a delight, and caused him actually to court
danger for the pleasurable excitement which the evasion of it afforded
him. Might it not be, then, that Marshall, knowing the fate that
awaited him in the event of detection, was deliberately lingering in
Cartagena in order that he might enjoy to the fullest possible extent
the gratification of hoodwinking his enemies and moving freely among
them unsuspected?

Swayed thus between hope and fear, the harassed young lieutenant once
more, and for the last time, mounted the hill and resumed his anxious
watch of the town and harbour. But no indication of any happening of an
unusual character, either in the town or in the harbour, was
perceptible; everything seemed to be going forward precisely as usual;
the only occurrence that in the slightest degree interested the watcher
being that the crew of the galleon resumed their occupation of bending
sails, which operation, proceeding with the same deliberation as before,
they contrived to complete about half an hour before sunset; when Dick,
unutterably weary and discouraged with his long and fruitless watch,
arose and made his way down the hill to the place where the longboat lay
hidden.

CHAPTER FIVE.

HOW THEY DISARMED THE BATTERIES ON TIERRA BOMBA.

As Chichester neared the now familiar spot where he had left the
longboat, he suffered himself to indulge in a returning feeling of
elation, for the notion somehow came to him that he would find Marshall
in the boat calmly awaiting his return; and this feeling presently grew
so strong within him that he could scarcely credit his eyes when, upon
passing through the screen of concealing foliage, he saw only the three
seamen curled up in the boat. They roused themselves from their
semi-somnolent condition and sat up to receive him, with glances of mute
enquiry in their eyes.

For a few moments Dick remained silent, absolutely speechless with
disappointment. Then he remarked:

"What, lads, has the Captain not yet returned, then?"

"No, sir," they answered in chorus. "We have seen naught of him, or
indeed of anybody else, since you left us this morning."

"Then," said Dick, "I greatly fear that evil has befallen him and that
he has been discovered and taken by the Spaniards. For this is the last
day of our stay here; and his orders to me were that if he returns not
by midnight we are to proceed to sea and rejoin the ship; for his
failure to return will be due to the fact of