ican
waters now, and she can cut us off from the bay. The only thing
we can do is to run for it and try to lose her after dark. Tell
the engineer to crowd her to the limit. There ain't much wind to
speak of, so I guess we can manage to hold our own for a while.
Nevertheless, I've got a hunch that we'll be overhauled. Of
course, you ain't got no papers to show, Scraggs, and they'll
search the cargo, and confiscate us, and shoot the whole bloomin'
crowd of us. I bet a dollar to a doughnut that fellow Lopez sold
us out, after the fashion of the country. I can't help thinkin'
that that gunboat was there just a-waitin' for us to show up."

For several minutes Mr. Gibney continued to study the gunboat
until there could no longer be any doubt that she intended to
overhaul them. He made out that she had a long gun for'd, with a
battery of two one-pounders on top of her house and something on
her port quarter that looked like a Maxim rapid-fire gun. About
twenty men, dressed in white cloth, could be seen on her decks.

Presently Mr. Gibney was interrupted by Captain Scraggs pulling
at his sleeve.

"You was a gunner once, wasn't you, Gib?" said Captain Scraggs in
a trembling voice.

"You bet I was," replied Mr. Gibney. "My shootin' won the trophy
three times in succession when I was on the old _Kearsarge_. If I
had one good gun and a half-decent crew, I'd knock that gunboat
silly before she knew what had hit her."

"Gib, I've got an idee," said Captain Scraggs.

"Out with it," said Mr. Gibney cheerfully.

"There was four little cannon lowered into the hold the last
thing before we put on the main hatch, and the ammunition to load
'em with is stowed in the after hold and very easy to get at."

Mr. Gibney turned a beaming face to the skipper, reached out his
arms, and folded Captain Scraggs in an embrace that would have
done credit to a grizzly bear. There were genuine tears of
admiration in his eyes and in his voice when he could master his
emotions sufficiently to speak.

"Scraggsy, old tarpot, you've been a long time comin' through on
the imagination, but you've sure arrived with all sail set. I
always thought you had about as much nerve as an oyster, but I
take it all back. We'll get out them two little jackass guns and
fight a naval battle, and if I don't sink that Mexican gunboat,
and save the _Maggie_, feed me to the sharks, for I won't be
worthy of the blood that's in me. Pipe all hands and lift off
that main