ould also know whether his intended prey lay in the
roads or not. The heart of every man in the little flotilla beat fast,
and his breath came thickly under the stress of the intense excitement
of the moment; and Jim, from his position in the stern of the _Blanco's_
launch, tried to pierce the darkness with his eyes to get the first
glimpse of the Peruvian vessels.

A moment later the three boats, closer together now, swept round the
northern end of the island, and Arica roadstead lay in full view before
them.

It was now the hour before the dawn, and consequently the night was at
its darkest, but Jim could hardly repress a cry of delight as he caught
sight of four indistinct, dark masses, looming up on the surface of the
bay. There were no lights showing anywhere, save in one or two isolated
houses on shore, where sickness probably kept the inmates awake; but he
had not expected to find any lights showing among the Peruvian fleet,
since they would naturally desire to keep their whereabouts hidden from
chance Chilian prowlers. But in Jim's mind there was no doubt that the
four shapeless blurs lying close together, about half a mile away, were
the vessels of which he had come in search; and he passed the word to
the other launches to select each her own particular vessel, torpedo
her, and then steam away back to the Chilian fleet. He himself intended
to be responsible for two of the Peruvians, while his consorts were
instructed to take one a-piece. No conditions, he thought to himself,
could have been more favourable to the enterprise. So far as he could
make out, no suspicion had been aroused that the Chilians were in the
vicinity; the night was dark, and the town seemed to be asleep. In
fact, their enemies appeared to be indulging in a feeling of security
from which they would awake--too late!

The order was now passed for the launches to ease down to half-speed, so
that the sound of the churning propellers might be less perceptible, and
the three boats crept forward almost in complete silence upon their
prey. Jim could now plainly make out the brig-rig of the monitor
_Huascar_, and the three masts and single funnel of the corvette
_Union_, and these two ships he intended to account for with his own
torpedo-boat. Away to the right, close under the forts, and about four
hundred yards from the _Huascar_, lay what looked like a couple of other
monitors. He had quite expected, or at least hoped, to find one oth