ly--_suspiciously_--quiet for some time
now."

Then the young man made his way down to the admiral's cabin and
delivered the message, with the result that the admiral's barge was
piped away, and five minutes later Riveros was being pulled across the
sparkling blue waters of the bay, to learn what it was that Senor
Baquedano wanted to communicate to him.

Several hours elapsed before the gallant Chilian returned aboard, and
when he finally did so his first action was to send for Jim Douglas and
request him to accompany him to his cabin. Arrived there, the admiral
closed the door, locked it, and then leaning across the table toward
Douglas, remarked in a low tone:

"Senor Douglas, I am paying you no empty compliment, when I say that I
consider you a remarkably efficient and promising young officer. You
have carried out, with the utmost credit to yourself, several
exceedingly difficult pieces of work, and for that reason I am going to
detail you for a service which I suspect will prove even more difficult
than any which you have yet been called upon to perform."

Jim bowed, and did his best not to look too pleased.

"As you, of course, are aware," continued the admiral, smiling, "we lost
sight of the _Union_ corvette before the battle of Angamos, and as we
had more important business on hand at the moment, we were not able to
pursue her; consequently she got clear away. The Chilians in the coast
towns have for some time been living in mortal dread of her appearing,
some fine day, off one or another of their ports, and bombarding it; and
for some weeks past I have been daily expecting orders to sail in
pursuit of her and to hunt her down. We have, however, until to-day had
no definite news of her whereabouts upon which we could work. But this
afternoon I was summoned ashore and informed by his Excellency, General
Baquedano, that the Peruvians are expecting several cargoes of arms from
Europe, and he has been informed by one of our spies that the _Union_
has been dispatched to the mouth of the Straits of Magellan to convoy
those vessels to Callao, or whatever Peruvian port they are bound for.
If, then, we dispatch a vessel down to the Straits we are almost certain
to fall in with the corvette and bring her to action; and if we are
lucky we may also secure the arms-carrying vessels. That would of
course be in itself a service of inestimable value to our government,
since if our enemies cannot obtain arms and ammuni