head cool; his judgment, if not correct, was the result
of sober and earnest consideration. But now he lost
his temper. The unparalleled effrontery and impertinence
of this demand of the American Syndicate was too much for
his self-possession. He stormed in anger.

Here was the culmination of the knavish trickery of
these conscienceless pirates who had attacked the port.
A torpedo had been exploded in the harbour, an
unfinished fort had been mined and blown up, and all
this had been done to frighten him--a British soldier--
in command of a strong fort well garrisoned and fully
supplied with all the munitions of war. In the fear
that his fort would be destroyed by a mystical
bomb, he was expected to march to a place of safety
with all his forces. If this should be done it would
not be long before these crafty fellows would occupy
the fort, and with its great guns turned inland, would
hold the city at their mercy. There could be no
greater insult to a soldier than to suppose that he
could be gulled by a trick like this.

No thought of actual danger entered the mind of the
commandant. It had been easy enough to sink a great
torpedo in the harbour, and the unguarded bluffs of
Fort Pilcher offered every opportunity to the
scoundrels who may have worked at their mines through
the nights of several months. But a mine under the
fort which he commanded was an impossibility; its
guarded outposts prevented any such method of attack.