ased, a mile and a half seaward. She had changed her course,
and was heading in their direction.

Retaining his hold of his pistols Bob moved forward, put out a
spare oar, and set to to row. Shot after shot came from the fort,
and several from the sloop; but a boat, at that distance, presents
but a small mark and, although a shot went through the sail, none
struck her. Presently a gun boomed out ahead of them, high in the
air; and a shot fell near the sloop, which at once hauled her wind,
and stood out to sea.

"We have got rid of her," Bob said, "and we are a mile and a half
from the fort, now. You can take it easy, men. They won't waste
many more shot upon us."

Indeed, only one more gun was fired by the Spaniards; and then the
boat pursued her course unmolested, Bob returning to his seat at
the helm.

"They will be on the lookout for us, as we go back," one of the
Spaniards said.

"They won't see you in the dark," Bob replied. "Besides, as likely
as not they will think that you are one of the Rock fishing boats,
that has ventured out too far, and failed to get back by daylight."

Once out of reach of the shot from the fort, the sailors laid in
their oars--having been rowing for more than ten hours--and the
boat glided along quietly, at a distance of a few hundred feet from
the foot of the cliff.

"Which are you going to do?" Bob asked them; "take fifty dollars
for your fish, or sell them for what you can get for them?"

The fishermen at once said they would take the fifty dollars for,
although they had collected all that had been brought in by the
other fishermen--amounting to some five hundred pounds in
weight--they could not imagine that fish, for which they would not
have got more than ten dollars--at the outside--at Malaga, could
sell for fifty at Gibraltar.

As they rounded Europa Point there was a hail from above and,
looking up, Bob saw Captain O'Halloran and the doctor.

"Hulloa, Bob!"

"Hulloa!" Bob shouted back, and waved his hat.

"All right, Bob?"

"All right. I have got thirty boxes!"

"Hurrah!" the doctor shouted, waving his hat over his head. "We
will meet you at the New Mole.

"That is something like a boy, Gerald!"

"It is all very well for you," Captain O'Halloran said. "You are
not responsible for him, and you are not married to his sister."

"Put yourself in the way of a cannonball, Gerald, and I will be
married to her a week after--if she will have me."

His companion la