Mark! Massa St. Mark! am it you?"
"Faith, it's the best gunner in the British navy!" cried Terrence.
Fernando had no trouble in recognizing in the stranger the gentlemanly
gunner of the _Macedonian_, who had saved him from being flogged.
Terrence, Fernando, Job and Sukey crowded about the newcomer and for a
moment plied him with questions. He explained that, having slipped his
handcuffs, he rushed on deck, seized the oar, which he still carried,
knocked down two sentries and leaped overboard. They fired a hundred
shots at him; but, being an excellent swimmer, and the night being dark,
he managed to escape. Lying on his back, holding to the oar, he watched
for the flash of their guns and pistols, and, when they fired, ducked
his head under the water.
The appearance of Mr. Hugh St. Mark naturally caused another
consultation. He discouraged their desperate attempt to carry the ship
by the board, and Fernando, after sending six fishermen to the headland
to acquaint their companions there with the change, marched with his
force back to the fort. An hour later the others came.
When day dawned, the _Xenophon_ renewed her cannonading. Mr. Hugh St.
Mark was given charge of the thirty-two, and after carefully measuring
the distance with an experienced eye, he weighed the powder and loaded
the gun. Fernando watched the flight of the first ball, which went
whizzing over the leeward rail across the deck and out at the opposite
port into the sea.
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