ipping the men and communicating with old Burgess. I
think that will turn out all right."

It did, and in due time a second load was despatched to the schooner,
forming half the human cargo she would have to bear.

They were anxious times during these journeys in the boat. All was
going well, but at any moment the fiction of the watchers by the fires
might have been discovered, and the enemy come on to the attack upon a
force weakened first by one-fourth, then by half, and later on by
three-fourths of its number, the danger increasing at a terrific ratio
for those who were left. At last, still keeping manfully to their
posts, the last portion--the last quarter of the little force--stood
waiting, nearly all English, those of Spanish descent consisting of Don
Ramon and his most staunch adherent.

The skipper had urged him to go with the third party, but he had
scornfully refused.

"What!" he cried. "Provide for my safety, and leave you brave
Englishmen to fight my battle all alone! Bah! You would never be able
to call me friend again. But tell me this: why did you not go yourself
and leave me to guard the hacienda till the boat came back?--Hah! You
say nothing! You cannot. No, I shall stay, and we will escape
together, ready to sail round, seize Velova, and meet mine enemies when
they return."

The peril seemed to increase minute by minute, as the little party
watched, straining their ears in the darkness to catch the slightest
sound, while it seemed hours since the last party had left them, and
they awaited the coming of the two lads to announce that the boat had
returned.

It was weary work for these goers to and fro, but excitement and
exertion kept them from feeling the agony of the Englishmen who,
apparently calm, kept watch and ward at the hacienda, while from time to
time the skipper and Winks went from fire to fire, mending them and
arranging more fuel so that when they were left for good they might
still keep burning.

They had been round for the last visit, and returned to the hacienda,
walking very slowly, and pausing from time to time to listen for any
movement in the enemy's lines, and at last they stopped short close to
the spot where the carpenter had destroyed the snake, when after
standing for some time listening to a faint murmur of voices close at
hand, coming from the waiting crew, the carpenter uttered a peculiar
husky cough. It was so strange and unnatural that the skipper put the