cy on you if you fail me, for I pledge
you I shall have none."

I watched him disappear up the street in a sort of swinging dog-trot,
took one more glance backward at the huge war-ship, now swinging by her
cable silent and mysterious as ever, and turned away from the river
front, my brain teeming with a scheme upon the final issue of which
hung life or death.

CHAPTER III

A VISIT TO THE FLAG-SHIP

I had seldom assumed disguise, except when wearing Indian garb upon the
war-trail. Yet in boyhood I had occasionally masqueraded as a negro so
successfully as to deceive even my own family. With this in mind the
resolve was taken that in no other guise than that of a foolish,
huckstering darky could I hope to attain the guarded deck of that
Spanish frigate. This offered only the barest chance of success, yet
such chances had previously served me well, and must be trusted now.
Opportunity frequently opens to the push of a venturesome shoulder.

Once determined upon this I set to work, perfecting each detail which
might aid in the hazardous undertaking. Much was to be accomplished,
and consequently it was late in the afternoon before the two of us,
myself as much a negro to outward appearance as my sable companion,
floated anxiously down the broad river in a battered old scow heaped
high with every variety of country produce obtainable. Drifting with
the current, I kept the blunt nose pointed directly toward the bulging
side of the "Santa Maria," yet without venturing to glance in that
direction, until a sharp challenge of the vigilant sentinel warned us
to sheer off.

Slowly shipping the heavy steering oar, finding it difficult even in
that moment of suspense to suppress a smile at the expression of terror
on Alphonse's black face, I stood up, awed by the solemn massiveness of
the vast bulk towering above me, now barely thirty feet away. For the
first time I realized fully the desperation of my task, and my heart
sank. But the gesticulations of the wrathful guard could no longer be
ignored, and, smothering an exclamation of disgust at my momentary
weakness, I nerved myself for the play.

"_Caramba_!" the fellow shouted roughly in his native tongue. "Stop
there, you lazy niggers; don't let that boat drift any closer. Come,
sheer off, or, by all the saints, I 'll blow a hole clear through the
black hide of one of you!"

"Hold her back, boy!" I muttered hurriedly to the willing slave. "That
soldier mean