"It's only the barracks, probably, fired by a shell," says Gray. "They've no idea of surrendering. They hold out well!"
The battery is completely enveloped in black smoke, out of which leaps the white puff of the cannon, showing that the gunners are still at work.
"See! the gunboat that was aground is getting off! that's a brave tug that's handling her!" cries Frank "O!"—an exclamation of surprise and wonder. For just then the gunboat, swinging around so that she can bring her guns to bear, lets fly her broadside, dropping shot and shell right into the smoking battery.
"It's about time," says Jack Winch, "for us boys to go ashore and clean the rebels out. I'm a gitting tired of this slow work."
"You'll get ashore soon enough, and have enough to do when you get there," says Atwater. "There are strong batteries towards the centre of the islands, that'll have to be taken when we go in."
"Abe's afraid," mutters Jack to some comrades near him. "Did ye see him, and Frank, and Seth Tucket, reading their Testaments?"
"It was the 'Lady of the Lake' Seth was reading," says Harris. "He carries it in his pocket, and pitches into it odd spells."
"Winch don't know the Lady of the Lake from the Bible!" chimes in Tucket's high nasal voice.
"Yes, I do, too! The Lady of the Lake, that's one of Bryon's poems! S'pose I don't know?"
"O, perfectly!" sneers Ellis, amid the laughter Jack's blunder elicits. "And no doubt you'll soon find out who the cowards are among us, if you don't know already."