In the present pause, the first we had had since the
alarm, he was telling this over again to Mr. Macey, when Mr. Macey
suddenly cried our: "The signal! Nobody has thought of the signal!"
We knew of no signal, so we could not have thought of it.
"What signal may you mean, sir?" says Sergeant Drooce, looking sharp at
him.
"There is a pile of wood upon the Signal Hill. If it could be
lighted--which never has been done yet--it would be a signal of distress
to the mainland."
Charker cries, directly: "Sergeant Drooce, dispatch me on that duty. Give
me the two men who were on guard with me to-night, and I'll light the
fire, if it can be done."
"And if it can't, Corporal--" Mr. Macey strikes in.
"Look at these ladies and children, sir!" says Charker. "I'd sooner
_light myself_, than not try any chance to save them."
We gave him a Hurrah!--it burst from us, come of it what might--and he
got his two men, and was let out at the gate, and crept away. I had no
sooner come back to my place from being one of the party to handle the
gate, than Miss Maryon said in a low voice behind me:
"Davis, will you look at this powder? This is not right."
I turned my head. Christian George King again, and treachery again! Sea-
water had been conveyed into the magazine, and every grain of powder was
spoiled!
"Stay a moment," said Sergeant Drooce, when I had told him, without
causing a movement in a muscle of his face: "look to your pouch, my lad.
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