le dark shapes moved quickly, but silently,
across the deck as the men took their quarters. The mate aroused
O'Connor from his reverie.

"All is ready, sir," he said.

"Very good, Suarez. I think I know what her game is now. She's beating
the coast for just such hidden spots as this lagoon. Get word at once to
the men on the point to watch carefully for the approach of a launch or
small boat. There is to be no demonstration unless they find the inlet.
In that case let them see that no one gets out again. And Suarez, the
machete--no guns. There must be no noise to tell the _Belair_ what has
happened."

O'Connor rejoined the party in the cabin with a smile on his lips that
belied the weight of anxiety on his mind.

"Now ladies," he said cheerily, "if Harry has finished his tale of
adventure we will bid you good night, as I have to make ready for sea.
You will occupy my cabin, as I have no doubt the boys will be quite
willing to bunk with me in a spare stateroom forward."

The boys bade the ladies good night and retired to the deck with the
captain.

"What's up, Cap?" asked Harry, as soon as the door closed behind them.

"Can't fool you, eh?" laughed O'Connor.

"I knew something had gone wrong, sir, as soon as you left the cabin."

"Well, I suppose I might just as well tell you boys, for you will find
out sooner or later, but I do not want a word of it to reach the ladies;
you understand?"

"We'll be as silent as clams at high water," said Mason, "but I should
like to have it thoroughly understood that I am next in line for any
hero parts."

"There is a Spanish gunboat--the same one we had the little mix-up with
coming down, I think--lying just off the inlet. I believe that her
commander suspects that we have hidden away in some such place as this
and he is beating the shore with small boats in the hope of locating
us."

"But what chance would a small boat have if she did discover us?"

"If the boat crew discovered us and got away the gunboat could shell us
out or sink us in the lagoon."

"Another cheery outlook," groaned Bert. "I thought we were safe on the
_Mariella_ and it seems that it is only a choice between Spanish guns
ashore and Spanish shells at sea."

"Oh, it's not quite so bad as that, Master Wilson," said O'Connor
laughing, but with an anxious look in the direction of the cabin. "If
they do not discover our hiding-place we shall sneak out all right under
cover of darkness, and if they do di