48 ANGLING SKETCHES 



who the stranger was, for no man alive durst have 

 done as much to the Black Officer. And there was 

 the Black Officer kneeling to him ! 



' Well, what they said, Shamus could not hear, 

 and presently they walked away, and the Black 

 Officer came back alone. 



' He took them to England, but never to London, 

 and they never saw the King. He took them to 

 Portsmouth, and they were embarked for India, 

 where we were fighting the French. There was a 

 town we couldn't get into ' (Seringapatam .'), ' and 

 the Black Officer volunteered to make a tunnel 

 under the walls. Now they worked three days, 

 and whether it was the French heard them and let 

 them dig on, or not, any way, on the third day the 

 French broke in on them. They kept sending 

 men into the tunnel, and more men, and still they 

 wondered who was fighting within, and how we 

 could have so large a party in the tunnel ; so at 

 last they brought torches, and there was no man 

 alive on our side but the Black Officer, and he had 

 a wall of corpses built up in front of him, and was 

 fighting across it. He had more light to see by 



