all in guarded undertones. The rippling of the water against the prows
and cables was an annoyance, and on more than one forehead great drops
of cold perspiration gathered.

Slowly and painfully the long minutes wore away, until it seemed as if
several hours had passed, when in reality the interval was but a small
part of that period. Every nerve was in this tense state, when suddenly
the boom of a cannon came rolling through the fog from the direction of
the city, followed soon by the rapid firing of artillery. The approach
of the _Intrepid_ had been discovered, and it seemed as if all the
enemy's batteries were blazing away at her. But what of the ketch
itself?

Stewart, like all the rest, was peering into the black mist, when he saw
a star-like point of light, moving with an up and down motion, in a
horizontal line, showing that it was a lantern carried by a man running
along the deck of a ship. Then it dropped out of sight, as if the bearer
had leaped down a hatchway. For a moment all was profound darkness, and
then an immense fan-like expanse of flame shot far up into the sky, as
if from the crater of a volcano, and was crossed by the curving streaks
of fire made by shells in their eccentric flight. Across the water came
the crashing roar of the prodigious explosion, followed a few moments
later by the sounds of wreckage and bodies as they dropped into the sea.
Then again impenetrable gloom and profound stillness succeeded. The
batteries on shore were awed into silence by the awful sight, and the
waiting friends on the ships held their breath.

The hope was that Lieutenant Somers and his companions had fired the
fuse and then rowed away in their boats, but as minute followed minute
without the sound of muffled oars from the hollow night reaching the