Then Shamus knew 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 than the French had, for it was
dark behind him, and there would be some light on their side. So at last
they brought some combustibles and blew it all up. Three days after that
we took the town. Some of our soldiers were sent to dig out the tunnel,
and with them was Shamus Mackenzie.
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