d forward wildly, clutching at each other. A minute later,
breathless, exhausted and half drowned, but wild with joy, they
staggered out upon a sandy beach and sank down to gasp for breath.

"We're safe!" panted Clif. "Safe!"

Safe! And on the island of Cuba, the stronghold of their deadly enemies!

CHAPTER IX.

THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY.

It must have been at least five minutes before those exhausted men moved
again; when at last they managed to rise to their feet it was to find
themselves in the midst of absolute darkness, with the wild sea on one
side of them and on the other no one knew what.

The faint point of light which they had seen had now disappeared: but
they took it to mean that there were Spaniards in the neighborhood.

And they did not fail to recognize the peril in which they were. The
firing had probably been heard and the wreck of the merchantman seen. If
so, the Americans could not be in a much worse place.

"We may be right in front of a battery," whispered Clif.

The first thing the sailors did was to see to their revolvers and
cutlasses. And after that they started silently down the shore.

"We won't try to go far," Clif said, "but we must find a hiding-place."

But in that darkness the hiding-places were themselves hidden; the best
the Americans could do was to stumble down the shore for a hundred yards
or so, being careful to walk where the waves would wash out their
footprints.

Then they were a short distance from the wreck and felt a trifle safer.

"We may as well strike back in the country now," said the leader, "at
least until we can find some bushes or something to conceal us."

That was a rather more ticklish task, and the men crouched and stole
along in silence. They had no idea what they might meet.

It was fortunate for them that they were quiet. Otherwise they would
have gotten into very serious trouble indeed.

They stole up the sandy beach a short ways, feeling their way along and
getting further and further away from the sea. They were struggling
through soft dry sand.

And suddenly Clif, who was in front, saw something loom up before him, a
dark line. And he put out his hand to touch it.

He found that the sand rose gradually into a sort of drift or bank. It
was high, and seemed to reach for some distance.

The sailors stopped abruptly, and Clif crept softly forward, feeling
along with his hands; suddenly the men heard him mutter a startled
exclamation under