btedly have driven right upon it,
under full sail, when she would certainly have been in an exceedingly
awkward predicament, and might even have been lost, presuming the
Spaniards to have been courageous enough to attack her while placed at
so serious a disadvantage. But she was not allowed to get into any such
awkward situation; for Dick had noticed everything connected with the
dangers of the harbour, while looking out and watching from the summit
of the hill on Tierra Bomba, and he carried a complete and perfectly
accurate chart of the harbour in his head, in addition to the one which
he and Marshall had made together. The helm was, therefore, shifted at
the proper moment, and the ship swerved away in a south-easterly
direction, making as though for the middle of the lower bay.

The danger did not reveal itself until the ship was actually slipping
past it, and in less than five minutes she was clear and the course was
again altered, this time to the north-eastward, where the island of
Tierra Bomba, thrusting its north-easterly angle inward, divided the
upper from the lower bay, narrowing the passage between to a width of
less than a mile. Now the ship was fairly inside, and heading for a
part of the harbour where Dick remembered to have observed certain other
dangers in the shape of rocks and shoals, no sign of which could he
perceive from the deck; he therefore mentioned the matter to Bascomb,
and obtained that officer's permission to go aloft to the fore
topsail-yard and con the ship from there.

In this fashion, then, the _Adventure_, with the red cross of Saint
George flying defiantly from her main truck, swept up Cartagena harbour
and, rounding the eastern extremity of Tierra Bomba, headed straight for
the inner roadstead, where could now be seen, among a small forest of
more insignificant masts, the towering spars of the great galleon, with
a vast crimson flag bearing a coat of arms floating at her main, and the
Spanish flag drooping from the ensign staff reared at her stern. The
town being built on low land, the lofty masts of the galleon were at
once seen, upon the English ship rounding the point and opening up the
city, and a great cry of "There she is!" instantly leapt from every
English throat.

"Ay; there she is, men," returned Bascomb. "We can't make any mistake
about her, I think; and in halt an hour you shall be alongside her. The
rest of the work will be for you to do. I'll tell you my plan,