with two large pieces of sponge.

"We will not ask, as you say we must not," she said quietly, "but I know
you are going to run some frightful danger. I may tell mamma and Carrie
when they come back that much, may I not? and we will all keep awake and
pray for you tonight--God bless you both!" And with a warm clasp of the
hands the girls went back into their room again.

"I tell you what, Ned," the midshipman said emphatically, when they went
out into the air, "if I live through this war I'll marry Nelly Hargreaves;
that is," he added, "if she'll have me, and will wait a bit. She is a
brick, and no mistake. I never felt really in love before; not regularly,
you know."

At any other time Ned would have laughed; but with Edith's farewell words
in his ear he was little disposed for mirth, and he merely put his hand on
Dick's shoulder and said:

"There will be time to talk about that in the future, Dick. There's the
battery opening in earnest. There! Mr. Gubbins is calling for all hands on
the roof with their rifles to try and silence it. Come along."

For an hour the fire on both sides was incessant. The six guns of the
battery concentrated their fire upon Gubbins' house, while from the walls
and houses on either side of it the fire of the musketry flashed
unceasingly, sending a hail of shot to keep down the reply from the roof.

On their side the garrison on the terrace disregarded the musketry fire,
but, crowded behind the sandbags, kept up a steady and concentrated fire
at the flashes of the cannon; while from the battery below, the gunners,