ELMINA, JUNE 1873
“Steady now, lads,” Jack spoke above the bark of the artillery and the sharp orders of officers and NCOs. For a moment, he wondered how Mary was faring, told himself that she was familiar with army life and had lived through far worse than a minor native war, and watched the progress of the bombardment. The smoke already formed a white bank around the boats, so they fired blind, shot after shot and shell after shell howling into the King"s Quarter of Elmina.
Within a few moments, a house exploded, with a sound louder than any of the British cannon. Broken pieces of timber and burning palm-thatch rose high above the smoke, hovered for a few seconds then drifted back down, setting fire to other thatched roofs.
“There must have been gunpowder stored there,” Jack said, as
