We were not unprepared for this; one of two old 32--pound carronades,
which, in anticipation of some obstruction of the sort, had been got on
deck from amongst the Gleam's ballast, and properly slung, was now made
fast to the middle timber of the boom, and let go, when the weight of it
sunk it to the bottom, and we passed on. We pulled on for about half a
mile further, when I noticed, high up on a sunny cliff, that shot boldly
out into the clear blue heavens, a small red flag suddenly run up to the
top of a tall, scathed, branchless palm tree, where it flared for a
moment in the breeze like the flame of a torch, and then as suddenly
disappeared. "Come, they are on the look--out for us I see."
The hills continued to close on us as we advanced, and that so
precipitously, that we might have been crushed to pieces had half--a
dozen active fellows, without any risk to themselves, for the trees
would have screened them, simply loosened some of the fragments of rock
that impended over us, so threateningly, it seemed, as if a little
finger could have sent them bounding and thundering down the mountain
side; but this either was not the game of the people we were in search
of, or Obed's spirit and energy had been crushed out of him by the heart
depressing belief that his hours were numbered, for no active
obstruction was offered.
We now suddenly rounded an abrupt corner of the creek, and there we were
full in front of the schooners, who, with the felucca in advance, were
lying in line of battle, with springs on their cables.
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