“If the boats are in immediate danger, fire your pistol, and make your way back as fast as you can.” Jack touched his cap, adjusted his pistol in his belt and sprang forward to perform the important service intrusted to him. “Keep your weather-eye wide open, Jack, my darling,” said Tom Longstone as he passed the old seaman. “Ay, ay, Tom!” replied the sailor-boy as he sprang to the stem of the cutter, and leaped ashore again. He had not been absent more than five minutes from the crest of the island: but the rebels had been industrious during that short period; and one of the Wizard’s guns, which was an ordinary field-piece, was on the gang-planks, ready to be rolled on shore. Jack Somers was not a brigadier-general, nor was he a proficient in naval or military tactics; but the plan of the rebels was as transparent to him as though he had been a graduate of Annapolis or West Point. The information he had obtained was very important; and without waiting to make any further observations, he hastened back to the boat, and reported the operations of the enemy. He tried to keep cool, and not appear to be excited by the revelation he made. He thought he had something astounding to tell; and so he had, perhaps: but, to his intense astonishment, Mr. Granger did not appear to be alarmed. He did not rattle off any hasty orders such as he had read in naval romances. In Jack’s opinion, it was time something was done, but Mr. Granger seemed to be provokingly indifferent to the importance of the announcement he had just made to him. “You have done well, Somers,” said the commander of the expedition; whereat Jack touched his cap, and would have blushed if he had not fully expected to see the rebels pitch into them the next minute. “Are you willing to go again?” “I am, sir!” replied Jack as readily as before though he was utterly confounded at the question. “Go up once more, and see whether they are landing the other gun, Somers.” Our hero touched his cap again; for, in spite of the excitement of the moment, he did not forget his manners, and sprang ashore for the third time. Cautiously ascending the slope of the little hill, he again reached his position at its summit. The other gun had not been landed; the gang-planks had been hauled on board; and a squad of men had been sent on shore to work the field-piece already on the island. Jack wanted to know what the Wizard was going to do before he reported this time; and he determined to wait a moment longer, when this question would be decided.