faithful allies should be munificently
rewarded for the very valuable assistance which they had rendered.
After the Cimarrones had unwillingly departed, George mustered and
inspected his followers, satisfied himself that all were present and
that their weapons were in good order and ready for instant service,
made them a good rousing speech--in response to which they were with
difficulty restrained from cheering, and finally told them off, one by
one, to the particular boat in which each man was to go. The boats were
now all arranged in a string, as before, in tow of the sailing-boat,
and, with the crews lying _perdu_ in the bottom of their respective
craft, the entire expedition got under way and proceeded down the river.

Meanwhile, the weather had undergone a certain change. The wind which
an hour earlier had scarcely sufficed the sailing-boat, with the row-
boats in tow, to stem the current of the stream, was now piping up a
merry breeze, fresh enough to drive the flotilla along at a speed of
fully three knots, while heavy masses of cloud were sweeping up from the
south-east, obscuring the moon for frequent and lengthening intervals,
both of which circumstances were in the adventurers' favour. Despite
the fact that the tide was now distinctly against them, the flotilla
made such excellent progress that within half an hour of starting they
were again abreast of the town, hugging the face of the quay as closely
as possible in order to reduce their chances of detection. Half-way
down the harbour they passed a galley--undoubtedly the galley which had
served as escort to the galleon in the roadstead--moored alongside the
quay, and George felt sorely tempted to dash alongside and take
possession of her. But there was scarcely one chance in a thousand that
this could have been done without raising an alarm of some sort; it was
too much to hope that a surprise should be so complete that no shout
should be raised by any one of her startled crew, no shot fired, no
clash of weapons disturb the silence of the night; and an alarm at this
stage of the proceedings would ruin the whole of his carefully laid
plans therefore, although the young captain gazed long and wistfully at
the formidable-looking craft as he swept past, he bit his lips and kept
silence, holding the bows of the sailing-boat now pointed steadily
toward the distant galleon.

At this moment a great black cloud drifted up athwart the half-moon,
shutting off h