"I'm all right," said Boyle, gruffly. "I am only sitting here because

my back is stiff."

Courtenay glanced at the somber shadow of Point Kansas, silhouetted

against the deep blue of the seaward arc.

"Suarez has retired to roost," he said. "He seems to be quite assured

that the Indians will never deliver a night attack."

"To-day's hammering should teach them to leave the Kansas alone in

future," said Christobal.

"I hope so, but Suarez and Tollemache agree that they are most

persistent wretches. Now, Boyle, you must obey the doctor. I am going

back to the saloon to give Miss Maxwell some documents I wish her to

see. Then, Tollemache and I will relieve the pair of you. All right,

Christobal; I promise to take my share of the blankets in the morning.

I shall be ready for a nap at four o'clock. At present I feel

particularly wide-awake."

He went to the cabin. They heard him unlock the door and enter. At

that instant a startling hail came from two sailors stationed on the

poop.

"Indianos!" they yelled.

The three men were on the spar deck a second later, straining their

eyes into the black vagueness of the water.

"Indianos!" shouted two other sailors on the forecastle, and from the

spar deck it seemed to be possible to distinguish several black objects

moving towards the ship.

"The siren, Boyle," cried Courtenay, striking a match. At once the

swelling note of the fog-horn smote the air and thundered away in

tremendous sound waves. Soon a hissing, fiery serpent ran up the port

wall of the chart-house, and a fine star rocket soared into the sky.

It illuminated a wide area of the bay, and revealed a number of crowded

canoes darting in on the ship from all sides. Courtenay grasped the

lines connected with the remaining mines and hauled for dear life.

Already the Indian rifle fire was crackling with vivid spurts of flame,

and stones and arrows were beginning to patter on the deck and bang

against the steel plates. Two of the dynamite bombs exploded with the

usual din, but it was impossible to ascertain their effect owing to the

yelling of the Indians.

The loud summons of the siren brought all hands from below; arms were

hastily secured, the fore and aft awnings closed, and Walker made shift

to hammer the engine-room door tight. The increasing violence of the

stone-slinging showed that the Alaculofs meant to press home this time.

Whatever their dread of the fiends who roam the world in the dark, they

had conquered it, and this latest phase in the stormy history of the

ship threatened to be its most trying one.




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