t is only one more
proof, if such were needed, that our party and the yacht have somehow
incurred the very gravest suspicion of the Spaniards, and that we are
being most jealously watched. I fear that Carlos and I are chiefly
responsible for this; indeed, the agent here did not scruple to say that
we--Carlos and I--committed a very great tactical blunder in coming out
here in the yacht. He asserts that we ought to have come out in the
ordinary way by mail steamer, and that in such a case little or no
suspicion would have attached to the yacht; but that certain news
transmitted from Europe, coupled with the fact of our presence on board,
has convinced the authorities that the yacht is in these waters for the
purpose of running a cargo of contraband into the island. Of course we
have our spies, as the Spaniards have theirs, and one of our most trusty
investigators reported to-day, while I was with the agent, that it is
undoubtedly the intention of the Spanish authorities that their torpedo
boat shall accompany the _Thetis_, so long as she remains in Cuban
waters."

"Phew! that sounds awkward," remarked Milsom. "Does anybody know what
her speed is?"

Nobody did, it appeared; whereupon Milsom undertook to ascertain whether
the custom-house officer possessed the knowledge, and, if so, to extract
it from him. Accordingly, when, a little later, the saloon party
adjourned to the deck for the enjoyment of their post-prandial cigars,
the skipper sauntered away forward and up on the top of the deck-house,
where Perkins and the officer were sitting yarning together, and joined
them. He sat chatting with them for nearly an hour, and then, upon the
pretext that he had forgotten to speak to Mr Singleton about the
arrangements for coaling the ship, rose and joined the trio who were
sitting aft near the stern grating.

"Well," said Jack, "have you been able to learn anything, Phil?"

"Yes," answered Milsom; "and what I have learned is not very comforting.
That torpedo boat, it appears, is practically a new craft, and she has
a sea speed of twenty-five knots, which is one knot better than our
best; so how we are going to dodge her is more than I at present know.
The three gunboats we need not trouble about, for the two-masted craft
are only capable of sixteen knots, while the three-masted boat--the
_Destructor_--can do about seventeen, at a pinch, though she is said to
have been at one time capable of twenty-two and a half. Ne