed themselves at the head of the stairs, to prevent any of our party from leaving their prison; for such it had now become to them. [Illustration: CHARGE BAYONETS!--Page 98.] Captain Underwood began to think the frolic, as he had at first regarded it, was becoming a serious affair, and I saw that he looked somewhat anxious. Our fellows had left their muskets on the forward deck, and they were now in possession of the enemy. I am inclined to think it was fortunate they were there, rather than in the hands of their owners, or some of the students on both sides would doubtless have been seriously injured. As the matter now stood, the Wimpletonians had entire possession of the Middleport, for that was the name of the steamer. Twenty of them stood in the act of charging bayonets in the direction of the two doors leading from the forward deck. Our fellows could do nothing; and even the captain, with the wheel in his hand, was as powerless as they were. Major Waddie, with his chapeau and white plume, looked as though he were the commander-in-chief of a great army, and had just achieved a bloody victory. I must do him the justice to say that he had managed the affair very well, though I saw that his two captains, Dick Bayard and Ben Pinkerton, were always near him with words of counsel. I was at a loss to determine whether the capture of the steamer had been devised on the instant, or whether the boats had taken the position in the channel for that purpose in the beginning. I was inclined to believe that the bold step was first suggested when their leaders saw the muskets of the Toppletonians stacked on the forward deck, and not a single soldier present to guard them. Ben Pinkerton afterwards told me that this view was correct.