before, as he hurried to the
proper spot, made a little search, and found that he was right--that
there was a spare breech-block on board which enabled him and Poole,
after gaining access to the magazine, to thrust a blank cartridge into
the great gun and announce the fact in what was literally a _feu de
joie_.

CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT.

A REGULAR YOUNG FILIBUSTER.

"Oh, pray don't say any more to me about it, sir," cried Fitz, the next
day. "It was only just an idea."

"An idea, my dear young friend!" cried the President.

"Yes, sir; a mere trifle."

"A trifle!" said the President. "Oh, how lightly you English boys do
take such things. Your trifle, as you call it, has made me fast in the
Governmental chair. I shall always think that I owe you my success."

"What, because I thought there was another breech-block, sir?"

"Oh, not merely that. There was your first idea about getting away from
the hacienda and coming round here by sea. They may seem trifles to
your young elastic spirit, but their effect has been great."

"Once more, sir; please don't say any more. My only wonder is now, that
somebody else on board the gunboat did not think about the spare block
and get it into use."

"Ah, yes; one of the officers has been talking to me about it. He said
he was the only man on board who knew of its existence, and--simply
because it had not been wanted--he had almost forgotten, or, as he put
it, it was for the time driven out of his head by the great trouble they
were in, caused by the fouling of the screw, and the current carrying
them on to the rocks."

"Oh, I am glad of that," said Fitz. "Glad? Why?" said the President,
looking at him wonderingly.

"Because it makes Poole Reed stand out so much better than I do. It was
entirely his notion to foul the screw."

"Oh, come, come, come!" cried Don Ramon. "I am not going to weigh you
both in the balance to see which was the better. I shall always look
upon you as a pair of young heroes."

"Oh, I say," cried Poole, "please don't!"

"Very well," said the Spaniard, laughing; "I'll say no more, but I shall
think."

"I don't mind his thinking," said Fitz, a short time later when he was
talking to his companion about what had been said. "But I hope next
time he wants to go into ecstasies about what we did, he'll let them all
off at you."

"Thankye," said Poole; "much obliged." The lads had something else to
think of the next day, for in the midst