would necessarily be
by night, for there were Spanish gunboats everywhere patrolling around
the shores, but there were innumerable small inlets where we could draw
up our boat, lay perdu during the day and spy out the next island to
sail to at night.

[Illustration: CASTS OF THE HEADS OF NOTORIOUS CRIMINALS.]

We arrived in due time at Cajio, and here our passports were demanded by
a little yellow monkey of a sergeant. I did not quite like having
passports scrutinized and determined to try and avoid any more of it.

We found no boat at Cajio, nor could we buy, or, if we bought, could not
manage one alone. The only thing we could do was to charter one with a
crew of four men. During my stay in Cuba I had been studying Spanish. I
had become a tolerably proficient speaker, so I had no great difficulty
in associating with the natives.

I found my idea of joining the rebels by sea impracticable, and as to go
by land was perilous in the extreme, I made up my mind to send Nunn back
to Havana and to make the venture alone. I did not care to chance his
life, and I also felt that it was safer for one than for two.

Forty miles away was the last fortified post on the Rio Choerra, at the
small town of Voronjo. Once across that small stream I would be on
neutral ground, liable at any time to fall in with a rebel band.

Nunn was very plucky and most devoted. He by no means wanted to go back,
but at last consented.

I determined to chance traveling on the beach by night. So at 12 o'clock
the day after our arrival at Cajio we mounted our horses and announced
that we were returning to Havana. Two miles away, at the small hamlet of
Zoringa, we put our horses out and struck for the beach about four miles
west of Cajio. Then we went a few yards into the jungle and sat down for
our last talk and to wait for the darkness. We were no longer master and
servant, but friends. The hours went slowly by; we did not say much, but
felt strongly. We had good cigars and smoked almost incessantly.

I told him to see Curtin, to give him my regards and laugh at him in a
nice way, and to tell my wife that I would limit my stay with the rebels
to a year. I told Nunn to send for his wife to join him in New York, and
my wife would take her into service so that they could be together.

I did not dare to keep the gun we had, but retained the revolvers in a
belt around my waist. They were rather old-fashioned, and, as the sequel
proved, the ammunition