rom Anastasio. He leaned through the window to see one
tossing in the waves, then suffered a next pang to see the next follow
after. It was an excruciating cumulus of grief. The trooper regarded him
quizzically. Destruction of merely worldly goods had become routine for
him. He returned to his contemplation of the two funnels.

The skipper came back, dripping with pray. "The wind's changin'," he
said, "and that'll beat down the sea some."

"Reckon they'll get us?" Driscoll asked.

Murguia took the query as an aggravation of woe, and he turned
wrathfully on the trooper. "Don't you see we're busy?"

"I see you're very damn sullen, _gra_-cious me!--Reckon they will,
captain?"

"We'll be eatin' a United States of America supper, chained, sir."

"Now look here," said Driscoll plaintively, "_I_ don't want to get
caught."

"But I hope as you'll bide with us, sir?"

"Still, I was just thinking--now that smoke----"

"And I'm a thinkin' you don't see much smoke. We're keepin' out o' sight
as long as God'll let us."

"But, Captain, why not smoke up--big? Just wait now--this ain't any of
my regiment, I know that--but listen a minute anyway. Well, once or
twice when we were in a fix, in camp, say, and we knew more visitors
were coming than was convenient, w'y, we'd just light the campfires so
they would smoke, and then--meantime--we'd light out too. Old Indian
trick, you know."

The skipper was first impatient. But as that did no good, he cocked
himself for a laugh. Then his mouth puckered to a brisk attention, and
at the last word he jumped to his feet. "Damme!" he said, and went
thumping down the steps again. He splashed through the water on deck,
minding the stiff wind not at all, and dived into the engine-room.

"Soft coal!" gasped Murguia with relief.

It was pouring from the stacks in dense black clouds.

The captain returned. "We'll try to save the rest o' that 'ere cotton,
sir," he said.

He looked out at the trembling smoke that betrayed their course so
rashly, and from there back to the pursuer on the horizon. He waited a
little longer, carefully calculating; then sent an order down the tube
to the engineer. The dampers were shut off, and the fuel was changed to
anthracite. Soon the smoke went down, and a hazy invisible stream puffed
from the funnels instead. The _Luz_ swung at right angles to her
former course. The paddles threshed hopefully, and on she sped, leaving
no track. The skipper gazed back at