The next
moment he was down on his stomach and crawling to the brink for a
look below. I did the same, of course; and overtook him just as he
drew back his head, and gave a sort of whistle, looking me in the
face--as well he might; for right underneath us lay a sixth gunboat,
and the crew of her ashore already with a six-pounder and hoisting it
by a tackle to a slab of rock about fifty feet above the water's
edge. A neater spot they couldn't have chosen, for it stood at an
angle the town battery couldn't answer to (which was plain, from its
sending no shot in this direction), and yet it raked the whole town
front as easy as ninepins.
"To make things a bit fairer, this landing-party offered us as simple
pretty a target as any man could wish for; nothing to do but fire
down on 'em at forty yards, bob back and reload, with ne'er a chance
of their climbing up to do us a mischief or even to count how many we
were. I touched Sir John's elbow and tapped my gun-stock, and for
the moment he seemed to think well of it. 'Cut the tackle first,'
said he, lifting his gun. ''Twill be as good as hamstringing 'em':
and for him the shot would have been child's play.
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